Report on PANIIT 2011
A Ringside Account of the PANIIT 2011 at New York
by COO IITBAA Damayanti Bhattacharya
A few blocks away from Wall Street where the world looked on, as protesters gathered to demonstrate against banks and financial institutions, a group of people were meeting at a bustling hotel in Manhattan for a completely different and more pleasurable purpose. IIT Bombay alumni from all across North America were meeting at a gathering of the PanIIT meet.
Professors Pandalai and Contractor as the Deputy Director and the Dean, Alumni and Corporate Relations had done this transatlantic trip many times before. But moi, I am a relative newbie at the job and I was representing IITBAA for the first time in North America. While I looked forward to the new experience, I have to confess that there was a healthy dose of trepidation mixed in with the anticipation.
I should not have bothered. IIT Bombay alumni are the same everywhere, - opinionated argumentative, obsessive, nit-picking perfectionists who are at once warm, welcoming and friendly to a fault. At the queue waiting to register as we introduced ourselves to fellow registrants, I offended an alumnus who told me he was from IIT Delhi when I replied (tongue very much in cheek) “don’t worry I won’t hold that against you”
Obviously the relative arrogance of the group that I was representing was rubbing off on me. But in all honesty the arrogance is also backed up by achievements. The IITB alumni movement is perhaps the most organized as even the attendance figures at PANIIT demonstrated with alumni from IIT Bombay alumni racking up the highest attendance. The organizing committee, at least the part that worked (as one of the organizers pointed out) was overwhelmingly composed of IITB Alumni and if that was not enough when it came to the session on IITians in support of social causes every one of the presenters at the podium with a cause (four had been short listed) were from IIT Bombay. The MC was right when he said “the other guys must really hate us”. There is a price after all to be paid for being all-rounders 
I enjoyed Nicholas Negroponte’s presentation on his project for one laptop per child. Even though I did not entirely agree with Narayan Murthy the session was entertaining with irate alumni dishing out as good as they got from the speakers. I have to confess I gave Sam Pitroda’s talk a miss (have heard his views many times before) but for obvious reasons the sessions that I enjoyed the most were in the sidelines in huddles with fellow alumni from IIT Bombay. There was the impromptu gathering on Saturday evening when partner-in-arms Ram Kelkar stood at the cocktail area with a hand written placard announcing “IITB corner” and friends from IITB gathered like moths drawn to the proverbial flame.
The official session - the Reunion of the IIT Bombay Greater New York Chapter was again the most well attended of all the parallel IIT sessions. We began proceedings with a beautiful evocative film on IITB by Prof Sudesh Balan of Industrial Design Centre. No, it was not one to induce the warm fuzzies about your alma mater, but to reaffirm a continuing tradition at IIT Bombay where education means more then what you learn inside the classroom. An education that allows you to pursue all your fledgling interests, film-making, photography, music, dance, the more esoteric vedic chanting all culminating into the development of students who are well rounded individuals capable and confident in taking on all kinds of challenges once they step outside IIT. Tsk Tsk Mr Narayan Murthy, I wish you could have seen our film. Professors Pandalai and Contractor not only shared the latest updates on IIT Bombay but appealed to alumni to stay connected with the Institute. Ram kelkar, a long time veteran was excited by the number of young alums who had showed up and exhorted them to join the volunteer task force so that he could pass the baton onwards.
Me, I just spoke about the same thing that I speak of at every alumni gathering that I attend. The Alumni Association and a shared passion with fellow alumni volunteers at IITBAA- to create strong bonds between the three IITB communities – students, alumni, faculty, and the programmes and services of the Association that touch the lives of all sections of the Institute community as well as the society at large.
There are many alumni funded projects that IITBAA helps administer ,- the Financial Aid program that provides grants and low interest loans to hundred of IITB students from economically weaker sections of society, YFA that provides joining bonuses to all young faculty members at the Institute, Retired Faculty Wellness Fund that provides health Insurance to retired faculty members or Mess Workers awards that support mess workers with a tidy nest egg when they retire, Village knowledge Centres that e-enable rural villages in far off Karnataka or even the Benevolent Fund that provides umbrella support to all in sudden emergencies and many more.
Through these and many other projects our experience at IITBAA has been that by investing in community centered projects have not only enabled us to focus on targeted time bound projects that are easy to implement and scale up. It has also provided for greater accountability and allowed us to develop strong roots and build life long bonds within the IITB community.
At PANIIT, I met a few old friends and made many new ones and was touched anew by the warm hospitality and friendliness displayed to a relative stranger. Thanks Vinay, Ram, Sudhakar, Suresh, Kumar, Rabiz, Sandeep, Hiten and Bhushan for all the help. Thanks Radhika , Parag and the others in the gang who stuffed me with that wonderful Italian lunch on Saturday.. I was far from home but thanks to you all never too far away. As for all the rest of you who I met and interacted with for the first time, too many to list by name here, this long journey and all that I do at IITBAA is worthwhile only because of the support all of you provide in countless, meaningful ways, both big and small. Thank you. Hope you will stay in touch, with me as well as your Association.
--
Damayanti Bhattacharya
Chief Operating Officer,
IIT Bombay Alumni Association
1st Floor, Gulmohar Building,
IIT Bombay, Powai,
Mumbai 400 076
Tel. No.: 022-25767086 / 9769868560
