The batch of 1981 had a reunion during December 23-25, 2006, held at our campus. It was a great moment of life for the alumni for this meet celebrating Silver Jubilee of their pass out. The following report was prepared by Raj Dodhiawala (with input from his fellow batchmates) and forwarded to us for this Reunion, named as Kashi-Milap:
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Report on Kashi Milap for the class of 1981:
Kasi Milap 81
Dec 23-25, 2006
Summary
The batch of 81 had its silver jubilee reunion from Dec 23-25, 2006 under the banner of Kasi Milap 81. The event was mainly about meeting and reliving the IT-BHU experience with batch mates after 25 years, but importantly, about understanding how the Institute has progressed since we left in 1981.
One clear message emerged from our meetings: IT Administration must make a sincere and serious effort to gain IIT status. We recognize that this sentiment is echoed by other Alumni and students and there is activity to support this cause. We felt, however, that the leadership for this effort must come from the Institute. If IT Administration can articulate a vision and clear plan to make conversion to IIT viable, not just the batch of 81 but all IT Alumni and students will join forces to make this vision a reality.
For the immediate-term, the batch of 81 agreed to fund the upgrade of the G11 room to a state of the art seminar and meeting facility, with advanced audio-visual equipment and related capabilities. We have targeted this to be completed before the summer of 2007.
The Milap
The meet was titled Kasi Milap 81; we sincerely hope this becomes a brand for annual alumni reunions from here on out. Incidentally, we are the batch that created and launched Kasi Yatra and it was great to see it thrive as it has: targeting an attendance of 10,000 for the 25th occurrence of the event, scheduled for Feb 22-25, 2007. Similarly, with Kasi Milap, we have embarked on an even more critical era in the performance, wellness and impact of IT and we hope all the Alumni of IT-BHU will join us to make this trek a resounding success as well.
Acknowledgements
The batch of 81 would like to thank the Dr. S. N. Upadhyay, Director, Dr. J. N. Sinha, Dean, Prof. A. K. Jha of the Alumni Cell, and the rest of the faculty, staff, and students that made our reunion possible and for spending their valuable time with us. We would be remiss to not mention the notable support of the Alumni Cell students (Vikalp Agarwal, Abhinav Nigam, Piyush Gupta, and others) without their sincere efforts and tenacity, our reunion would have fallen woefully short of the grand success it was. Anshuman Singh (EEE98), a key force at IT Alumni organization (www.itbhuglobal.org), provided invaluable insights related to the reunion activities.
Participation
The event was conceived in June 2006 by a handful of alumni active on a Yahoo Group and quickly gained momentum to enroll batch mates via individual connections. The reunion was attended by 44 alumni, which is just over 50% of approximately 85 batch mates that remain in contact (and has since grown) on the Yahoo Group. Most of the people came from within India but a handful came from the US, Indonesia, Australia, Middle East and Africa. About 15 alumni came with spouses and even children, extending the alumni friendships and nostalgia to families and proudly introducing them to the Institute that shaped our lives. Quite a few of us stayed at the newly appointed Gandhi Technology Alumni Center, a guest house with reasonably modern conveniences located behind Vishveshwariya hostel. The rest stayed in the city at Diamond Hotel.
Highlights
- There were two main reasons behind the reunion:
- To meet and relive memories with batchmates and
- To learn about the vision and the current state of the Institute, looking for opportunities for the Alumni to reconnect with and give back to our alma mater.
The reunion, foremost, was about meeting our batch mates after 25 years. It was immediately apparent that the joy and warmth of rekindled memories from meeting our batch mates removed even the remotest of doubts that the impactful and momentous days of our lives can ever be forgotten. It took little to reestablish that we are indeed life long friends, cherishing individual successes and exploring new ways to re-connect, leveraging our heritage and experiences. The spouses and children fit right in to create a one big family event. Boating on the Ganges, early morning visits to heavily fortified Sankat Mochan and Kasi Vishwanath temples, the tour of Sarnath, and a gala dinner and dance at the Taj Ganges rounded out the experience.
We had several opportunities to interact with IT faculty and students, including an interactive session with the Director, Dean, and HODs. It was a little unfortunate that our event coincided with an intra-semester break in the academic session. Thus, our interaction with the students was limited to the trusty Alumni Cell team and a handful of others that stayed had through the break. Nonetheless, the students’ input seemed representative of the concerns and needs of the larger student body.
Generally, we had mixed emotions about the current state of the Institute. It was great to visit departments and to learn of exciting ways they had changed or expanded since our time there, but some things had stayed the same or, unfortunately, worsened. Almost all departments cried about challenges in recruiting faculty, let alone great faculty. Clearly evident was the limiting influence of BHU on upgrading IT’s academic status or improving essential infrastructure. In our interactive session, we discussed some of these challenges, suggesting IT administration to take greater ownership in revitalizing academic, infrastructure and student experience. In turn, we pledged to contribute to and work with the Institute on near- and longer-term projects. We concluded the session with call to action, appointing alumni, faculty and student reps on several endeavors, including the G11 update mentioned above, plus two key initiatives:
- Improve IT brand and build an image of IT as a premier institute, including the effort to convert it to an IIT, and
- Create an Endowment Fund to enable and support faculty and student enrichment opportunities
Call to Action
The batch of 81 is calling on IT Administration to articulate a plan and to begin making inroads on the IIT conversion plan. We will support this effort to our fullest ability. Beyond this, we are committed to make IT better through continuous involvement. We will be coordinating the current and future projects with the IT Alumni organization by aligning with www.itbhuglobal.org goals, and by extension, with the rest of the Alumni. We hope our endeavors will scale out to alumni from all batches, multiplying our collective efforts to help IT Administration, Faculty, Students and Alumni to execute a shared, heretofore handicapped, vision of our alma mater as a world-class institute for learning, growing intellectual equity, excelling in academics and imparting key life-skills to the next generation of India’s brightest. The batch of 81 firmly believes that the vision will simply remain on paper without the active involvement and support of each and every alumnus of IT-BHU. We request your feedback and your invaluable support. You may contact us through the itbhuglobal.org site.
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PowerPoint Presentation:
As part of celebration for Silver Jubilee Reunion, an interactive session among Faculty, Student and Alumni was held on December 24 for striving for excellence. Here are the six PowerPoint slides prepared by Raj Dodhiawala and Dinesh Mahale.
Download file
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Alumni Reunion of class of 1981-Photo album
Milap Banner:
Boat Ride:
Chemical Engineering:
The Presentation:
Murga Bano:
