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ISM Main Building Glittering at Night
|
Trip Down Memory Lane:
In the recent past, I had completed “Golden Jubilee celebrations for 1961 and 1962 batches in my blogs, which
was read with great enthusiasm all around the globe, and still gets lot of
hits, due to new blogs getting added, although at slow pace from my side due to
my health concerns. Statistically as per Google, our blogs viewed so far has
crossed a figure of more than 18,000 people who have viewed and
read so far, which means in the last 15 months, when I first started blogging, it’s a great satisfaction to me
as the writer. I hope I keep writing and this keeps my inspiration and
motivation on-going. But, I would appreciate, if all could contribute to make
our memories well recorded and remembered in the days to come, and send us
lively discussion to keep me going.
My Golden Jubilee blogs for 1961 & 1962 batch can
be read at:
I
believed my blog for 1960 batch was equally important for me as I did justice
for other two, as this will give us their story, how they eventually had there
re-union.
My
understanding as far as it goes is that the seeds for Golden Jubilee Celebrations
were thought & placed by this batch way back in 2008-2010. They found very
hard to connect and make data base for their Goldie’s, it’s still very interesting
to know how they finally steered their way to have a get together not in the
same pomp and show like 1961 & 1962 batches, but realistically they paved
their way to meet, with that extra urge of love and affection for their batch
mates, and I quote:
“Why
not be together after 50 Years at the portals of ISM, where once we all parted”.
Keeping
above in view, I thought very prudent to write my blog for 1960 batch also, so
where to start was a big question mark. It was recently on 05th
June’ 2012, when I called on Mr Pallab Banerjee (’60 Mining), and later met him
at his home on a social visit that I requested, if I could get photos (they
speak more than thousand words on its own) and a report / write up for all of
your activities of that re-union for me to write a blog.
We
had a good chat at his home; he was pleased to later send me some photos and also
sent mail request to his mates, that the wealth of information / conversation
starting moving to and fro. In the meanwhile I started writing my new blog,
when that information was in my hand, which inspired me to give it a go.
Initially
I have to edit all the photos in jpeg format, as they were appearing more than
one on a page in the souvenir. It took me quite some time, but hope they have
come out well. Then, it took another couple of days, with many hours of
struggle, to open yet another file of photos, due to formatting problem.
I
would say, in short - 1960 batch, had its reunion in a most simple & humble
manner, in which 22 Goldie’s joined at the portals of ISM.
They had lots of fun, played indoor sports like Table Tennis and other outdoor
at ISM Basant Celebrations – 2010, and later enjoyed a sumptuous dinner. In
their itinerary, they also visited Maithon Dam to revive some of school days
memories to have picnic cum excursion to Maithon dam. It was another chitchatting trip all the way round
and thanks goes to the then DGMS, S J Sibal (’71 Mining) now retired, who provided them the
much needed transport from his pool.
I am told that Prof T Kumar, the then Director did made a charge for their stay at
EDC Hostel even though was at discounted rates, and they (Goldie’s) took it
with a smile.
But I strongly
believe it should not have been charged as great courtesy & love &
affection towards ex-mates, who were placing their footsteps at ISM portals
after 50 years as a mark of respect. I note this with great apathy, and hope
our current Director may note, as this trend as is not tuned with our age old
traditions.
Further, most
disheartening fact was that neither Director nor any staff members from the
faculty came out from their shell’s; to meet & greet Goldie’s who
were retracing their footsteps after 50 years.
Also Goldie’s were not invited to join
Conclave delegates, which could have been done, even if it was at last minute
or at a very short notice of knowing that they have all come for celebrating
their Golden Jubilee from far and wide some even from overseas to retrace their
steps where they spent their youth 50 years ago. I believe they did the right
thing of refusing the dinner when all Conclave guests had left.
If I am honest, and
write their feelings they were hurt is what makes me feel extremely sad.
Personally I feel pathetic and disrespectful and hope this trend is stopped for
ever.
 |
| Dhanbad Railway Station |
Sometimes
my sentiments expressed will pave the way for our age old traditions to be kept
alive. Monies cannot always buy happiness, and if that was so, our age old rich traditions, would have not
survived, more than 80 years of this institute in existence.
Look at
this way, whenever our senior ex-students used to come & stay with us
during their Second & First class examinations conducted by DGMS, we used
to give them our rooms as part of age old traditions, and would stay whole day
out to see, that they studied without any disturbance etc. Am I right? We used
to leave our comforts, and would see, they studied at minimum disturbance. When
they used to pass, they would come to college, and take us for a big gala
party. Those who were outside Dhanbad will welcome us to take there next
training in their mines or collieries so that they could pay back there love.
Hope all will join with me in praying for their
happiness, cheerful days coupled with good health in the days to come &
that are we are able to share their happiness, as most of them will be
celebrating their 75th Birthday Anniversaries this year unless
already gone through by now. May God bless them with very long and many more
happy innings to come?
To
sum up, they did had a wonderful time, and will cherish these great moments, memories
now it’s a history, with a final word they had to say, I quote:
“We did meet our friends even though our
number was just 22 mates out of 61 Alumni of our batch, who made it to this
occasion, meeting some after many decades, itself was self-contained pleasure
& contentment which is very difficult to describe”
But were very sad when they parted
whether God willingly they will have yet another opportunity to meet again.
My blog entitled "What I Left and what is now! Is worth reading to know where our school is from where we all left it (1960 going to 1970’s era’s, with photo gallery - may be few years thereafter also).
My blog entitled "What I Left and what is now! Is worth reading to know where our school is from where we all left it (1960 going to 1970’s era’s, with photo gallery - may be few years thereafter also).
Golden
Jubilee 1960 Batch Reunion
– A Report Feb' 2010 (By David Pichamuthu-
'60 Mining):
Let me start by adding
our historical group photo of 61 students, when we were all in our final year,
how smartly we all posed for this shot, who knew we will see it again or will
share with our mates after 50 years.
 |
 |
| Mr David Pichamuthu |
Mr David Pichamuthu wrote in his report for Goldie’s:
I
quote:
“As I was sitting in my garden in Bengaluru (Now
called Bangalore) on a day in autumn of 2008, with a cup of tea my thoughts
drifted towards the days spent at Indian School of Mines & Applied Geology
(ISMAG) as it was then called. I asked my wife Sundari to bring out the old
photo albums. These are a veritable treasure trove - album of school days
photos, and when I started beaming through, old memories starting flooding my
mind; it took me back to my golden era - year of passing and how thereafter all
these years have passed by as if it was yesterday. It suddenly struck me that
48 years have since passed since our batch had passed out of the hallowed
portals of our Alma Mater and yet in another two years it would be our Golden
Jubilee Year. I decided in my heart that it will be appropriate to celebrate this
occasion and what better venue it will be than at ISM foregrounds only.
My heart started sinking with thoughts of yesteryears,
some with happiness & some with sad, as few had left us to heavenly abode. I said to myself, Oh God, how I am going to
contact my mates who are spread all around the globe & where to start, whom
to ask etc. if we would like to have a Goldie’s get together. WE soon realized
locating each person will be herculean task for one person, so I thought of a
core team which was:
- Lab Bose for Eastern Region.
- S S Salodkar and U W Datey for Western Region.
- Man Mohan Seam for Northern Region.
Year 2008:
After I bowled the first
ball of locating our mates through the core group; the core group got cracking.
I also started writing to my batch mates as I had neither their telephone nos.
nor email ID’s. I was thrilled when responses started pouring in. So we kept on
exchanging telephone number and I spoke personally. The core group handled the
task collectively & efficiently, as we knew without each other help it
would be just be impossible to track & trace our batch mates. Core team did
fantastic job in locating some who had settled abroad, more specifically U.S.A,
Canada, U.K and New Zealand as a part of the Great Indian Diaspora. This job
required lot of patience and effort, which did yielded fruitful results. Time
flew passed, and we found 2008 has come to close, but foundations laid to start
and making jig jaw puzzle work in 2009.
Year 2009:
Then throughout 2009 we started working on leads; by exchanging tons
of phone calls and to & fro of emails, as each lead, lead us to another and
so on. Most of them responded, by saying:
“It’s a beautiful & brilliant
idea, some even laughed, some said it’s too early” to “It’s an impractical idea”
But me and my team soldiered on & never got distracted by
comments. So gradually things started to take shape as we were able to obtain
postal addresses, telephone numbers and email ID’s of 35 of our batch mates,
little more than 50%. Rest remained not reachable for any reason whatsoever. (Today
let me share my love & affection with our mates that we are connected to 51
of our batch mates).
It was then decided it will be appropriate to have our get-together
at ISM, to coincide with Basant Festivities of 2010, to make this event a final
go & add to the glory of our Alma Mater how much that means to all of us.
The
next problem was to tie-up the question of accommodation at Dhanbad during
Basant 2010. The then Director of ISM, Prof. T. Kumar, agreed to extend all
help by allotting rooms in the Executive Guest House at nominal rates. This was
of course of huge assistance, although not as per ISM traditions to host
ex-students with love and care, and at no charge.
Out of
the 35 Goldie’s whom we could possibly contact, we were pleased & surprised
that 22 Goldie’s did participated with some coming from overseas USA & New
Zealand. To add colour to our proceedings around a dozen spouses also attended
making us feel happy that we were with our lovely life partners.
LIST OF 22 GOLDIE’S WHO MADE HISTORY,
PLACING THERE FOOTSTEPS AFTER 5 DECADES!
S. No
|
Names
|
Stream
|
1
|
Agarwal, K K
& Mrs Agarwal
|
Mining
|
2
|
Banerjee, Dipankar
& Mrs Banerjee
|
M
|
3
|
Banerjee, Pallab
Kumar
|
M
|
4
|
Bose, Lab
Kumar
|
M
|
5
|
Chatterjee, Subhas
Chandra
|
M
|
6
|
Datey, U W
& Mrs Datey
|
M
|
7
|
Dey, H K & Mrs
Dey
|
M
|
8
|
Dutta , Piyush
Kanti
|
M
|
9
|
Kolay, S M
|
M
|
10
|
Kutumbe, R Y & Mrs Kutumbe
|
M
|
11
|
Mishra, R N
& Mrs Mishra
|
M
|
12
|
Parikh, J K
& Mrs Parikh
|
AG
|
13
|
Pichamuthu, D V
|
M
|
14
|
Sachdeva, O P
|
M
|
15
|
Salodkar, S S
|
M
|
16
|
Sharma, Shyam
|
M
|
17
|
Singh, Mahendra
Pratap
|
M
|
18
|
Singh Ramakant
|
M
|
19
|
Srivastava, T S
|
M
|
20
|
Suri, Tulsidas
|
M
|
21
|
Tiwari, P N
|
M
|
22
|
Seam, Manmohan
|
M
|
GOLDIE’S
WHO MADE IT
|
22 IN ALL
|
|
My Thanks to all my 1960 batch mates & others:
Words cannot express my personal gratitude to one and all, who all joined our bandwagon to be part of this historical occasion. I also know some have travelled from offshore with their life partners for all of us to smile with our partners and share nostalgia of school days together. It does make me feel proud to have you all here, and hope in the next few days will be full of fun and hope we will carry with us one of the finest memories back home.
Last
but not the least - I shall be failing in my duty if I do not acknowledge my
thanks to all the ladies, who made our trip more colorful and enjoyable. I
must also thank all those who gave us leads, to nurture our get-together.
As
a word of advice or suggestion for coming batches, who will celebrate their
Golden Jubilee, to note: it’s never too late to start connecting with your
mates, earlier you do, better you are, when time approaches as you all know
time, never waits for any one? Also in this electronic era, it’s far easier and
when more people are involved with computer technology.
I welcome you all for
this Golden Jubilee celebrations of our batch”.
Hope we will try the best usage of time, since we are all now at ISM.
David
Pichamuthu (’60 Mining)
======================================================================
Where We All spent our Three days - 05th
Feb to 07th Feb’ 2010
Goldie's all arrived on 05th Feb' 2010, although Mr David Pichamuthu arrived on 04th Feb' 2010, just to overlook the arrangements, and also I had anticipated problems and so I reached Dhanbad on the 4th itself by the Coalfield Express. To my utter disappointment, I found that there was no dinner in spite of earlier information being given to concerned authorities when booking was made and also the attendant reluctantly opened the room.
Luckily, Prof S P Banerjee who had traveled by the same train for the Conclave invited me to have dinner with him
in the VIP guest house. The canteen is run by a contractor and as the others
were to arrive the next day, I requested him to purchase few of our requirements
Anyway, these things
would have been avoided if school administration who were organizing could have
taken care of. And since our number was not too large, we were all accommodated
at EDC Hostel cum Guest House.
06th Feb’
2010 we all traveled to Maithon Dam for a picnic cum excursion where we all
spent whole day. After attending picnic Mr Pallab Banerjee (’60 Mining),
left in the evening for Ranchi before Jharkhand Bandh (strike) which was to start on 07th Feb' 2012 so as not to miss his scheduled return flight
to Auckland. Unfortunately for him this resulted in missing Basant Festivities of 07th
Feb’ 2012. We had gala good time and left for our home towns on 08th
Feb’ 2010.
Our Home Away from Home at ISM:
 |
| Executive Development Centre |
 |
L to R: Mr T S Shrivastava, Mr. J K Parikh, Mr. S S Salodkar,
Mr L K Bose, Mr D V Pichamuthu, Mr S M Kolay,
Mr Ramakant Singh,Mr P N Tiwari, Mr R N Mishra, Mr K K Agarwal, Mr U W Datey, Mr P K Dutta, Mr R Y Kutumbe |
Excursion
cum Picnic at Maithon Dam:
 |
| DGMS Building Dhanbad |
The
Conclave - 05th Feb’ 2010 & 06th Feb’ 2010:
Just
before the start of Basant Festivities of 2010, ISM Alumni were conducting a
Conclave. This was being organized by then S J Sibal (’71 Mining), who was then
DGMS and also the President of Alumni Association. All distinguished alumni
like retired DGMS, Chairman of Coal India Subsidiaries, retired Directors of
ISM were invited for two day event on the 05th & 06th
Feb’ 2010. On the 05th Feb’ 2010, they had high dinner which was
hosted at DGMS bungalow; (Goldie’s were not invited).
On the 06th Feb’
2010: Goldie’s requested DGMS - S J Sibal (’71 Mining) to spare
a comfortable transport to have an outing to Maithon Dam, which he agreed and
no charge was laid on us. Two buses were given, one for the ladies accompanying
the Conclave participants and one for the Goldie’s.
 |
| Maithon Dam View |
We spent most of our day at Maithon – We had an enjoyable day at Maithon Club
overlooking the far expanse of water. We enjoyed a sumptuous lunch and
afterwards gathered on the lawn. First,
we observed a minute's silence for our departed batch mates that we missed you
all and have not forgotten you, and prayed for their soul rests in peace (25 at
the last count) and then shared quality time together. Each one recounted how he happened to land up at ISM and shared his experiences.
The ladies kept them busy in playing Housie (or Tombola).
After snacks and tea we left tired though very happy back, for the trip
back to Dhanbad, where we were staying. It was time to leave for Dhanbad, after day long visit to Maithon,
reminded our school days excursion trip to this nostalgic place, where we
haven’t forgotten our friends who left us early.
In short -
we had an enjoyable & most thrilling trip to Maithon Dam as lot of old
memories of school days were revived among Goldie’s during chitchatting and the
song which we sang together was coming to close.
06th Feb’ 2010:
 |
L to R: Mr L.K.Bose, Mr P.K.Dutta, Mr J.K.Parikh, Mr
D.V.Pichamuthu,
Mr R.Y.Kutumbe, Mr U.W.Datey, Mr S.M.Kolay &
Mr S.S.Salodkar
|
 |
| Group Photo of Goldie's |
 |
| Goldie's Group at Maithon Dam Club |
 |
| Goldie's Group at Maithon Dam Club |
 |
| Group photo with Mrs Kutumbe on extreme left |
 |
L to R: Mr P N
Tiwari, Mr O P Sachdeva, Mr K K Agarwal,
Mr Ramakant Singh,
Mr H K Dey, Mr L K Bose &
Mr P K Dutta |
 |
| Relaxing at Maithon Club Gardens |
 |
| Evening Sunset at Maithon |
The evening shadow can be seen in the photo below shows how much
we all enjoyed the whole day, relaxing, chit chatting etc. We had good food at
this guest house. We kept on chatting until it became dark, and later in the
evening left for Dhanbad, when the sun set took place.
 |
| Time to go back to Dhanbad, sun is setting Now |
 |
Wonderful Time we spent at Maithon,
great memories we leave behind |
Later in the night on our return from Maithon at EDC we freshened up
and then gathered in Mr David Pichamuthu’s room for drinks (thoughtfully
brought by Mr Piyush Dutta) and the mood was light with a lot of jokes and
leg-pulling. The ladies had their own "Conclave” as can be seen in some of
the snaps. We all reassembled for dinner. (Since many of the Conclave delegates
had left, the organisers came to invite us for dinner which we politely refused).
 |
| Relaxing at EDC Guest House |
 |
| Chit Chatting at EDC Guest House |
07th Feb’ 2010: Basant
Festivities of 2010:
In
the Morning of 07th:
We woke up on 7th morning with joyous & youthful anticipation
as we were to participate in the Basant festivities, some after a gap of full
50 years.
 |
L to R: Mr L K Bose, Mr
P K Dutta, Mr J K Parikh, Mr D V Pichamuthu,
Mr R Y Kutumbe, Mr U W Datey,
Mr S M Kolay and
Mr S S Salodkar.
|
 |
| Goldie’s Group at Basant Feb’ 2010 |
07th
Feb’ 2010: On this Basant day ‘The President &
Secretary of the Students Union’ came to EDC and escorted us to the Sports
Complex (which was not there in our time). We were given caps with ISM insignia and the
traditional oranges to quench our thirst. We then went to the hostel and played
badminton and TT.
We could participate in all activities like sports especially
few of our mates enjoyed hands on Table Tennis, at tennis and basketball (for those who don't know, I had
captained the Bihar University Basketball Team) during the day.
By the way, Mr Lab Bose was the badminton champion and Mr Pallab
Bannerjee, the TT champion in our final year for all those to refresh their
memories as I am describing the events of the day.
 |
| Watching Table Tennis in Progress |
 |
| TT: Mrs Kutumbe (blue Sari) playing her ball to opponent |
 |
| Mrs Kutumbe (blue Sari) to serve |
 |
| Goldie's also played their shots at TT table |
In the Afternoon of 7th: We went around the Mela organised by the
students in the lower playground and at 4 p.m. gathered in the Golden Jubilee
hall for the Alumni Association meeting.
In the Evening of
7th: Later that night
Goldie’s after the customary
round of drinks, had a sumptuous dinner to their fill and finally all rested that
night, possibly with few drinks, jokes, and bid farewell to all Goldie’s – and
they left for their homes, as all had their return flights/trains booking confirmed
for 08th Feb ‘2010. They also carried with them the sweet melodies
of nostalgic school days, tracing their footsteps – after a span of 50 years. There was a tinge of sadness on every
one face - as we were not sure if we would meet again. It was a pleasant
departure as far as melodies are concerned, but sad ness if at all we could
meet again, as we are no longer to be young and slowly but surely is aging,
that we left for our home towns.
Lesson for future G J Celebrations: I believe a good preparation;
will lead to more enjoyable experience for incoming batches. We can all learn
through what Mr J P Goekna (61 Mining) and Mr Suresh Mehta (’62 Mining), steered
there way, with tons of meetings, get together prior to the day to make this
dream come true for a wonderful re-union.
From blogger desk, all
those who are outside our network or connection it’s high time, we get together
help each other to get our data base well organized. I am trying hard, but with
your help only I can achieve, what I call as “GLOBAL ISM ALUMNI DIRECTORY”.
Time will speak on its own, whether what I wrote was TRUE!
I pen down here
and will look forward for next batch, which celebrates next Feb’ 2013.
Arun Talwar (’71 Mining)
July’ 2012
===================+++++++++++++++++++++++=================
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