Maharaja's: Regal to the core (TOI Chennai Engineering Colleges)

And this college is older than the famed St Xavier's colleges in Kolkata and Mumbai, Chennai Loyola, and St Stephen's, Delhi. And it is none other than Maharaja's, Ernakulam.

Do you have any clue how big the 136-year-old college campus was? 

Well, the Irvin Park, which later became Subash Bose Park, was originally the botanical garden of the college. And originally, the Park Avenue Road which connects Durbar Hall Road and Shanmugham Road was a road running through the campus.

It was Reverend Xeily, the founder principal of the college, who decided to construct the college buildings on the lines of Cambridge University. He designed the principal's room in such a way that a person looking from the room could see the opposite shore of Lake Vembanad on the western side.

On the literary front, the winner of first Jnanpith G Sankara Kurup, wrote his masterpiece Odakkuzhal while he was a faculty of the college. The transition of Malayalam poetry from romanticism to modernity can be traced to Maharaja's with many towering figures in literature, who were students here, drawing inspiration from its ambience. Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon, G Sankara Pillai, P Sachidanandan and Balachandran Chullikkad are alumni. Nobel laureate Gunter Grass had an interactive session with the students of the college way back in 1973 when he was not known to many. And in 2006, renowned linguist Nom Chomsky delivered a lecture at the centenary hall of the college. 

The college history hall too has witnessed history being made. The Kerala Cricket Association was formed here 51 years ago. The college has produced over half-a-dozen Ranji players, K Balachandran and Jayaram being the prominent names.