Alumni Meet Report: 30th Dec 2000

Second Alumni Meet Report

Dear Friends,

Have a great year ahead. Hope the New year defaulted to be the morning that can't stop the invitable day. Here's wishing all goodies to be in ur stride today and ever after.....

So, here I am again with the minutes of the Alumni Meet held in the premises of CET on the 30th of Dec. 2K. The gala event kicked off to a late-set-GO! Little wonder, as always we show up late but when at all we do, we do it in style. The air was nostalgic... the music in the background ecstatic and the ambience, absolutely a toast to the party. They were all there - right from the Mr. Pal, a Civil Engineer of the 1985 (1st batch, CET) class to "kindergarten" alumni of the 2000 class. Though numbers were something that you would boast of, once more it drove home the eternal message of how small could be beautiful. The air as charged (sans spirits, of course!) and was heard reverberating the X-Tasy spirits with "CET-ka-tempo Zic-Zac" at least once.

The meet started with a introductory note by Mr. Subhendu Patnaik (1986 class). He briefed the audience with the alumni activities and to the agenda for the evening. Represenatatives from each batch walked up the podium gracefully to throw light about their batches. The baton was carried by Mr. Pal (1985 class) thru the rookies led by Mr. Debashis Pradhan of 1999 class. The arena was for once a play field with darts thrown to project individuals batches ahead of others. From accolades to tribute to achievements each one tried to vie for the non-existent title. Mr. Anup Parida (1995 class) was flambouyant when he promised to come back to campus to pick up engineers for his company . The crowd paid a thumping reception to Mr. Debashis Pradhan's jet-set ting conclusion. (Different story, that their batch was most represented.)

The Dean, Dr. B S Patro, set the ball rolling for a few mambers of the faculty to spell a few words about themselvesand about the institution. The all important felicitation followed with Captain P C Patnaik (ex-Dean, CET) being paid rich tributes in the citation read out by Mr. Sabyasachi Patnaik (1997 class). Prof. Patnaik rose in true radiance to cast a spell of silence over the audience with his characteristic discretised delivery. He held CET in high esteem when he lauded the students on the achievements in their professioanl lives.

Dr. G K Das (1st Dean, CET) was able to sweep the alumni off their feet with his charisma. A stranger to most of the audience narrated how he along with the his team of faculty built the institute brick-by-brick. We were, for once, silenced as he narrated the shortcomings from which he could scratch out a blueprint of the CET we see today. The air seemed chill and eerie with ol-granny typed narration of this versatile genius who once majored as the Head of Mechanical Engineering Deptts. of CAET and CET alongside discharging resposibilities of Dean of CET. Mr. Bahabani Sahoo, the little genius made himself dear to the crowd with his low key speech. Most unassuming, despite the heights scaled in the corporate world, he shared how he along with his co-developers have burnt the midnight oil to eke CET an invincible place in the cyberworld.

Mr. Debasmit Mohanty was conspicuous by his absence as accolades followed from all quarters as Mr. Anup parida volunteered to pay him a fitting tribute. Among others who rightly deserved the laurels were Mr. Shashanka Choudhury (1998), Sunil Maruvada (1993) and Kishore Das (1996) who have been instrumental in projecting CET's image in great heights through respective domain interests.

The president of the Students' Union, Mr. Bastia read out the keynote address. He spelt the efforts thay have complemened to the core alumni-body in organising the fete. The Dean squared up the meeting with his well decorated vote of thanks.

After serious ceremonies, the present students' union cheered the crowd with a "Game-show" which attempted to bring on stage a veritable composition on the dias. The idea was fabulous and spirits were not sapping! As the crowd queued up for dinner they were toasted to a musical nite with hindi film nazms and ghazals, recited by the ever youthful CETians.

Written By

Sashikant Mohanty, Class of 1996