Kerala Reunion 2014 Part One

______________ FFA Meets again in Kerala _______________ 

Armed Forces thrive on using abbreviations. Be it Naval signalese or service writing, abbreviations become part of our life.

One such abbreviation was coined almost 40 years ago in Jamnagar. Called FFA. Signifies what? Not the call sign of a ship or aircraft. Neither name of an equipment or a person. Then what?

Well FFA stands for First Floor Association, a group of single naval officers occupying the first floor of the staff block in the Officers Mess at INS Valsura Jamnagar in 1975-76. These like minded officers bonded so strongly that the FFA has continued to exist even after these guys have retired from the Navy! Honorary membership of FFA was granted to some married officers too. But that is another story. For the present, FFA goes beyond the first floor!

This picture story chronicles a reunion aptly titled FFA-2014 which was held in God's Own Country-- Kerala. 18 people turned up including the spouses. The numbers may not signify the size of the reunion. But the warmth, camaraderie and child like excitement of old times highlighted the events.

Credit for the narrative which follows goes to Trixie who traveled from Bangalore for this event with hubby Rajan. Thanks Trixie.
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Thank you GR Nair (GR) for a meticulously planned, marvellously executed  event - FFA-2014.  It was wonderful meeting old friends of forty years again.  On arrival, we were personally greeted by GR.

 GR handed over a personalised brochure with an emotive background  note to FFA written by him, our itinerary, all costings and some thoughtful inputs about places to see in the surrounding areas.  Program serial numbers for odd and even number dates were marked by him as 0802, 0804 and 0901, 0903 as per Naval traditions! 

  

We enjoyed a very comfortable stay at Riviera Suites and two lovely cruises around places we hadn't seen before, rounded off with dinner at the Naval Officers Institute Kochi.

Our breakfasts at the Riviera Suites served up a spread of Kerala food as well as other staples and got us off to a great start to each day.  

We enjoyed the Harbour Cruise on our boat shaped as a duck. We cruised along the Queen's Necklace, the shoreline, the Cochin lights and Chinese fishing nets, with GR filling us in on the landmarks.

 

 

GR welcomed all on board.

 The two singers on our boat Anthony and Sujit  were organised by GR.  Here is Anthony Abraham singing 'Tu hee re..'

 Sujit gave us Malyalam numbers.

  

They were very good and soulfully rendered a lovely selection of old classic Hindi film songs, some Malayalam songs and a few faster English songs to which some of us shook a leg and worked up an appetite!  

 

The singers showed enterprise in getting the guitar with a broken string fixed and back to the boat on time for a group song for FFA 2014, sung with very little practice on board the boat, with everybody joining in the chorus.

 

Our  very own IP Anthony entertained us with an emotional rendering of retro Hindi songs in his mellifluous voice. The music system was excellent and the live music made all the difference.  

All too soon after dinner with the Cochin lights in view, the Harbour Cruise came to an end.

 

With the cruise reflecting in our minds like the Kochi shore line, we all returned to Riviera Suites.

Hang on for Part two of the travelogue which will take us to the Houseboat and the enchanting backwaters of Kerala!

As always, your impressions/suggestions are welcome.

     - Ghumakkad Harsh/ 17th March 2014

_______________________ End of Kerala Reunion Part One ________________________ 

Pilani 40th Reunion Part 3

______________ 1973 Batch Reunion Part-3 ________________ 

Hi Buddy,
We don't wish to bore you further with any story. Hope you have browsed Parts 1 and 2. If not here are the links:

Part-1: BITS Returns to Campus
Part-2: The 40th Year Reunion at Pilani

Gana Bajana
Here comes the 'Gana Bajana' on 8th Nov. You can see some of the 'impromptu' performers in VFAST dining hall as it became pretty cold in the lawns outside. Let the pictures speak.

Ashok Suri with KT Ramesh on the guitar:

 Dayal Dass: Don't miss the stainless steel tumbler in his hand!

 Abha Mittal:

 Asha Somani:

Audience-- waiting for some more!

Interaction with Students
This session had intense interaction with selected students who headed various curricular and co-curricular clubs in the campus. See it in action:

Anoop Singh

Shankar Narayanan and Kapil Tikku 

Vijay Chopra and Madhukar Bangia

Clockwise L-R: KT Ramesh, RK Dhadha, Shyam Somani and Vinod Dhanuka

Connecting Across All Campuses
A special session had been organised by BITS on 9th Nov to connect with the Directors of other BITS campuses at Goa, Dubai and Hyderabad. The Director of Dubai campus was already with us being a batch mate! The technology for cross-campus lectures has been made possible with alumni funding and support in a project named BITS Connect 2.0 spearheaded by our batchmate Prem Jain.
Even though a Saturday, willing participation by senior leadership of BITS to connect with alumni was praiseworthy. Pictures:

Prof Arya Kumar welcoming all of us, the alumni, with all three campus Directors on-line!

 The audience which sat in a lecture hall as students 45 years ago! 

Dr BN Jain, the Vice Chancellor 

Dr G Raghurama, Director BITS Pilani campus

BITS senior leadership interacting with 1973 batch...

 Alumni in rapt attention...

It was time to present a customised souvenir to the dignitaries. Designer caps with name of each individual was embroidered. Similar caps were presented to the VC, Diro and Dean Alumni Affairs at the Dinner. Sample cap below.

Reunion Dinner
We hosted a dinner at VFAST for VC, Diro, all Deans, Unit Heads and Student Union President, G-Sec and Volunteers. Glimpses:

 

And the dinner is served...

That brings the curtain down on the Reunion.

There are some more pictures of Pilani- what has changed and what has not! But you will have to wait for it a bit!

Till then, take care

   - Gumakkad Harsh/ 16th Feb 2014

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For quick referencing, links to all three parts of 40th Year Reunion are given below:

BITS-73 Back to Campus

Inauguration and Release of Commemorative Film

Gana Bajana and Interaction with Students 

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Postscript: Two years later in Sept 2015, we celebrated the 42nd Year Reunion at Kodaikanal. Click here for the picture story which had 1000 page views in a single day!

_______________ End of Pilani Reunion Part-3 _______________

BITS 1973 Reunion Part 2

____________ 40th Year Reunion Part-2 _____________ 

Hi Buddy!

Now that you have had a fleeting glance at yourself and other buddies in Part-1 of this Reunion picture story, it is time for some more bear hugs. Catch it

Those who haven't read Part-1 of the story, here is the link with pictures of alumni and spouses who came.

The Magic of BITS

This is what our Reunion Commemorative film is called. It was released on the Net by Dr BN Jain, Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani on 8^th Nov 2013. And the event was webcast live on Google Hangout.

It shows Pilani campus icons like the Clock Tower, Temple, Cosmic Man, Shiv Ganga...followed by buddy alumni with their tag lines on 'Kal aaj aur Kal'.

For those of you who were not present that day, you can see the movie on youtube at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL9yYRznUZI

Reunion Inauguration

When you saw Part-1, you must have wondered what were the buddies doing in formals in their college after 40 years? Well, soon they were to be seated in a lecture hall for the inauguration of the Reunion. 

Chief Guest: Dr BN Jain, Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani University. Relish the pictures:

This is how the invite for the inaugural looked-- for all Dy Directors, Deans and Head of Student bodies.

Please note that LTC-5104 and the entire complex never existed in our times. It is a new complex east of the Chemical Engg block.

Chief Guest being welcomed by Prem Jain and Ravi Mittal.

Dr Jain meeting the 1973 Batch alumni.

 Welcome remarks and Reunion background by Harsh- alumni and spouses in rapt attention-- except the cell phone addiction!

Dr Jain asked the alumni to give their time, talent and energy besides other contributions to their alma mater. 

Time for Prem to thank everyone. And then a walk back to VFAST for Gana-bajana and dinner!

You can see Anoop Singh and Vijay Mohan Chopra in the picture on top right. They arrived after the Intro session as summarised in Part-1.

Don't you agree that forty years after graduation, all our buddies look even more dashing :-)

The story continues in next episode- with more pictures. Cheers till then!

   - Harsh the Gumakkad/ 15th Feb 2014

----------

For quick referencing, links to all three parts of 40th Year Reunion are given below:

BITS-73 Back to Campus

Inauguration and Release of Commemorative Film

Gana Bajana and Interaction with Students 

---------- 

Postscript: Two years later in Sept 2015, we celebrated the 42nd Year Reunion at Kodaikanal. Click here for the picture story which had 1000 page views in a single day!

______________ End of Pilani Reunion Part-2 ________________