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!