IIT Roorkee 1993-94 batch students homecoming for Silver Jubilee Reunion
Roorkee: IITR hosted its 1993-94 batch alumni at their Silver Jubilee Reunion. The reunion which began on the 16th had alumni revisiting the departments, sports, movies, a lunch hosted by the Director, felicitation, a musical night, and all visiting Alumni having a blast. The 17th featured a cricket match and a cultural program with skits, dance and song. There were also happy meetings with spouses and children of their friends. Alumni also planted trees at the Institute and a coffee table book containing memories of many batchmates got released during Annual General Body Meeting of IIT Roorkee Alumni Association. Kapil Puri, Vikas Kakwani and Rohit Prasad designed the memoir, which was released by the Director IIT Roorkee Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi who emphasised on how to enhance and strengthen the connect between IITR and its alumni across the world.
It concluded today with a chat between the visiting Alumni and the students of the Institute Alumni Relations Cell. The conversation bridged a gap of 25 years with the alumni reminiscing about the time at the institute and the students attempting to get a peek into the future. They touched upon a number of topics like Careers, Motivation, Priorities, Women at the Workplace, etc.
Reena Dayal Yadav, Director of Microsoft’s The Garage India advised everyone, especially women, to take more challenges, more risks. “Make your own definition of success.”
Sharat Chander, Information Officer to the Prime Minister of India, recalled the advice of Steve Jobs and asked students to “Connect the Dots between various industries and ideas.” He also added that sometimes these connections can only be made backwards, in retrospect. Speaking of his own secret to success, he said, “The most important thing I learned at the University of Roorkee was the attention to detail.”
Navniet Sekera, IPS the present Inspector General of Lucknow, told students not to bother with marks and salary. “Concentrate on the fun and friendships and making memories, that’s what matters at the end of the day.”
Sumedha Limaye, Director of Engineering, Intel, told the girls to have confidence in themselves in the engineering discipline where the ratio of women was so low. “You don’t have to compete with other people. The contest is only with yourself.”
Various alumni had distinguished themselves in different fields. Tech (Dilip Sampath, VP of Amazon Go and Sameer Nanda from Google Inc), Managers and Entrepreneurs, Rahul Shandilya, CEO Mahindra eMarkets, Rajneesh Khandelwal, KE Engg, Pradeep Malhotra, VP Blue Jeans), Utkaarsh Tiwari, Commissioner (JNPT), Rishi Mehta, VP (Ruckus Wireless) were among the alumni. They advised students to do what they felt most passionate about, and put themselves in situations that are challenging. The batch coordinators Abhay Gupta and Dinesh Pawar also stressed on to take things with joy and passion.
The Dean of Resources & Alumni Affairs, Prof B R Gurjar addressed the gathering of students and alumni. “It is our pleasure to host these very dear alumni, and it is heartening to see the success and accomplishments of our students, as also the camaraderie between them after all these years.”
The Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy, Prof Manoranjan Parida, affirmed the need for a stronger relation between alumni and the Institute. “Alumni can play a lead role in augmenting sponsored research activities which are industry relevant. Their experiences in Incubation, IPR and other innovation activities shall add value to the research ecosystem of IIT Roorkee”, he said.