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Event Narration and Details
“This is not a onetime event”…is something that I had said at our First East Coast IET Meet in NJ. I do not know if many people believed me or not :) but, organizing this event went into my “To-do list” at the beginning of the year. We were hoping to stay with Memorial day weekend but, for several reasons, we could not settle for this date and immediately firmed up labor day weekend. It was an ideal weekend to celebrate the end of a terrific Summer and school holidays and Welcome the beautiful Fall season. After doing much research in Maryland, and Virginia, we decided to settle for Frying Pan Farm Park in Northern Virginia. It was an ideal location because of its central location and accessibility.
Last year, we were unable to get quite a few families to join the event due to long commute and short notice. The challenge with commute is one that East Coast IETians will face every year but, I am also hopeful that the high spirited IETians that have attended both or one of the Meet will share their experience with our fellow IETians and help grow the momentum every year. This year, the planning and the announcement came out in April giving everyone enough advance notice. This also gave fellow IETians enough time to reach out to a much broader IETian base that are not registered Alumni members and who can be accessed only through our chain of members. As a result, we saw a massive participation from batch 1988 through batch 2006 – We had 28 IET Alumni members that attended the Meet. We had people come from New Jersey, Boston, North Carolina, Delaware, and Virginia.
The day began with a few light thunderstorms in Virginia on Saturday, September 3 at Frying Pan Farm Park, Herndon, Virginia. Fortunately, we had planned for both an indoor and outdoor event so, the weather did not concern us and a lot of volunteers showed up early with great excitement and enthusiasm to help with the setup. I had the benefit of having a bonded volunteer, my husband and fellow IETian Rajeev Singh; and then Shivam Patel flew in from New Jersey that morning to get to the venue early. Other early volunteers were Amit Yadav, Shubhendu Singh, Rajiv Kanaujia, Pralay Bhaumik, Shitij, and then whoever came in were roped in . A separate room was setup for the kids to enjoy art and craft activities – Sand Art, decorate your own hat, paint and build your own model were some of the activities that kept all the children and parents happy . As people started to come, it was evident that we had the most wonderful and enthusiastic IET family on the East Coast. Everyone was excited to see and meet one another including our young alumni members, Shitij, Nitin, Naveen, and Shivam. There was an instant connection and bonding that this place witnessed and something that is rare to find.
Unlike last year, this time we had 2 IETians, Pankaj Shah and Sanjay Jain represent the very First batch 1988. It was a great feeling to see the most senior and the youngest members (batch 2006) share the same platform. Pankaj sir was our key note speaker and kept everyone engrossed and interested in his stories from the first days/years since the college was started. Introductions were a lot of fun with everyone letting themselves loose and sharing stories from their college days.
Being both an indoor and outdoor event, we had an advantage of having Rangarang Karyakram. After seeing all the performances, I can say that we have amazing group of talented people in IET family. We had a wonderful participation and performances from spouses and kids as well…Tarun Jain sang duet with his wife, Komal. Shilpa (Vipul Sharma’s wife) is a great singer and mesmerized us with her voice. Pankaj sir ne to Lucknow ki yaad taza kar di with his phenomenal ghazal “ranjish hi sahi” and “baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegi”. He also sang everyone’s old time favorite “sawan ka mahina pawan kare SOR” with his wife Pratibha. His kids Ilina performed a kathak piece and son, Neel played a very melodious music piece on guitar. Our young IETian, Shitij played guitar and we immediately witnessed Gopesh and Pankaj sir up on stage singing “Papa kahte hain bada naam karega”. Who can forget our Kishore Kumar, Shubhendu …He once again gave us pleasure of listening him sing. The surprise element was a Kavita from Umesh Shukla’s wife, Suman. Enjoy reading “Degree” kavita and gave us the latest Catch Phrase of IET Product vs Consumer of Product (in her own words – “I am a Consumer of IET Product”)
We witnessed one of the longest running Antakshari. This was a very high spirited event that saw an immense participation from the spouses and kya kya maharathi hain…It was full on Masti and it could have gone for another few hours only if we had more time . We ended up with tie but, next year, we will surely have a winning team. It was wonderful to see participation from the spouses and like Shubhendu said, such events could become a drag for the spouses if they cannot mix and mingle so, THANKS to all of the spouses who made this event very enjoyable for all of us.
Fresh popcorn and cotton candy was a big Hit with the kids. I do not believe parents paid a lot of attention to the kids that day because they were having blast. Saahil (my son), Shivam (Shubhendu’s son), and Tej (Jyotsna’s son) woke up the next day with pain in their neck from jumping on the moon bounce and running around…..that should tell the level of fun they had at the event.
It was a perfect day spent with the most wonderful, and energetic IET families. The day ended with small celebration for Pankaj sir & his wife, Pratibha for their wedding anniversary and Ajita’s (Shubhendu’s daughter) birthday. Everyone left but, we made memories of our lifetime. Folks who missed this opportunity will be able to get a taste of this wonderful camaraderie through pictures that will be uploaded soon on the Alumni website soon. Enjoy and anxiously wait for the next one…
I hope to see more of us join the next one.
Degree (Biwi और ma की degree )
इन दो degreeyo के साथः
घर में chairity और बाहर volunteer होता है
सोचा औरत कि जिन्दगी में बचा और पति ही prior होता है
पर उनके जीवं में मेरी क्या अह्मियत है
धीरे धीरे clear होता है
इन दो degreeyo के साथ् ...................
बचो को संभल्ते, आलू प्याज़् काटते
हर वक्त् सुमन की आन्खो मे tear होता है
पति से परेशानी का जिक्र भी करो तो
झट हाथ् मे गिलास भर beer होता है
आन्खे TV से चिपक जाति है
और मेरी तरफ़् उनका rear होता है
इन दो degreeyo के साथ् ..............
आराम मैका और तक्लीफ़् पीहर है
परस मे $ हो तो हर संबन्धि near होता है
स्वयम् मे खुशिया dhondho तभी life मे chear होता है
याहि गुरु मन्त्र अपना कर जब् मैने नौकरी join किया
मेरे दिल मे खुशी और पति के चेहरे पर fear होता है
इन दो degreeyo के साथ्............................
..............सुमन शुक्ला.................
- Reena Singh (EC - 1992)
Vote of Thanks - Reena Singh (EC - 1992)
An event like this requires months of planning and preparation. I have been fortunate enough to be backed by a number of supporters who were always willing to assist with anything and that made things easy for me. I knew I had people I could rely, on as needed basis.
I am pleased to mention that we had a massive representation from our very First batch 1988 to batch 2006 as we had 28 IETians attend the Meet. This is almost double the size from last year and I am extremely happy and proud of everyone making the effort to work around their personal plans to be there for this event. Some of the families travelled long distances for this Meet coming from Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, and New Jersey. This has once again proven that the spirited IETians are always willing to take huge leap for sheer love, affection, and a long lasting camaraderie.
I would like to thank everyone for making the time and sacrificing the long weekend to attend the Meet. This would not have been possible without your support, enthusiasm, high energy, and positive attitude.
I must mention names of few people that stand out in this Meet. Ashish Gupta helped me in finding the best Indian food in town and it so happened that the owner of the restaurant, Yogesh was from Lucknow and lived in the same neighborhood where I grew up. Ashish’s choice to cater from him was undeniably the best…the food was delicious and just like Lakhnawi style and taste. As always, I relied heavily on Shivam Patel to design the souvenirs and brochures and similar to last year, souvenirs turned out great and everyone liked it very much. Jyotsna took the responsibility of preparing the name badges ahead in time that expedited the sign-in process.
Other notable people who were always there to help with anything were Pralay and his wife Bhavana, and Tarun and his wife, Komal. We also had Pralay, Amit, Ashish, Chandra, Shubhendu, and Rajiv who helped me with a number of chores, setup, and clean up on the day of the event. I must mention my husband and fellow IETian, Rajeev for being very supportive of organizing such event and helping me throughout the process.
Pankaj Shah chose to be at the Meet with his family even though it was his wedding anniversary. He also agreed to be our keynote speaker and shared some very interesting stories about the very first days of college. Shubhendu and Vivek Narain decided to be at the Meet even though it was their daughter’s birthday.
It was a great feeling to meet some of our very talented, hard working, and dedicated young graduates, Nitin, Shitij, and Naveen. I would like East Coast Chapter to fly with new wings very soon.
One kind gesture that deserves a mention is Jyotsna and Umesh Shukla offering to host out of town families on the day of the event. I have an immense admiration for them.
I would like to thank Shivam, and Pankaj Shah for taking charge of still photography. It is imperative that I thank all of our alumni spouses and kids for their wonderful participation help and support throughout the event.
I would appeal to my fellow iETians to please consider joining this initiative and get the momentum going so that we can see more families attending every year.
In the beginning the task always seems daunting but as we made progress a lot of you lent a helping hand and made the US East Coast IET Alumni Meet successful.
Thank you all for being there. We hope to meet again soon.
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