Tuesday 30 September 2014

BITS Pilani Hyderabad The Campus that Rocks

Alumni love to visit their alma-mater. Be it school or college, mention of a visit charges up the alumni. Irrespective of the age or the number of years which have elapsed since graduation-- child like enthusiasm takes over!

One such moment came today when four batch mates of 1968-73 batch visited the Hyderabad campus of BITS Pilani. It was triggered by A Mohandas who was visiting Hyderabad from Chennai. Remaining three buddies Vinay Prasad, ML Agarwal (MLA) and Harsh Bhargava are all localites from Hyderabad.

See the smile on Vinay's face in the Board Room.


Here is the foursome L-R: Vinay, Harsh, Mahandas and MLA.


Spouses were not far behind. L-R: Neeta Bhargava, Rekha Prasad and Sajitha Mohandas.


Smiles writ large on spouses' faces too: Sajitha and Rekha.
 


Weather was perfect for a walk around. The main quadrangle in the picture.



We met the Director Dr VS Rao in his office. See the Founder's picture (Late Sri GD Birla) on top right as well as the previous Chancellor (Late Sri KK Birla) on top left.



The library seemed to have impressed the spouses!


How could we miss the newly inaugurated Auditorium? 



2500-seater audi is a thing of pride for all BITSians.


A view of the academic block from the auditorium. 

The iconic rocks at the main entrance. Wonder how many guys have attempted climbing it?


The rocky campus is slowly transforming into green. The campus has equally green neighbourhood where college guests stay. Aalankrita Resorts is a treat to the eye.


It uses eco-friendly golf carts for transportation.
The greenery and well manicured lawns leave you spell bound.
 



Dr VS Rao was very kind to host a lunch for us at Aalankrita.

Even the spouses enjoyed the ambiance-- picture with Mrs VS Rao (2nd from left).


We had to bid good bye to Dr and Mrs Rao. Once again, many thanks. You both rock as a coupleAnd under your leadership, the whole campus rocks.

May the campus grow and scale newer heights! As alumni it would be our pleasure to do anything anytime.

    - Harsh the Ghumakkad with Vinay, MLA and Mohandas/ 30th Sept 2014

Saturday 20 September 2014

Learning self discipline from Caterpillars

We make roads and road dividers.
But how many times have you seen people driving in opposite directions? Specially two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws? Why do they do so? I would say, lack of self-discipline.

We humans can learn a lot of self-discipline by observing insects like caterpillars.
The other day while on a morning walk, I observed caterpillars feeding on dried pods of thunder lilies in our front yard. See the caterpillar below enjoying its meal. Black seeds of the lilies are about to fall from the pod.




In order to reach the dried up lily, the caterpillar has to traverse all the way on its thin stem. Thunder lilies grow in a bunch. Number of caterpillars thus spot the 'food. And to maintain free flow of 'traffic', the caterpillars follow strict discipline as can be seen in the picture below. Sticking to their 'lanes'! No confusion, no collision.



And here is a picture of half-eaten pod.



Only if all of us followed similar self-discipline in our lives, the world would be a better and safer place to live!

-- Harsh the Ghumakkad/ 20th Sep 2014