Yuva!

The Indian youth is breaking traditions and daring to explore new avenues, freeing themselves from the rigmarole routine of every average Indian household-> kindtergarten-high school-graduation-engineer-doctor-service-retirement (and a marriage in between)! We are going the Western way and for once, imitating a better trait of "doing-your-own-thing". Two such news I heard recently were Sidin, a fellow and already famous blogger quitting a dream consultant job after going through labour pains of IIM-A and deciding to become full time writer, and the other was about 5 ex-IITians who floated a political party called PARITRANA (www.paritrana.org) with idealogy that was depicted in Mani Ratnams experimental movie - Yuva (sans violence). Rashmi Bansal's - "youth curry" has covered both news in detail, so that spares me from re-writing a stale story. Look to your right for the links. My best wishes to both endeavers!
~Amitk

VIT Alumni Association Formed!

I am an alumnus of VIT, Pune. I could have easily been an alumni of a much better known (at least then) competitor institute (OK, I will name it- PICT) but for a freak twist of destiny. But within a year of joining VIT all my regrets were gone. VIT raced and arrived neck to neck with PICT in just one year. So, for those unaware, VIT does have a good reputation of its own and I am proud of being an VIT alumni!
The news is that VIT is still doing good and it has also started a brand new initiative - "active alumni association" complete with well defined goals and objectives and a also a new dedicated website! My best wishes for its success! It offers further education programmes, free access to library, meeting point with other alumnus et all. It is really heartening to see your alma matter growing. But I do have some cribs, first, please paint that building and second, make all links on the website working!! While updating my profile on it, I encountered a question whose essence was- "in what way do you think VIT has contributed to you?". Honestly I was at loss of words for this one. It never occured to me to think seriously about it and figure out "exactly how" it has contributed to my career! I always thought that its not the alma matter but it is the "quality" of your peers and the competitive environment that they bring with themselves that shapes your future! Atleast that's my experience with my batch at VIT and even my secondary school. Had I had been an alumni of some big ticket brands like IITs or the IIMs it would have been much easier to say "I owe all it to you". But a lesser sibling like VIT contributing to my career almost as equally as an IIT/IIM could have done is really creditable. So on the hindsight, apart from the peers, the alma matter itself does seem to play a major role which one can't possibly define. I have left that question in the profile un-answered, will think about it and update it later!
Peace be upon you VIT, may your tribe grow!