June2010

Who said that IITians are not fun?!
Pluggd.in, a major website with a million visitors a month, recently began carrying cartoons by an IIT Kharagpur (cs, 2001) graduate - Ali Baqri. Pluggd.in gave him the following introduction:

“When I first met him, I got an impression that he was a student from an Eastern country on an exchange program. The impression continued till someone managed to annoy him. Out came a torrent of specialist Hindi words which I cannot type here. However, I must admit that he was a funny character. His Hindi continues to be impeccable and his name continues to be Ali Baqri. His last name is pronounced like the Hindi word for goat with an emphasis on “a”.

Ali’s lack of interest in things academic was overcompensated by his love for things creative. After graduation he worked as a software engineer, a consultant and an investment banker. Along the way, he also threw in an MBA degree from Chicago Booth. However, he never lost his facility with humor and art. Fun is his passion.”

The full body of his work can be found at http://office-comics.com and an example is below:
More…

Dear Kgpian
It gives us great pleasure to announce a Get Together Dinner on Saturday, 26th June, 2010 at NTRO Officers Mess, Ghitorni, Meharauli - Gurgaon Road New Delhi - 110047 (Access to the place is from Mehrauli Gurgaon Road - coming from Delhi take left on Metro Pillar No 154 into Sashastra Seema Bal, 25 Battalion campus)

Programme:

7:00 pm onward: Get-together & catching-up networking with snacks & drinks
9:00 pm onward: Dinner
9:30 pm Luck draw - for participants registered & paid before 22nd July 10.

All this at a token cost of Rs. 300/- (Single), Rs. 500/- (Couple) & Rs. 600/- for the entire family including 2 kids. Parents, of the members will be our honoured guests.

Additional Guests of members are charged @ Rs. 300/- per participant or Rs. 1000/- for family of four. Please confirm your participation by 22nd June 2010 to avail benefit of the above costs and participation in the Lucky Draw.
Confirmation received after 22nd June 2010 or on the spot registration will be charged Rs 200 extra per head.

Please confirm your participation and arrange to pay by cash / cheque in name of “Technology Alumni Association” to any of the following:

Ashok Madhukar, President,ashok@afrodev.com, +91 9811199133,ME/RP/1965
R. K. Caprihan, Vice President, rk@caprihan.com, +91 9810194390, EE/RK/1967
Chakresh Jain, Vice President, chakresh.jain@cadstudio.co.in, +91 9810080495, AR/PH/1986
Arvind Saluja, Secretary, arvindsaluja@gmail.com, +91 9968274360, NA/LLR/1989

or to

Ms. Harpreet Kaur, TAA Secretariat,
Technology Alumni Association, Delhi
(Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur)
Phone: 9313728292
Email: taakgp@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Arvind Saluja
Secretary - TAA

As part of the upcoming IIT Kharagpur Diamond Jubilee celebrations, Shyamal Roy (1964 ME NH), has been commissioned by Director Acharya to produce a photo book titled “Spirit of IIT Kharagpur” (Hard Cover. Color. 112 pages. 85 Photographs).

The book has been made possible by the generous contribution of a few passionate alums, and is scheduled to go to press in June 2010, with delivery expected in August 2010.

IIT Kharagpur has pre-ordered 4000 books for their own use, and additional copies will be made available only if you pre-order (no inventory will be kept in USA by Shyamal) before the print run:

Price: $19 per copy plus shipping. $100 for five (5) copies including shipping.

Please Click Here to order on line before June 25th. , 2010 to reserve your books.

All proceeds from the sale of this book go to IIT Kharagpur.

This is a must-have book for all IIT KGP alums, and will make a beautiful gift that can be distributed to family and friends; so please do not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity — there is only one print run planned for this book.

To see information about the book Click Here and then click on the ‘Books’ button

Sincerely ,
Roy da Silva,
President IIT Foundation.

Update: If you are in India and would like to pay in India Rupees — the book will be available in India from IIT Kharagpur starting August 2010. We will provide the details on this soon.

IIT Delhi alum Parul Mittal has a new book out, “Heartbreak & Dreams”. This book is the first book with a first person account of IIT life from a girl’s life:

Having cleared the exam that only the most intelligent do, Tanu reaches IIT Delhi; merely to realize that she is an outlier in the system – a girl at IIT!

Be it asking questions in class or catching up on her beauty sleep, how does one go about it without being noticed by the boys or the professors?

Inter hostel competitions can be embarrassing especially when the boys purposely choose awkward topics and craft shameless clues. How does one overcome these stumbling blocks keeping one’s dignity intact?

Chatting and innocuous jokes can be a torture if there are forty pairs of eyes glued to every action of yours. How does one make it feel normal and go about life at IIT?

When it comes to matters of the heart, and so many to choose from, how does one know who is Mr Right?

The book is available for sale (only in India for now) at: http://www.parulmittal.com/had/buy-book .

Update: Apparently, infibeam.com will ship the book to USA and some other countries as well:
http://infibeam.com/Books/info/parul-mittal/heartbreaks-dreams-girls-iit