Saturday, December 27, 2008

Year-end scribbles

As I start my last post for the year, inching closer to my (short) return home for a convocation that looks as uncertain as it was 2 months ago, several contrasting thoughts come to mind..

1. The @$#% going on in NITC over the convo goes beyond blog posts now! Wild rumours about the 'expected' dates and even 'official' information of it being held in the 'second week of Jan' dont look so official now. So as the number of days for the stipulated date nears single digits, all I can say is : "Screw the Convo !".. After all, I wanted to meet friends, and do that I will. However and whenever it be.

One of my friends chose to describe the situation as : "Maybe the college authorities want to give us a surprise". Talk about seeing a positive side to everything. And anyway they already have surprised us by doing whatever they have done so far. Which is, nothing. I think an anonymous prank mail blasting our authorities should be in order any moment now ;)

2. Thoughts of spending the New Year moment flying are looking attractive day by day. No, I dont mean 'high' and 'flying' on something else :), I meant flying, as in, on Tiger Airways flight TR638 on New years eve. Wonder if we'll 'have a blast' in the plane.. I should hope not.

3. Despite point no. 1, the thought of wanting to give a boost to our Alumni association is now something for us to think of in a strong way. Proper alumni support is something my college always lacked. Another 'success story' on the part of the authorities, I can say, but instead of pointing fingers at them, I think its time we took matters and responsibilities into our own hands.

Take any other college in India, IITs, IIMs, anything else, and you see alumni support visible in their events, their decisions, even on their college campus. Alumni support makes a statement. That we passouts are proud of our college, and want to contribute to that which made us what we are. At NITC , but, we remember and feel the need for seniors and alumni only when searching for contacts. Say, like when for marketing for Ragam or Tathva.

Its time to change our 'live, enjoy, passout and forget' attitude towards college now. Through 4 years we took pride in our college and tried our best to contribute to it in some way. And at the end we cannot forget it as another chapter of our life. The potential of alumni is something that can change a lot of things that are lacking in a college.

Short chat with some of my friends and I were realised that we were concurring on the possibilities already. Alumni are everywhere - in jobs all over India (or the world).. in higher technical education doing their masters or PhDs somewhere.. in IIM's battling it out to get an MBA.. they are the best contacts we can get any day. They can help you get contacts to obtain an internship or training in some company of your choice. Tell you about the possibilities. Get you sponsorship for some events if possible (thats one thing that goes into everyones head every year around Ragam time :) ). The ones doing higher studies can tell you how to go about it. Recommend on where to go. What formalities they went through, What openings and opporunities are there. The highly placed ones can occasionally give talks when visiting the alma mater. And yes, if we're rich and happy enough, we alumni might even think of contributing something in terms of money :).

I cant think of ideas right now, but atleast a list of contacts of your seniors would be a good place to start for an alumni movement. A decent website wouldnt matter too. Everyone would know where to look to get in touch. Instead of having to go through orkut each time to find someone. Later on, planning annual get-togethers wouldnt be a bad idea.

All this, ofcourse, requires a bit of cooperation from the currently running batch, the passed out ones, and the authorities too. Not at all easy. But this will be what we will be hoping to pull off anyway, hopefully at the convocation itself where we can get hold of everyone. I hope the '08 batch pulls this one off too, like many other things we have pulled off :).

So, hoping for a year of wonders.. signing out.. and a Happy New Year to all of you out there !..

12 comments:

Balajee said...

Flying on New Year's Eve? Wasnt there something somewhere about it being unlucky or something? Oh! Wait...I forgot, I'm an atheist. Enjoy your flight! ;)

Hari Vishnu said...

@RCB
lol.. n thanx man.. wil u make it to the convo btw, if it ever happens ?

@krik krak
upto u ppl to do somthin abt it now man :)

Abhi said...

Very well charted out resolutions i'd say. Alumni support is something that's lacking a lot in Kerala colleges as a whole i think. Alumni asso is usually made up of old men who're retired and found something to keep them busy, but they actually require people who're in the middle level, where they've got the right contacts. But its also the busiest period in life. Only people who're genuinely interested will be coming for such things, which is hard to get :)

Wish you a very happy new year :)

Wetfingers said...

Yeah.. my next post is about a totally 'Why i love my college post'? In the run to the so called convo...i think we need to urge people to blog about this alumni or just about going back to college. We should make this a issue. try getting other NITC bloggers also involved through comments and links.

Hari Vishnu said...

@abhi
sad to know its the same all over kerala.ya like u mentioned there are still the so-called 'old people' meeting up occasionaly in nitc, holding reunions once in a while, but no organised reunions or contribution back to college so far i think.time to get the movement started.

@venky
yea we can do that allrite.. add something to the thought process.. i wonder if the nitc blogging community will be active enough to make a change though.. anyway lets see ur next post first :)

we've got to tell more ppl abt this now.. like pattom, the ghati 'junta', etc.. get some running-final-year batch juniors involved.. we've got barely days to get something happening..

Neethu said...

hey looks like both our posts have a lot in common...;)
ya true...should change our "'live, enjoy, passout and forget' attitude towards college "...
hope u have a gr8 convo/reunion!
HAPPY NEWYEAR:D

Harshad said...

its gr8 to see a pass-out stressing on the need for strong alumni support.
there are lots of things we can do with the sort of alumni we have.
LinkedIn is a very good platform to build relationships between passouts and present students as well as the faculty.

Happy New Year buddy and hope to see u during convo or reunion !!!

Hari Vishnu said...

@neetu
yep i was surprised to see ur post was on the same theme too :).. thanx 4 d wishes, hope i have a convo atleast.. doesnt look like it though

@harshad
lol many ppl in our yr felt the need for this man.. too badwe cudnt make it happen in our year.. this time we shud make it happen.. unfortunately with no idea on wen, i wonder how we can do it now.. thanks for ur wishes anyways.. hope ure havin a gr8 time at nitc in final year trical :)..

Hari said...

Extremely-meaningful post!

I too am totally into the alumni-movement. My school has an AWESOME alumni community. We meet up quite often, and thanks to the organization, I've contacts with a LOT of big-shot seniors of my school. The alumni has helped me a LOT in life too!

My college, celebrating it's 10th anniversary this year, held its alumni-meet recently and had a fair attendance. :D

Seems you're going through a lot of pain, missing the state and your alma-mater. You have company, buddy! :(

Anyways, Happy New Year! And Happy Convocation too! :D

Hari Vishnu said...

@hari
lol good for u u have a nice alumni movt going on man.. keep up the momentum.. we're yet to get off the ground :(.. n tnx for d wishes.. most probly ill miss it though :(

Drunken Mind.. said...

hey hari ..really nice thing abt the alumni association...sry for late response..got busy slightly...but m totally for it....n happy new year...!!

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