BY IAN PEREIRA
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: MALAYMAIL (A Life Remembered)
KUALA LUMPUR - The liveliness of Ravindran Pillai's mind and his relish for numbers reflected the diversity of his career which started as an outstanding schoolboy mathematician in 1959.
Always scoring high marks of between 90 and 100 in class test papers at the Bukit Mertajam High School, Ravindran was singled out for a career in engineering.
That came in pass as he served Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and before that Malaysian Singapore airlines (MSA) as flight engineer at the Kuala Lumpur, Sungai Besi airport and subsequently, the Subang International airport.
In all, he served Malaysia Airlines for 26 years as Fokker F27s, DC 80s, Boeing 737s, 747-400 before retiring in 1988 to pursue in religious life in Hinduism. Ravindran died in Petaling Jaya on Nov 10, aged 71.
Ravindren has rare qualities of intellect and collegeaues remember him for the sharpness and creativity of his mind and the ability to get to the root of the problem quickly.
Still, he had the comfort of working in an era before terrorist bombings of civilian aircraft had been added to the hazards of air travel.
Born Ravindren P.N. Pillai in Lunas, Kedah on March 6, 1943, he was one of the three boys of a family of six.
His parents were migrants from Kerala in South India in the early 1920s.
Being bornin the closing years of World War II, Ravindren experienced hard timess attending the ??? English School before moving on to Bukit Mertajam
A model student, he topped the class in studies and excelled in sports, representing BM High ar cricket.
Above all, his mathematics teacher Oh Boon Tat loved him the most.
Ravindren had told his family that Oh was a strict disciplinarian who used cane students when he felt whom he felt did not try hard enough to improve on their mathematics.
At one point, Ravindren got worried when he was not given back his marked test paper until the last.
Finally, Oh called him, "Who taught you to do this sum this way?"
"No sir, I did all by myself."
Oh was greatly impresssed. "Excellent job. For that I give 120 per cent."
Ravindren had apparently bypassed a scale or two of the equation before arriving with the correct answer.
Leaving Bukit Mertajam High with high grades at 16, he went to the Calcutta Aeronautical College in West Bengal, India qualifying as an aeronautical engineer in 1962.
He worked for three years at the Dum Dum airport in Calcutta and at the Pune airport in Maharastra before gaining his flight engineering wings and returning to Malaysia in 1965.
Back home, he flight-engineered the Malaysia Air Charter for five years before spreafing his wings internationally.
Over the years, Ravindren's schoolboy athleticism remained strong throughout his life.
Understandably, it was love in space when he married MSA stewardress Leela Devi in 1974. They raised two children - daughter Anisa is a marketing graduate, and son Ashwin is into audio engineering/musician.
Ravindren was also fond of gardening in his retirement years, opting to speng moretime in the garden on days he did not feel quite up to jogging the 10km to 15km he was accustomed to.
The result was that his garden was filled with a large variety of flowers and shrubs, vegetables and fruit trees, including a priced durian tree that fruited twice a year.
Ravindren could be a demanding colleague who set high standards and looked to others to do the same.
Still he was a generally well-liked flight engineer - far removed from the extrovert image of an avid aviation man. His style was one of quiet authority, leavened with kindness.
His spiritual journey saw him travel many times to India besides serving his temple and spiritual master.
All who knew Ravindren remember him with great affection. He never lost a friend and he scorned convention to the end.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years Leela, daughter, Anisa, son Ashwin and grandchildren Siresha Loba, Samret Ram and Thivisha.
