From: Ramakrishnan K [KRamakrishnan@novell.com]
Subject: Version '2000 Update - Part 1.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi people,
It gives me immense pleasure in mailing u on this subject.
For those to whom its a news, Version 2000 was organised on the 25,
26 and 27 of this month. The theme of this Version was
'Cybernetics' and the slogan was 'Gateway to Tomorrow'. Most
importantly the logo was, a mother having a robo child in her lap,
a perfect blend of modernity and
The chief guest for the opening day was one of Novell's directors
and I along with Ramya had made it to Version along with him. We
reached Tiruchi at 4:30am in the morning and not surprisingly,
Harish and Sudhakar of the final year were there to give us the
traditional 'warm' welcome. One of i-Flex's (formerly CITIL)
Director had also come along with us, for judging the software
presentation. Reached the campus at around 5:30am and after
leaving the Dignitaries, I reached the hostel at around 6:00am.
Beryl (formerly PG Hostel) wears a new look and has a first floor.
I was told that all the PGs have been given rooms in the hostel
but the sad part was that there will be no 'one man one room'
concept any more. After a few Hi macchan's from known faces, a
few of the hyper jus came and introduced themselves.
We started to the Barn at around 8:30 am and by that time I had a
shocking (real shocking, believe me :(:() news that Dr.B.Ramadoss
who had left to the Gulf had come to the dept and as usual is
(mis-)handling a few subjects and that he was gonna preside over
the opening ceremony due to the absence of Dr.AKB. The beautiful
smiles at the Reception brought us some relief and I didnt forget
to get my batch.
The guys had earlier created an high expectation about the Barn
back drop and I was too eager to have look at that. Alas, it was
true. The back drop was too good to describe by words. It was a
wonderful display of creativity and efficient usage of space. It
wouldnt be wrong if I say that it had been the best of the back
drops that I have seen. The team spear headed by of Pradipta
Paul & Anindyo Bakshi had used around 95 thermo sheets and had
spent more than two days to create this wonderful piece. Shall
try to get a photo of this scanned and send it out.
After a typical RECTian breakfast (bread and jam), we moved to
the A-2 Hall for the opening ceremony. For those who didnt know,
A2 has been totally renovated and is now air conditioned. Has an
additional entry/exit point at the rear side for those who r in
favour of walkouts.
The no. of colleges who had registered for this years Version
was 24 (I think the maximum participants has been in Version 98
when we had 34 colleges participating :) :) Seniors, correct me
if i am wrong) and there was a hiccup in handling delegates from
PSG Tech which I will touch upon later. Notable colleges who
were there included, SNDT-Mumbai, GOA University, MKU-Madurai,
Christ College-Bangalore, CET-Trivandrum, CET-Coimbatore.
Venkat, Dinu and Kanaka reported at the reception desk at around
9:00am. The guys (and gals too) were happy to c so many of their
supers/hypers on day 1 of the event. Even better, Harihar D
Rajan of the 98 batch was there even before us. So it was a well
attended version from the alumnis perspective. Ranadheer Reddy
joined us late in the afti.
The Opening ceremony was cool and was presided over by Dean
Academic since Princi wasnt in station. After typical garlanding
of the chief guests and the lighting of the 'kuthu vilakku',
Harish delivered the welcome speech and was followed by the Dean
Academic, Dr.BR and then the inagural speech by Girish Elchuri,
Diretor,Novell. The staff of the dept were in full strength for
the OC. As a deviation from the tradition, the Soveigner (dont
bother about the spelling :) was released on Day 1 itself. The
magazine has come out pretty well and some interesting articles
too.
We had a tea break after the opening ceremony and BR (was too
professional in projecting himself and the dept, and in this
aspect AKB's absence was a blessing in disguise) took pains to
introduce the staff to the Chief guests and initiated a small
talk.. Then it was a seminar by Girish himself on Directories
and he managed quite successfully in keeping the delegates
engaged for about an hour. BR then took the chief guests to the
Dept and then on a REC tour.
We had around 19 events this year and as usual the schedule was
tightly packed and the organisers had tough time but managed to
keep the programmes on schedule. The first day events were all
prelims except for Software Presentation. The software to be
developed was a game and 3 colleges managed to make it to the
finals. Goa university managed to bag the first prize of the
event.
The day flew fast and the most relieving part of Version,
Informals was unveiled. There was juke box and people were
there at their best in exhibiting their dancing skills. There
were songs by the first years, wonderful dance programmes and
some skits by the final years, not to forget the dance and song
by the SNDT girls.
All this was there till 11:30 when the girls had to leave.
After they left, a few of us wanted to go to Sammy for our
traditional Muttai Parotta when we had another shock of our
life. Due to some problems, all the road side dhabas have been
forced to close down their shops by 11:00pm. We were left
wondering how the night birds of RECT r gonna survive without
such 'facilities'
Went back to the hostel at around 12:00 hrs and chatted for
sometime recollecting the good old times that we had and about
all that we miss... went to bed at around 1:30am, hoping to
have yet another wonderful day to dawn on us...
That was a small update on day 1. Still to come...
Day 2 : The mediator who came all the way from PSG, the hypers
outperforming the delegates in the Catch the word prelims and much
more...
Keep expecting....
affly,
Ramki.
(
geocities.com/maruhgar)