A three day training programme on Renewable Resources was organised by the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering from the 27th on. I managed to sit at some of the sessions in between the classes. There were two speakers who were quite interesting. There was Dr.TamilPorai from Anna University, Chennai and incidentally, an old student of the Mech department of GCE.

His slides were interesting, but not extraordinary, but believe me, the teacher in him was there in the last slide, where he had asked the audience to ruminate on a few facts and come to conclusions themselves. One was that the Kyoto Agreement on Greenhouse gases emission did not apply to India since we were nowhere near the threshold levels and did not need to look at alternatives as immediate needs when there were other developmental activities requiring attention. Secondly, the investment in Unconventional sources of energy was huge, huge and far beyond the money being spent on conventional sources.

Well, was he advocating renewable resources or not, asked the participants. For me, answers were not needed...he was stimulating the minds of the young, by telling them don't accept anything at face value or because it is propogated by the Developed World. Think and decide. I found him a different teacher...one who gives facts and lets the learner decide on the lessons to be learnt therein.

The next talk to interest came from Mr.Sivasubramaniam, a TNEB Executive Engineer who showed with statistics and very simple examples how power consumption has increased manifold. From just 234 mw in the 1900s, Tamil today generates ten times that power generation and how by 2100, the need is going to be in hundreds of thousands. He quoted examples from industries which use bad power conservation techniques and how our habit of using second hand electrical appliances causes dmage. He showed how appliances can be used to the optimum by observing some simple, basic techniques. The best part of his talk was not that there was a lot of information for the participants, but that there was credibility in his simplicity. One came away feeling that there was something that each one could do as an individual to bring about the desired change.

This is what the TEQIP is about...qualitative change in the mindset of even a few can change the quality of life for society.

Another surprise about the training was the compereing done by Kirubanidhi and Alwin Subash as they did it casually and yet with the right tone that did not deter one from the seriosuness of the training. Their responses to the sessions, their agenda presentation and the coherence that they imparted to the programme in their humorous (not silly or fatuous) manner spoke well of them. As an English teacher, I realised that they had not overstepped their roles as presenters and yet had the audience loving their interludes and laughing at their good mannered comments. Well done, boys. GCE boys, you prove it time and again...there is a spark in you all waiting to becoming leaping flames brightening all around.

God bless our boys.