Balancing challenging job roles, family with élan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The adage ‘opportunity knocks only once’ is untrue when it comes to P. C. Harikesh, the chief executive officer of Kerala Road Fund Board.

Each time he decides to quit his ‘cushy’ role, a newspaper advertisement matching his job profile would beckon him with another meaty and challenging role.

His wife, Dr M. S. Suchithra, associate professor of pediatric dentistry at Thiruvananthapuram Dental College, is all praise for him for his acumen in handling both the professional and family life with great élan.

Mr Harikesh started his career in 1992 with Consulting Engineering Services (India) Ltd, a private firm in New Delhi, and continued there for eight years. He married Dr Suchithra in 1997 when she was doing her BDS house surgency at Thiruvananthapuram Dental College. But he had to stay put in the national capital for two more years.

By 1999, he happened to see a KINFRA ad for an assistant manager. For the next nine years, he got busy there planning industrial parks across the state.

Just when he realised that there were not much career prospects, he received a greeting card from a friend. It said, ‘to know the beauty of the deep sea, one should have the courage to leave the safety of the shore’.

And off he swam to a much more challenging role when he got another friend’s call to head Kerala operations of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services.

“The two years I was with IL&FS equipped me with an experience of 20 years. Here, I was multi-tasking several projects including Vizhinjam port. That was not a 9-am-to-5-pm job. I was then promoted to associate vice president in Bengaluru, which put me in a dilemma whether to relocate or not,” recalls Harikesh, who passed out from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram in 1990.

Luck again came in the form of another newspaper advertisement seeking a chief operating officer for Kerala Road Fund Board in 2010. He recalled that he beat many aspirants, including top bureaucrats.

Son of late K. Chandrasekharan Nair, a former professor at MG College, Thiruvananthapuram, and J. Padmam, retired deputy director of economics and statistics department, he did his masters in transport planning at Delhi School of Planning and Architecture.

“In fact, I never wanted to marry a doctor. I had asked my father not to sell my credentials in the marriage market. So it was left to him to see prospective brides and an astrologer predicted that I would indeed be getting married to a doctor,” added the 46-year-old with a grin.

Dr. Suchitra comes from an illustrious family where there was no dearth of specialists ranging from anesthetist, ENT surgeon and gastroenterologist to those specialised in neuropsychiatry and sports medicine.

But their only daughter, Shivani H. Nair, a tenth grader at Christ Nagar Senior Higher Secondary School, is not keen to the fill the “vacancy of a cardiologist” existing in the family.
Dr Suchithra’s great grandfather, Dr K. P. Raman Pillai, the first doctor in Asia to get FRCS, was the surgeon general of Travancore.

Daughter of Dr C. P. Muraleedharan Nair, retired joint director of animal husbandry department, and Seethalakshmi Amma, homemaker, Dr. Suchitra has been a rank holder in BDS and MDS entrance exams, MDS and the PSC selection list.

Currently pursuing her M Phil at the Kerala University of Health Sciences, she gives full credit to her husband for taking care of Shivani during her growing up years as she was then placed at Kottayam Dental College.

Due to her pivotal year in school now, Shivani has taken a slight break from her hobby of drawing portraits. “These days the family time starts at 7 pm. When Shivani has to make a crucial decision relating to studies, she would immediately bang on her dad instead of me. They bond so well as he had brought her up single-handedly until she was four,” said the 42-year-old.

A tad bit disappointed, she confesses she could never pursue her interest in veena recital and dance to the next level due to her busy schedule.

The couple unwinds reading historical books or watching such films. Before making holiday decisions, the father – daughter duo digs deep into the history of the destination including the country's local food.