Bitsian Reunion Week - My Reflections

I wanted to draft my reflections on the reunion that I just came out of and in the process renew my blogspot that has been dormant since covid hit us.  

The Mask :  More than decision on what outfits to pack that shows me younger than I am, the bigger one was the decision on what “mask” I should wear!  What image I should create amongst my batch mates – Successful Technologist, Happy Soul,  Great Communicator etc., the typical masks we wear to work.  After some deliberation, I fixated on going mask-free as it is judgement free zone of Pilani campus I am marching towards.  This is the group of people who have seen me in most vulnerable position and most immature phase of life already, there is really no need of wearing a mask to be honest. 

Ice Breaking:  Given the introvertial traits I carry, getting back to the gang of 200+ people was never easy. This is one thing extroverts struggle to understand “what is wrong with introverts” 😊 Even with in gults, I was not in constant touch with many with a notable exception of the 2-3 closest buddies.  I had a sinking feeling in stomach, mulling over questions like what if none of them remember me, what if no one is able to reconnect with me, what if I am loner who has to push along 6 days with great effort!!  To be fair, my brain is pretty logical given the low key life I maintained at Pilani and after.  I was proved wrong on all these counts the moment I landed with the group, same warmth, accommodation and love despite long gap of two decades. 

I embarked on a train journey with my gult friends, in Telangana express that used to be AP express. They instantaneously connected with me and showered warmth. 27 hours felt like 27 minutes with greetings, sharing personal stories,  playing card games, Dumb Charades.  Little did we realize that the train ran more than 3 hours late, and completely engrossed with the gang. 

Networking:  What is more interesting than to listen to life stories of friends, their successes and learnings. It is inspiring and amazing to see the friends with whom we shared wing, classes and campus make it big and earn name for the batch.  It is equally distressing to know heartbreaks some friends faced.  While they coped with it and became resilient and stronger through experience, they never deserved that pain in first place.  Overall, interactions made me stay grounded in our life journey ahead.

Reconnection with C6-ites:  Turn out in C6 is quite good given we are a small gang. We had utlized the opportuntity to share experiences and getting to know each other better.  I am sure many of you would find it difficult to believe that I did not speak a word with C6 girls, with whom we attended exclusive classes every sem, between 1998-2002.  Not even a miniscule mistake of theirs really, instead speaks volumes of the “shy”, “introverted”, “in a shell” type of personality I carried along.  When we (re)connected last week, they were so generous, friendly and warm in interactions,  that left me wondering how much I would have gained from their association had I mustered courage to speak to them while in college.

Same vs Different:  Campus stayed the same in terms of its spirit while bringing technological and infrastructure advances that are world-class.  Among similarities, the old hostel rooms, the vibrant FD1 & FD2,  Serenity of the temple,  the color of chairs in Audi, Sky lawns, IC carried nostalgic memories of our campus life, bringing down our age from 40s to teenage. Among the differences, the new age workshop, fantabulous library,  amazing best-in class LTC,  Rakesh Kapoor Innovation Center, beautiful infra in and around Rotunda that let us wonder if it is same old Pilani.

Friends who couldn’t make it:   There are few friends I longed to meet on the occasion but unfortunately due to work and personal commitments couldnot make it.  I will keep hoping to bump into them some other occasion soon.  There are few friends who have left us teary eyed to heavenly abode, whom we remembered during the event.

Rotunda side chat:  I really enjoyed opportunity to interact with those innocent souls in current pursuing graduate students with high hopes and uncertainity of what life has in store for them. Felt exactly like me (or us if I dare say) two decades earlier.  They sounded bit more matured than we were at that tender age.  But we tried to answer their questions as if we know all answers to life’s questions 😊. On topics like Biotech, Core Chemical Engineering, we mustered courage to say that “we don’t know” and routed them to experts in our batch on the subject.

Parties:  Better said by others than me, given I am coke/Juice candidate who cant draw as much from parties as others.  But I could clear see the vibrant crowd enjoying every party and that’s truly contagious. 

Farewell:   It is incomplete description without mention of organizing committee who has undertaken this event with Super human efforts.  I came in with high expectations and they made sure it exceeded by huge margin.  Some groups had logistics challenges along the way but like aways they all made it on time to flights beating the odds. As we drew towards the closure, we all had heavy hearts and left with renewed promises to stay in touch and frequent meeting at every opportunity presented.

To end On a lighter note, a gult friend teased multiple times Shashank to give his message to the group “ జాతిని ఉద్దేశించి మీ సందేశం”  and Shashank delivered a hell of a message on responsibility towards women at home that kept us grounded.  Overall it was a great week for me, and potentially the best week in many years.