3rd Europe Alumni Meet
Saturday, 9th Oct 2004 
London, UK

The mood was sombre, as the day started with news of yet 
another disappointing performance by the 'men in blue' 
against the mighty Aussies at the playing fields of 
Bangalore. The weather was typical British, sulky with
overcast sky and windy. This was however not good enough 
to dampen the spirits of CET'ians who were getting together 
on the occasion of 3rd Europe Alumni Meet in London on 
the 9th of Oct 2004. 

Though the rendezouvous was to be at Chillies (hitherto
an unknown Indian restaurant in Hounslow), the warm up 
began a day earlier at yours truly place (Gautam, 99 Mech)
with our very own Jeff Immelt in making, Arka Jena (97 Mech) 
flying out from Zurich. He was joined by Gopal (97 Electrical) 
coming all the way from Leeds. Young and energetic Swagat 
(02 Mech) from NewCastle ensured that he was in London well 
in advance for the event. Wiproite, Shashanranshu (99
Inst&Elec) made the journey from Norwich and put up with
the villain of the day, Shreya(2000, Mech). Bapi (95 Elect),
the karta dharta of event and Satyendu (96 Mech), the lynch-pin 
of Europe chapter were in constant touch making sure things 
go as per the plan (except for a last minute confusion of
who should be taking out the print out) things were carried 
out perfectly to the hilt. 

The first to arrive at Chillies were Smita Das (99 Inst&Elec)
and her hubby Sanjeev exactly an hour and half before the next 
person who trickled in. Dashing Jeetanshu Bhai (98 Mech) was the 
next one to come in and the junta then slowly started pouring in. 

Anup Singh (98 Mech) and Debkumar (98 Mech) came with their better 
halves who also had the company of Satyendu Bhai and Bapi Bhai's 
wife. Unfortunately Arindam (99 Elec) had to leave Abhilasha 
(2000 Elec) back home as she was not well. So there we were
18 of us, all set to rock Chillies. The food was good but what 
made it all interesting was on the house wine sponsored by our 
very own Jeff Bhai, I mean Arka Bhai. 

The ideas, suggestions and anecdotes started flowing more
freely as the lunch rolled and wine flowed. It was a great 
experience to be transformed back to those sweet and some bitter 
memories from CET days. It was not all over as everyone then got 
together at my place and we invited Debasmit Bhai to a conference 
call. Bapi Bhai shared the vision and plans of the Alumni 
Association, the progress we have made and the long journey that
still needs to be traversed. Suggestions and contributions from 
the London team would be communicated by Bapi Bhai later. The 
evening was still young,what happened after this goes beyond 
the scope of this report. Each one of us had a great time and a 
truly memorable day to cherish for a long long time.

On behalf of every CETian here in Europe, I would like to take 
this opportunity to thank Satyendu Bhai and Bapi Bhai for ensuring
that the Europe chapter is kept rolling and growing. Any amount 
of praise will be not good enough to applaud the brilliant work 
of Debasmit and Bhabani Bhai, without whose constant motivation 
and inspiration this association would not have taken the shape 
of what it is today.

Long live the spirit of CetB.

Cheers
Gautam Mahanti
Events Co-ordinator, Europe Chapter
International Alumni Association, CetB