Pay it forward

The day-long reunion had Prof RC Sobti as the chief guest. Games, music and portrait drawing kept the guests busy. While we watched old friends share hugs, anecdotes and life stories, a particular gentleman caught our eye. It8217;s not at every reunion you come across a person holding a banner displaying his old self! Meet Gurkamal Singh of the 8216;84 batch. 8220;During college days, I wore a turban. Now that I8217;ve cut my hair people may not recognize me, that8217;s why the banner!8221; he explains. A Senior Designing Engineer with GM Corporations in New York, he flew down to India to meet his friends after 24 long years. For Engineer Ajay Vij, it8217;s been 34 years. He and his friend Arvind Mehan were in the 8216;74 batch. 8220;It8217;s an amazing feeling to meet old friends and their families,8221; they echo.

Between coffee and snacks, the former students are eager to give back to their alma mater. 8220;Many have been contributing to PEC. Courtesy Rajeshwar Dutta, we have Robotics software at PEC. Rakesh Sharma has helped establish Phillip innovation lab,8221; tells Anurag Aggarwal, general secretary, PECOSA. He also lists the contributions by some batches a corpus of Rs three lakh by 8216;80 batch for student projects and scholarships etc., Rs one lakh for sports infrastructure by 8216;83 batch, contribution by the 8216;70 batch for entrepreneurship development cell. 8220;PECOSA gives Rs 90,000 worth of scholarships annually to meritorious students and Rs 25,000 worth of awards for first-year projects,8221; adds Aggarwal. Also in the pipeline is a student mentoring service that will help students get guidance of every sort except placements! from the PEC alumni. The event also saw Sanjeev Aggarwal, founder of India8217;s first BPO and IPS officer Atul Karwal, who at 45 scaled the Mount Everest share their experiences. Here8217;s to

good ol8217; times!