Guru Dakshina: An Autobiography

Dr. K. Murugesan Reddiar was born in Chandragiri, Tamil Nadu, in 1942 to an illiterate mother. After completing graduation from V. O. Chidambaram College, Thoothukudi, in 1964, he joined the Commercial Tax Department as an assistant. After four years of service there, he joined The Central Institute of Russian Studies, New Delhi, in 1966 for a one-year intensive course in Russian. While studying there, he was selected by the Government of India to go to Moscow State University to study Russian Philology. After completing this five-year integrated PG course, he returned to India in 1972 and was selected by UPSC as a Translation Officer (Russian) and was posted at Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam. After serving four years (1973–1977) in the Indian Navy as a Translation Officer, he joined Cochin University of Science and Technology in 1977 as an Assistant Professor in Russian. In 1983, he joined as an Associate Professor in translation at the Tamil University, Thanjavur, on lean, and carried out a research project on “Machine Translation” and published a monograph on “Tamil University Machine Translation System” in association with two other researchers. After serving at Tamil University for a few months, he rejoined CUSAT. While serving at CUSAT, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1985, and then in 1989, he took study leave and proceeded to Moscow State University to do research on a fellowship awarded by the Russian Government. At Moscow State University, as a research scholar, he prepared a thesis on the comparative study of Russian and English syntax under the guidance of Prof. Alexandra Alexeevna Kamunina and submitted it at the Department of Russian, University of Kerala, and he was awarded PhD in 1991. In 1992, he was promoted to Professor in Russian and acted as head of the Department of Russian and Honorary Director of the Centre for Comparative Literature from 1998 till 2003. After serving at CUSAT for 26 years, he retired in 2003 and settled in Kochi. After retirement, he was editor-in-chief of a quarterly magazine, The Reddiars. He has also conducted several short-term courses in Russian for the naval staff at Southern Naval Command, Kochi. Guru Dakshina is an autobiographical memoir written by Dr. Murugesan to inspire the younger generation. GURU DAKSHINA Dr. K. Murugesan Reddiar 9 789355 301390