U K Harindran (1939-2023) worked with the IIMA Administration from 1963 to 1998 with a ten year break between 1981 and 1991 when he went to work in Bahrain. He grew up in Kerala, learnt typewriting and briefly worked at the Public Works Department and National Sample Survey Organization as a clerk before joining IIMA's secretarial staff in the Shahibaug bungalow office in 1963. He was promoted after a decade to being Programme Officer, was the first officer to supervise the Students Activity Office in 1976-77, worked with the Administrative Office in Wing-5 for a year and then moved to the Management Development Centre where he also worked in the 1990s. After he left IIMA in 1998, he briefly worked as the first Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of IIM Indore. In his interview, he recounted his upbringing, clerical work in Kerala, different roles at IIMA from Shahibaug to Vastrapur, interactions with faculty members, staff union activities, management development programmes in Agra and the institutional transfer of processes from IIMA to IIM-Indore.

Interview recorded on 22nd August, 2019.