One of the proudest moments in a parent’s life is witnessing his/her child walk across the stage to receive the degree at the convocation ceremony.
The graduation pride was mutual for Hareendrakumar V.R. and his son Amal Jishnu H.M. as they shared the stage at the convocation held at the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET) on Wednesday. They had the pandemic and the former’s perseverance to thank for the memorable experience.
Dr. Hareendrakumar, a former junior officer in the State-owned Keltron, received his PhD degree while Mr. Jishnu was presented with his MBA degree. Both had undertaken their academic pursuits at the CET School of Management (CET-SOM) where the former has also been teaching as a guest faculty.
Dr. Hareendrakumar, who had worked at Keltron for 37 years until his retirement in 2017, had undertaken research in the ‘Disparity in service conditions among executives and non-executives in public-sector companies in Kerala and the extent to which such factors affected employee productivity’. He was guided by CET-SOM director Suresh Subramoniam.
While Dr. Hareendrakumar enrolled in 2015 for his research programme, Mr. Jishnu was part of the 2019 batch of MBA graduates. The convocation of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 batches had to be deferred due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“My passion for both learning and teaching has helped me broaden my horizons post-retirement,” said Dr. Hareendrakumar who has cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) twice in management and HR and industrial relations.
His son, who works as a project manager in a building materials firm, aspires to follow the footsteps of his father by obtaining a PhD and try his hands in teaching.
