K. K. Srinivasan

Kushalnagar Krishnaswamy Srinivasan (20 March 1925 - 10 July 2009) known as K. K. Srinivasan was an Indian radar officer who founded a pre-school for deaf children.

Education

Madras Presidency College, Madras

KKS – fondly called ‘Cakes’ by his close friends—had three colourful college years (1942–45), enrolled in the Physics (Honors) graduate programme of The Presidency College, Chennai. Not merely diligent in academic studies, he excelled in athletics too. Primarily a long-distance runner, he was for a couple of years the College’s mile-running champion. With a keen interest in boxing, he represented the College in the Madras University’s inter-collegiate competition and participated in the championship boxing tournament. An all-round sportsman named one year as the College’s Athlete of the Year, he also excelled in the University Officers Training Core (U.O.T.C.). He rose to be named an Under-Officer, the highest rank open to student cadets. Tireless striving towards the higher goals he set himself (in his chosen fields of sports and cadet activities) was evident even in those adolescent years. Seen in hindsight, it was a pointer to his determined dedication in later life to the enduring cause of public service he embraced.

Background

He was the second of two children to Krishnaswami Iyengar and Mythiliamma. His older sister was born in 1920, and him in 1925; both were born in Chennai (formerly known as Madras). He graduated from high school two years early with honors. However, when he was just 19, tragedy struck when his father died due to an ulcer that was diagnosed too late to be operated on. He then worked in private industry, marketing Japanese industrial products. After a serious train accident in 1950, he switched tracks and joined the Indian Air Force as a commissioned officer in the engineering services in 1951. Soon afterwards, he married Rathna Janardhana Iyengar (daughter of Indiramma Iyengar and H. R. Janardhana Iyengar) in a grand marriage ceremony in Mysore on March 22, 1954. He served in three wars, the Indo-Chinese war in 1961, the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 and the Indo-Pakistan-Bangladesh war of 1971. He rose to the rank of Wing Commander. He had two sons, Raja, born 1970 and Vivek, born 1974.

Air Force

He entered the Indian Air Force on 06 Oct 52, as a commissioned officer in the Technical Branch as an Aeronautical Engineer, and retired on 30 Oct 1975 with the rank of Wing Commander. He was rapidly promoted to the position of Instructor at the Air Force Technical College. There, he molded Trainee Officer Engineers with civil career experience Engineers into defense staff following appropriate discipline and regulation. He was then promoted to Commanding Officer of Signals units for two successive terms. In his second term, he officiated as Commanding Officer of a Ground Training School with more than 1000 trainees. Before retiring he was on the Directing Staff of Management Faculty for Technical Officers Management Course.

Deaf Education

When Raja was found to be deaf, he decided to take premature retirement from the Air Force and learn more about deaf education so as to give maximum support and growth opportunities for Raja. Initially, Raja was enrolled at the Bala Vidyalaya school in Madras (now Chennai), but then decided to move to Mysore to get services from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing in Mysore. He then realised that there was an immediate need for a school that was not expensive and adds to the demand for hearing impaired education schools that prepare deaf and hard of hearing children, and started a pre-school for the hearing impaired children which he aptly named Helen Keller Pre-school for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, after the famous deafblind author, activist and lecturer Helen Keller. The school was started in Mysore at the first floor of Srinivasan’s house in the International Year of the Handicapped in 1980. In the 1990s, he successfully applied for City government (Mysore Urban Development Authority) grants and Rotary Club assistance to get land and build a school and dorm for deaf children and their parents. By the 2000s, as age caught up with him, he semi-retired from school administration. He guided and often came to school during school fests, visits by important dignitaries and gave speeches urging the parents to keep focused and dedicated during the course of training their wards. He gave several examples whom he had successfully trained to inspire and give confidence to the parents.

The then Rotary West Institute for the Mother and the Deaf Child has been renamed as ‘Wing Commander K. K. Srinivasan Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing'.

References

• Obituary Page
• Blog
• Air Force Records