THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On July 1, 1990, R Mohana Kurup — then 30, of Thekkekara in Pandalam — received a phone call from a security agency in Thiruvananthapuram. There was a vacancy for a security guard at the newly started ‘Technopark’ at Vazhuthacaud. Kurup was the first security guard to join what was then a nondescript government institution functioning from a rented office.
After a year there, he was assigned to Vaidyankunnu at Kazhakootam where Technopark Phase-I is currently located. He had the company of a few guards, but there was no building there. And they were on duty in the wilderness, braving all odds including the nuisance of anti-social elements and reptiles. They used kerosene lights and torches to enf ce security, and also cooked on their own in a coconut leaf thatched hut.
“It was due to our efforts that the criminals left the place. Initially, I was on duty at the back gate at Karyavattom. Later, I was deputed at Park Centre, the first building constructed at Technopark,” Kurup says. The techies’ own “Kurupettan” — the first security guard of India’s first IT park — is set to retire, on January 31. Now 62, he had joined much before land for Technopark was acquired at Kazhakootam, with his first salary being Rs 600. And none has witnessed Technopark’s growth like Mohana Kurup.
Though he belongs to Pandalam, he was living in rented rooms at Kazhakootam, which he says is his second home. Because of his NCC experience while at school, he used to train new security guards. After a 32-year stint, Kurup is equally exuberant and disappointed. “I’m satisfied that I’m retiring after such a long service. It has been an eventful journey. I have seen many developments at the IT park as well as the changing face of Kazhakootam.
Besides, I was able to look after my family due to this job, and I managed to give quality education to my son and daughter,” he said. But he is disappointed to leave the campus. “I will definitely miss this place. In fact, I don’t want to leave. But I need to obey the service rules,” he said.