Two of my favourite poems...

Some poems inspire you, teach you and leave an indelible mark on you. Am listing two poems below which have always motivated me and helped me pass tough phases of life. IF - By Rudyard Kipling IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! Don't Quit by John Greenleaf Whittier When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all up hill, When the funds are low, and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest if you must, but don't you quit. Life is queer with it's twists and turns, As everyone of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about, When he might have won had he stuck it out. Don't give up though the pace seems slow, You may succeed with another blow. Success is failure turned inside out, The silver tint of the clouds of doubt, And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far, So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit, It's when things seem worse, That you must not quit. ...Edgar A. Guest

IET Lucknow Alma Meet in Vashi,Mumbai

Hello Alums,

It is a pleasure for me to write the narration of the Third Edition of IETLAA’s Mumbai Chapter Meet which we had on 4^th Dec. in Hotel Abbot, Vashi. The venue of the Meet was apt as it was centrally located.

At the outset, I would like to thank the core members of the organizing team (Nishant Vardhan, Deepak Kanaujia, Sankalp Chugh and Vipul Srivastava) who have put in a lot of effort for this meet despite their busy work schedules.

Here, I would like to share a unique and interesting tradition of which the IETLAA’s Mumbai Chapter is extremely proud of. We have always had some distinguished Alum who have made our Mumbai Meet special by coming from a far off city. I distinctly remember It was Salil Kumar Sir (1989 Batch) in the first Meet, who flew from Delhi, to attend the Meet in 2009. And this time it was Monika Nigam (2010 Batch), who came all the way from Trivandrum to attend the Meet!!

It was a bright Sunday morning and a pleasant weather greeted the Alums . The Meet started with a very unique coincidence. It so happened that 6 Alums ( Rahul Pundir, Nishant Vardhan, Deepak Kanaujia, Sankalp Chugh, Vipul Srivastava and Arun Chaturvedi) coming from 6 different locations reached Hotel Abbot gate at the same time!! The momentum was set for the big day !!

Slowly and steadily Alums started coming and greeting each other. Deepak Kanaujia Sir took the all important charge of handling the registration desk. As the attendance increased, the discussions & chitchats followed suit. IET’s most loved song ”NA- JAA“ was being played in the background as Alums made themselves comfortable. The Alums had the pleasure of going into the flashback by seeing the beautiful pictures in NA JAA song. Around 12.15 PM we started with the Welcome Speech by Vipul Sir. This was followed by an introduction of the Alums. The senior Alums shared some of their memorable incidents of IET days.

A.K. Singh Sir’s reminisces were a treat to hear. The stories of his IET days kept the Alums engrossed and enthralled. He was well supported by Ved Singh Sir and Salil Kumar Sir in recollecting some of the funny incidents which they were a part of as a gang. Here, I ll reveal a secret of which all other batches of IET will definitely be jealous. This batch was a lucky batch, which got the golden opportunity to visit the girls hostel at 3.30 AM in the night. I ll keep the suspense alive here for all those who could not attend the Meet. You can always ask any of the attendees of the Meet about the reason why they were allowed to visit the girls hostel in the night. ..:)

Here, I would also like to mention that three of our Alums, A.K. Singh Sir, Sanjeev Sir and Amit Sir were accompanied by their wives for the Meet. Sanjeev Sir’s little daughter “Cheeko” was apple of all eyes as she beautifully recited poems and bagged most no. of chocolates for her performance. Amit Sir’s wife recited a beautiful poem written by her which mesmerized the audience.

Lots and lots of college memories were shared. Lots of new ideas came up during the discussions.

A small presentation was given by Arun Chaturvedi on the latest development in IET and IETLAA. Snaps of IET in the presentation took the Alums back to their college days. Sankalp Chugh Sir shared with the Alums the details of the newly formed Executive Members after the IETLAA Elections. He also explained the various functions and features of or Alumni website ietalumni.org.

We had a group photograph which was then printed and put up in a beautiful frame and was gifted to the Alumni.

We also had a thorough discussion over the Agenda. Nishant Vardhan moderated the discussion with Arun Chaturvedi and Sankalp Chugh and we tried to gather as many ideas as we could from the Alums. After a lot of brainstorming we reached to the following conclusions:

a) We need to increase the content on our website and try to bring in more alumni interactions. After we have developed the content and have connected to the Alumni, we can have a web based application for mobile phones as well for easy and quick accessibility.

b) We need to develop a student body which works in tandem with the Alumni body, which will benefit the students in terms of placements, career guidance etc. also the college will be immensely benefitted by this.

c) Alums visiting Lucknow should visit the IET Campus and have interaction with the students guiding name with their experiences. This can be well structured and coordinated by the student body and Hariom Sharma Sir and other IET Alumni working/staying in Lucknow.

d) All the Alumni present in the Meet agreed to register at least 5 more Alumni from their network of IET friends on the IET Alumni Website ietalumni.org.

We had lunch at around 2 PM. The food was delicious and the arrangement was excellent. The Alums gathered in groups across the dinner tables and then the incidents and memories which could not be shared in public were shared there…:)

After the lunch we discussed about the future course of IET and IETLAA. We agreed that we have treaded some distance on the Alumni front, but we still have a long way to go. The continuous support from the alumni for all our activities has always given us the necessary encouragement and motivation to strive hard and try to make IET Lucknow a better college and a better place.

There were alums who came from far off places like Pune, Trivendrum etc. and there were also Alums who could not make it from Mumbai itself. We understand that most of us are busy trying to strike a balance between hectic works schedules and life. But at the same, we should also understand that we are indebted to IET Lucknow for the years we spent there and the knowledge we gained. Those 4 years were the best years of our lives !! The memories gathered there will always be cherished. Hence we have a moral responsibility towards our Alma Mater. We should try to make efforts to help our Alma Mater by whatever means we can. Organising meets and attending them is a small step for the same pursuit. These Meets help us in reuniting ourselves and will definitely yield results in the long run.

We should remember that the relationship of a college and a student is symbiotic in nature. Initiallly the student gains knowledge, skill and expertise from the college, builds his career and then helps his/her alma mater. We expect the Alums to support us by attending these meets.

Overall the Meet was an enriching experience for all of us. We wish that IETLAA grows with time !! We are sure that as our Alumni base strengthens, we will definitely be able to make positive changes in the Institute which will benefit the students as well as the Alumni.

I would like to end my narration by a popular Hindi quotation which would sum up the journey IETLAA has traversed so far and will remind us that we have a long way to go !!

“Jindagi ki asli udaan abhi baaki hai, Apne iradon ka imtehaan abhi baaki hain,

Abhi to naapi hai humne mutthi bhar zamin, Aage dekho sara aasman abhi baaki hai !! "

P.S. The Meet was attended by : A.K.Singh 1989 batch, Amar Deep Mishra 1992 batch, Amit Agarwal 1994 batch, Anand Prakash 2005 batch, Anju Rani jain 1994 batch, Arun Chaturvedi 2009 batch, Deepak kanaujia 2007 batch,Durgesh pandey 2011 batch, Jitendra 2008 batch, Monika Nigam 2010 batch, Nishant Vardhan 2005 batch, Rahul gupta 2005 batch, Rahul Pundir 2007 batch, Rajeev Yadav 2008 batch, Rishi Pratap 2002 batch, Salil Kumar 1989, Sanjeev Bajpai 1992 batch, Sankalp chugh 2007 batch, Sharad Singh 1999 batch, Shikha Singh 1996 batch, Ved Singh 1989 batch, Vipul Srivastava 1991 batch.

Comments,views,suggestions for future meets invited !!

IET Rocks !!

Arun Chaturvedi

(ME-2009)