Memories - Then and Now !

THEN - P K Thakur 

FLASH BACK OF ISM DAYS:

When I was young, I could remember everything that had happened and even some things that never happened. Today it is different. My mind has better comprehension but not as well for retention.

The best memory of ISM, of course, is the friends I made and the education I received, which I believe is the best we got in good old days. But the events that had a lasting impact on me are only two: one sad and one happy.

Day of Sadness:

On February 19, 1958, Chinakuri 1 and 2 Mine exploded and one of our alumni died along with 175 miners. The school was closed on the 20^th February’1958, to pay respect to the departed souls. I did not know any of the victims but felt very sad for the tragedy and cried. I prayed for knowledge so someday I can eliminate such tragedies in the mines. (You may not know this but I always pray for anything and everything I want in my life; some silly, some very profound.) I made up my mind to get higher education and learn how to get the mine gas out of mines in my year’s to follow.

R K Agrawal, Late D N Thakur and I took summer training in Chinakuri #3 mine in 1959 and planned on getting Ph.D. To this day I rejoice that dream became a reality as all three of us finally did so. Later working in Chinakuri 1 & 2 mines as PGPT, my desires became even stronger. Today I am so happy & thrilled in penning down, that my wishes were fulfilled beyond my wildest dreams & imaginations. Thanks to CONOCO and CONSOL Energy. I have traveled North America and the rest of this world many times teaching and preaching methane drainage to save lives, improve productivity and use the deadly gas for creating revenue for the coal companies.

Day of Happiness:

The second event on happy note happened same year in June’1958, I got married on June 26, 1958! But we began to live together only when I finished my First Class Mine Manager’s Examination (FCC) in 1964 and Meera finished her BA from Ranchi University. As we all know, that the marriage in Northern Bihar is consummated in two parts; the wedding (more like a betrothal) and “Gauna”- official arrival of the bride in her husband’s house. But I used to sneak out with her (as her family & folks lived in Dhanbad) to see a movie and have some ice-cream whenever I could afford it (did not have much money). Some of my classmates knew about it and all had a lot of fun off course at my cost. The ISM school bus always stopped at my in-law’s house on the main road whenever we were going out on mining excursions or other wise. I had to go in and say hello to my folks; it did not matter if Meera was there or was at her school. Prabal Dutta was the biggest trouble-maker. Too bad he is not coming to our Goldie reunion. I wish his wife gets better and they can travel.

Me and My Wife

Meera is my love of life - a true co-traveler on the journey of life. The attached picture shows us at our 50^th anniversary. We raised two good kids. Life is good on most days. We still fight for trivial things but on the whole we all know how many wedded couple who  would have never fought and that's how love blossoms.

Let me pen down here, as I have unlocked my great school memories, which I am sharing with my mates, by quoting Shakespeare:

"I count myself in nothing else as happy as in a soul remembering my good friends. (Richard, II)"

NOW - PK Thakur

It is hard to even think in my wildest dreams of forgetting our good old school day’s friends, and it’s with that great excitement I have in mind to meet all, yet at Goldie’s reunion of our batch when hopefully we all will share our destinies and our days spent together at school.

God bless ISM! 

Pramod K Thakur (61’ Mining)

Golden Jubilee 1961 Batch Reunion – A Report Feb' 2011 (By Dr Pramod C. Thakur - '61 Mining).

Dr P K Thakur

Dr. Thakur has further added nostalgia of classical / musical evening enjoyed by him & his class mates. This has been described in his own words in the email received by me, which I feel honored on behalf of my seniors to share on my blog.

Dear Mr. Talwar, 

Thank you for an excellent job.

I would like to add to what J P Goenka wrote about our 50^th reunion as a cultural correspondent for the Class of 1961.

Main ISM Building Glittering at Night

The main Indian School of Mines building was very well decorated - like a bride from the main gate to the main buildings. She just looked awesome & beautiful! I walked around the campus with my wife for hours enjoying all flowers. We stayed at the ISM Guest house.

I missed the old “Champa Tree” (no longer there; I used to pluck a few flowers for my wife when I was a student there) and the franzipeni were not in bloom but the roses & marigolds were in full bloom and this did made up for my loss.

The breakfast, lunch and dinners were sumptuous and comprised a great variety of Indian cuisine.

The two cultural programs, organized are as follows:

5th Feb' 2011: 

1. The program opened with Chants from “Durga Saptasati”. A Sanskrit scholar recited the prayer by Devas. I knew every single verse in the prayer because I have been reciting them for a long time.
2. The next item was a beautiful song in rag “Bageshwari”. It is the raga for scholars and is really sweet. Finally Ms Usha Uthap with her orchestra made the audience regaled with her fingers on strings & bringing beautiful music to our ears which we all cherished during function in progress and thereafter.

06th Feb' 2011:

The program opened with the singing of an accomplished singer from Dhanbad, Sri Rameshwar Baba.  He staged two songs, for packed audience:

1. First was Rajasthani Mand (a kind of raga) with words like, “Pardesi Balama Padharo mhare dware” - (O long-gone beloved, you are welcome in my home ---).
2. Second, breath taking song (called “Hori” usually sung at this time of year) in raga Kafi that had words like, “Rashia Berjori; Ankhian me Dare Abeer” - (my beloved is placing scented powder in my eyes by---).

Being an aficionado of Indian classical music, I thoroughly enjoyed and believe all our fellow class mates did enjoy the program, but some may have varied opinion. 

I commend the current student body for putting up such high quality programs. The present students were most courteous and helpful. The total number of students I was told are now 2,300 with over 200 young ladies.

I understand it was quite expensive but am glad they could afford it, more so to make the event more memorable to all of us. We all will cherish this memorable evening for days to come in our hearts.

Pramod Thakur ('61 Mining)

07.03.2011

Golden Jubilee 1961 Batch Reunion – A Report Feb' 2011 (By J P Goekna - '61 Mining)

Panoramic View of Get Together

It was a casual chat between Mr. J. P. Goekna & Mr. V. K. Arora in early months of 2010 that the seed of 1961 batch reunion was sowed. The plant did blossom on 5^th February 2011. You will all agree it was a Herculean task to locate all the 150 batch mates which had settled all around the globe in the past 50 years. It can be said due to electronic / fast communication world of today, coupled with great enthusiasm and zeal shown by our batch mates, it was finally possible. ‘Mission Impossible’ was made into nostalgia of tomorrow. Those who attended made a history, but those who could not attend have sent there very good wishes & excellent job done in making this memorable reunion possible.

The following batch mates made their presence in Dhanbad.

Baijnath Pd Gupta	Geology
Ram Chandra Singh	Geology
Zoeb Moad Mogri	Geology
Bipin Kishore Prasad	Mining
Himatlall Velji Solanki	Mining
Indrajit Khosla	Mining
Jagannath Prasad Panda	Mining
Jagdish Prasad Goenka	Mining
Jogeshwar Sharma	Mining
Kamala PD. Singh	Mining
Lalit Kumar Srivastava	Mining
Lalta Prasad Upadhyaya	Mining
Murlidhar Prasad	Mining
N.P.Srivastava	Mining
Nem Chand Jain	Mining
Rajendra Dayal Tawakley	Mining
Rajendra Kumar Khosla	Mining
Rajendra Paul Gupta	Mining
Ram Lall Arora	Mining
Ramji Srivastava	Mining
Shivanand Prasad	Mining
Shri Niwas Sharma	Mining
Vinay Mahajan	Mining
Virendra Kumar Arora	Mining
Chitaranjan Kr. Singhal	Petroleum
Deoki Nandan Sarraff	Petroleum
M.S.Agarwal	Petroleum
Ram Gopal Aggarwal	Petroleum
Deb Sankar Sinha	GeoPhysics
Pramod Chandra Thakur	Mining
Brajendra Kumar Sinha	Petroleum

Our hearts goes to overseas alumni who came all the way from USA to make this a nostalgic get together.

1. Indarjeet Khosla
2. Pramod Chandra Thakur along with his wife Mira
3. Zoeb Mogri along with his wife Shera.

Every body heart was beating when that moment came and that all who attended exchanged there memories, with there fellow mates some after 2, 3, 4 or 5 decades.

Great Event missed by few:

Hriday Narayan Khanna missed his train because of wrong information available on net. Every one was sorry as his absence was dearly missed.

Extra Effort for some who made it even against all odds:

Dhanbad Railway Station

Kamala Prasad Singh was due to arrive at Dhanbad Railway Station by Purva Express on 5^th morning at 11.30 a.m. This train - Purva Express from Delhi was running 12 hours late and touched Dhanbad Railway Station past midnight (12.30 AM) on 6^th February. Even at that odd hour he was well received by Sitanshu Pandey (President, ISM Students Union) with his friends at the Dhanbad, Railway Station and at EDC by J P Goekna’s daughter Deepali & son-in law Vikash and grandson Madhur. Every one will agree what a zeal was shown by all those who were involved to make Goldies Reunion a memorable event of there life time.

Vinay Mahajan was also to come by this Purva Express but because of late running of train he flew from Delhi to Kolkata and took a taxi from Kolkata to Dhanbad, not to miss the event.

High Lights of the Programme:

Brief outline of the program enjoyed by 1960 alumni along with friends:  

Welcome Kit, Mementos & Photos:

1. A welcome kit was presented to all the participants with dry fruits, a hat and a name badge.
2. Memento and Blazers were distributed at EDC. Instant photographs duly framed were presented to each recipient of memento. Professor S.P. Banerjee attended the function and enjoyed the company of his friends-cum-students.

Food & Play:

1. After lunch on 5^th February at EDC the ladies played cards. Rummy coaching classes were conducted by Mrs. Khosla and Mrs. Singhal and in the process the teachers were richer by a few hundred rupees and that allowed all those who did not know how to play.
2. Housie was conducted by Vikash Jain, Deepali, and Madhur. Everyone enjoyed the game.  Inderjeet Khosla swept the floor of betting.

Poem recited was instant hit:

Mr. J P Goekna Extreme Right

A poem – ‘Mujhe Kabool Kar Lo’ was recited by J.P. Goenka which was well received by the audience.

Miscellaneous Activities:

1. A group photo session, which has now become a historic get together for 1961 mates.
2. At Koyla Bhavan Community Hall all enjoyed Usha Uthup’s singing program.
3. Later Mr. T.K. Lahiry and Mr. P.S. Mishra took us to exclusive enclosure for 1961 batch get-to-gather.

Other Activities:

The 1961 reunion golf tournament which was played in Delhi on 9^th December 2010, its winners were given away prizes, trophies by Mrs. T.K. Lahiry –

2^nd runners up – R.K. Khosla / 1^st runners up – S.N. Sharma / Winner – J.P. Goenka

Memento’s were also presented to Prof. T. Kumar – Patron ISM Alumni Association, Mr. T.K. Lahiry CMD - BCCL, Mr. P. S. Mishra, Mr. U Kumar (1957 Mining) and Sri G. C. Mirig (1957 Mining) who all graced the function.

Basant Sports enjoyed by Goldie’s:

On 6^th February after having breakfast at EDC all Goldies joined the Basant sports event.

Even age did matter, not to break bones or stretch muscles etc. but some of mates did try to play badminton. 

Memory down the lane when you enter your own hostel room:

Old Hostel Room

Few of Goldie’s went to hostel rooms in which they had put up fifty years ago as students. It was yet another trip down the memory lane visit which hopefully all will cherish. And lovely remarks, as rightly said by J P Goekna that they felt fifty years younger. People can rejoice, or recollect the locking arrangement we had, with two round clamps + tower bolt, to tie up two different locks, so that when seniors used to stay with us, each could have access to room.

In the evening Alumni Association parent body meeting was held. Some took a round of ISM campus. The whole face of campus has changed with the addition of new buildings. Prof. T. Kumar informed that an amount of Rs. 500 Crores will be spent in the near future on new buildings / infrastructure in addition to having an exclusive wing for ISM alumni & comfort.

As night fall, the whole of ISM campus was very well illuminated for the National Sports to be later held on 11^th and 12^th February’ 2011.

ISM Beautiful Decked Princess

What a nostalgia words used for our great institution? – ‘ISM was looking beautifully decked princess.’ by Mr J.P Goekna.

Acknowledgements:

1961 Goldie’s acknowledge with thanks:

1.   Prof. T. Kumar and his colleagues for giving all the support.

2.   Mr. T. K. Lahiry and P. S. Mishra for all the arrangements made by them.

3.   Dilip of CIMFR and Sitanshu Pandey, President Students Union, and his friends for arranging the transport and receiving the visitors even at odd hours.

4.  Mr. P. C. Thakur, Inderjeet Khosla, Amrit Sagar Chopra, V. K. Arora for their contributions.

5.  Mr. R. K. Khosla, S. N. Sharma, S. K. Chawla, L. K. Srivastava, Pradip Gangopadhyay and Delhi 1961 batch for arranging souvenir publication and making our reunion enjoyable.

6.  Mr. Vikash Jain, Deepali Jain, Master Madhur Goenka for their enthusiastic participation and taking care of the alumni.

7.  To one and all whose name has been unintentionally / inadvertently left / missed, but, have contributed in making this reunion a successful & rewarding event.

Historical Photo:

1961 Goldie’s group photo as rightly pointed by Mr. Pradip Gangopdhaya - 1970, P.Tech, has now become a historical photo for all generations to come, and also inspirations to all those Goldie's day for coming batches - yet to be celebrated.  

Let us take fondly lessons / help / ideas from this batch to make next event more memorable. 

It’s now turn for 1962 passing out batch who’s Golden Jubilee Reunion will be next year. They should start there preparations right now.

Cheers to one and all that made this great event a mission possible.

 J.P. GOENKA

1961 – GOLDEN JUBILEE RE UNION TEAM

NOTE: CD of high resolution photographs prepared by Vikash Jain and will be couriered shortly.

PS: Edited to give more of a nostalgic feelings. Hats off to all who made it!

ISM Alumni 1961 batch_Feb 2011

My first group photo I got from our great friend Pradip Gangopadhya, from 1970 Petroleum Eng Batch, who is connecting us to Global ISM Family, and I am trying to place it on my blogs, to keep our fellow brothers, seniors and juniors to add there memories.

Possibly if some one could upload there batch photo, when they passed out, which normally was taken in front of ISM Main Building. Some body may have in his album, get it scanned and place it on the blog, with your comments.

How did U all felt it being once again together after a span of 50YRS i.e 5 decades, when most of you must be retired and enjoying with your family, grand children etc. See how time has flown just like it was yesterday.

I salute you one and all, to allow me to say, that's great. Our future generations in this electronic world will know, what graduates from ISM believed in keeping up the traditions, its values and also to help there younger brothers when they happen to come and help was extended, without any hesitation what so ever.

I have added the email received from Pradip today what he has to say to our seniors: 

All my seniors from ISM 1961 batch:

Everyone from ISM is aware of the fact that 1961 batch - it was a Golden Jubilee Celebration in addition to Annual Basant festivities, when present students invite and rejoice there festivities with seniors.

This is definitely a historic photograph that I would like share with our ISM community around the globe. The picture identifies every individual with name.

I've spotted some of the people from 1961 batch whom I met recently like Mr. J.P. Goenka (Mining), Mr. V.K. Arora (Mining), Dr. Ram Gopal Agarwal (P. Tech). I've also seen the pictures of Mr. Rajinder Khosla (Mining), the man who worked tirelessly behind the scene & put together the souvenir, and Dr. Pramod C. Thakur (Mining) who communicated with me on various matters regarding ISM Alumni golden jubilee celebration. However, I didn't see the pictures of Mr. Amrit Chopra (Mining) whom I met in Muskat, OMAN or Dr. Zoeb Mogri (Applied Geology), whom I met at Calcutta's Geological Survey of India office in 2006 with my classmate Late Shankar Basu Mallick (1970 Applied Geology). Also missing is Mr. Surendra K. Chawla ( P. Tech), who communicated with others quite a bit regarding 1961 batch golden jubilee celebration.

One other thing I need to mention here about Saraf-sahab. If I recall correctly, Dr. Deoki Nandan Saraf (P.Tech) came to ISM campus, and took our oral exam in the 4th year of B.Sc Part I exam -- the year was 1969. I believe, he was then a professor at IIT, Kanpur with Chemical Engineering Dept. We heard that he returned to India after completing his doctoral program from Stanford University. I could be completely wrong but that's what I recall. If I'm wrong, just just feel free to let me know.

I got into the loop if ISM 1961 batch golden jubilee celebration because of Mr. Goenka, Mr. Arora & Dr. Ram Gopal Agarwal. I supplied some of the information at the initials stages & provided list of 1961 alumni available in our ISM Alumni Association of North America (ISMAANA -- non-profit org.) database.

I'm hoping more pictures would follow soon.

Special thanks to Mr. Vikash Jain who is kind enough to send this picture to all of us. It seems Mr. Jain has some connection with Goenka-sahab (J.P. Goenka '61 Mining) -- their e-mail address are similar and probably working together.

Except for the limited number folks from 1961 batch, all others are going to receive this information/conversation via blind copy to minimize the exposure of our ISM Alumni list.

Next year the 1962 batch would celebrate their Golden Jubilee at ISM, and I know a lot of seniors from 1962 batch.

With best regards, I remain,  
Pradip Gangopadhyay,
1970 Petroleum Eng. Holly Springs, North Carolina, USA

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More from Pradip:

The real person deserving most credit is Vikash Jain, son-in-law of Mr. J.P Goenka. Just check out the pictures he put together in web about ISM 1961 batch golden jubilee celebration at the following site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59565434@N08/

One very great suggestion being that we all should get involved and follow Vikash Jain's example in subsequent years, to make it a gala success. Who know's what is 2 morrow!!!!!!!!!.

Hats off to all, who made this 1961 batch, Golden Jubilee celebrations which will bring nostalgia for all those who could not make it out to this great get together. Lets see, as time is approaching for 1962 batch, that they all get to know each other, for next year, with greater success.

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