Ghumakkad Harsh

Sunday, 23 March 2014

Thrill of a 10K Run

_______________ BITS 10K Run in Hyderabad ______________

BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus organised a 10K Run on 23rd March 2014, the Golden Jubilee year of my alma-mater. Outdoor events are always a great fun.

The 10K Run was open to all. Not just BITSians and families but also runners from Hyderabad Runners Association and the public.
There were participants from the Cadet Training Wing of Military College of EME also! See picture below.

It was a perfect morning around Hussain Sagar and the venue was all set.

Participants arrived early to warm up.

Children were not to be left behind!

Young and not-so-young BITSians had huge smiles on their faces.

By the time it was 7 AM. the crowd was raring to go.

TV anchor Uma enthralled the crowd.

DGP Khan, the Chief Guest came jogging to flag off the event along with Dr VS Rao, Director Hyderabad campus.

Colourful balloons were released and the Run was flagged off.

More than 800 runners/walkers participated. Some action shots:

Local lads cheering the runners on Tank Bund atop a captured Pakistani Army Tank.

Women runners kept a steady pace.

Student volunteers from Hyderabad campus helped in excellent conduct of the 10K Run. It gave all the BITSians a sense of pride.

The Institute moves on from the Golden Jubilee to the Diamond Jubilee (2024) and beyond. Insha-allah!

-Ghumakkad Harsh/ 23rd March 2014

_______________________________________________

Friday, 21 March 2014

The Pen has Dried

Khushwant—The Pen has Dried

1915-2014

This is an ode to Khushwant

Who fearlessly aired his vent

Through his pen which was mightier than the proverbial sword

His masthead column ’With Malice...’ touched many a chord

His simple English coupled with Urdu verse

Made an impact on readers across the universe

From provocative articles to authentic works of history

Supporter of the Emergency to a revealing autobiography

He was a master writer in his own way

And did not spare anybody come what may

He personally replied to all the letters he received by mail

Those hand written letters and post cards tell its own tale

He played a game of tennis till in his eighties

And enjoyed the crossword well into his nineties

He loved his daily peg of whisky

As much as his pen and the diary

It was he who turned it around-- The Illustrated Weekly of India

When Mario’s creative ‘Sardar in a bulb’ stormed the print media

To date it has remained one of the most syndicated columns

Printed in newspapers and magazines across various regions

His sense of humour needs special mention

With his Joke Books running into multiple editions

In his death, his well wishers and admirers may not have cried

But they are deeply saddened that ‘the pen’ has forever dried!

May God rest his soul in Peace.

- Ghumakkad Harsh

Secunderabad

21^st March 2014

___________________________________________________________

Monday, 17 March 2014

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.
___________________________________________________________________________

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 ________________________

Sunday, 16 February 2014

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

----------

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