Chitti aye hai

 

On the purpose of BITSAA

I can see BITSAA taking a shape beyond what we had imagined when we first started out. Along with the Silver Jubilee batch get-together, we should also have an annual alumni meet for those can make it. This can be fixed for a particular week in the year, so that people coming from overseas can plan accordingly. Every year we can have a particular theme attached to it. Ideas will flow with more interaction among alumni from different batches.

 - Chhatra S Nahata (csnahata@vsnl.net)

Here is my list of what I believe BITSAA’s objective should be:

1. To be the network that we can all connect to, when we need help or when we want to help others i.e. collaboration.

2. Finding like-minded folks: Regardless of how surrounded we are with friends and family, friends that remind us of special times of our lives are ALWAYS welcome. Also, one can never have "enough" friends – or fun!

3. Joining hands with people for collectively giving back: To society, to world-at-large, to Pilani etc.

The mentorship initiative is an excellent start for the first objective. We need to get the LinkedIn thing going for doing more of the first part.

 - Sangeeta Patni (sangeeta_patni@yahoo.com)
 

VERY IMPRESSIVE

A very impressive magazine indeed. Please feel free to suggest how we could participate, connect, lead efforts locally in the bay area via the now famous BITS connection. Thanks,

Nipun Davar (’84 Pharma)

NO ACTION IN BANGALORE?

I was just going through the co-coordinators database and noticed one very interesting thing, according to me the maximum number of ex-BITSians are in two cities, Hyderabad and Bangalore. In fact, Bangalore might have as many as 6k-10k BITSians. But somehow the Bangalore chapter of BITSAA is most inactive! Why is that?

Even chapters in New Zealand (with less than 6 members) have get-togethers etc while the ONLY event I have seen in Bangalore is the BITSConnect Music Nite which was organized 2 years ago. BTW, that music nite raised Rs 32lakhs ($80k) in one night. This is more than what ALL chapters put together in US raise round the year. This means that the potential in Bangalore is HUGE but according to me what we lack is leadership.

I was in Bangalore in Jan of this year and arranged a Controlz (OASIS, APOGEE dept) reunion for which 17 people turned up. They all loved the reunion and all of them were somehow waiting for someone to come and arrange it for them. In that one night we raised Rs. 30k ($600) for a Controlz website.

Can we co-coordinators do something to make the Bangalore chapter more active? The BITSAA Reunion in Bangalore could potentially be the biggest party Bangalore has ever seen. I would do it if I get a sabbatical to Cypress Bangalore for a semester!

 - Ashish Garg (gargyboy@yahoo.com)

I feel the size of the chapter is inversely proportional to the number of events conducted. Events targeting a larger population naturally take much longer to organize and many more people need to be involved while those targeting a smaller number of people tend to take less work.

I believe that the best way a larger chapter can meet frequently is by creating smaller clubs centered on special interests like biking, hiking, music, drama, technologies, community work etc. This is very similar to the idea of clubs in BITS. Your controlz reunion is a good example.

- Prasad Thammineni (prasad@bitsaa.org)

Great to see such extensive BITSian participation in BITSAA’s SiliconValley chapter. Hard to believe it’s been so long since we boarded that bus to Pilani along the road to self-discovery.

 - Prasenjit Chaudhuri (prasenjit@bitsaa.org)