A big Hi-5 to KIIT Hostel

Is it the 2:00am Maggie? Or the never ending late night parties? Or the hurry to copy the assignment from the ‘Chatur Ramalingham’ of the class? Ask the students staying in the KIIT Hostels and they will say that it includes all of them. They would also say that its little more than this – the walks around the corridors of the hustling bustling building to notice the ‘recently fallen’ love-birds talking whole night over the phone. The four years of my hostel life at KIIT helped me derive a mathematical formula which says that the intensity of the love affair in which a boy is, depends upon the mode of tele-communication he is using while talking to a girl. If someone uses Rs. 399/- Reliance to Reliance free phone, it means the proposal has been accepted and if he is found smiling while reading the text messages which keeps on pinging whole night, it’s an indication that he is trying to get into one. [PS: For the students who are currently staying at Hostel, the formula has been upgraded. SMS has changed to Whats App and Reliance has lost the race while Vodafone is leading it].

Each moment that one spends in the King’s Palace unfolds an interesting story. King’s Place gave the students something which we all are striving for at this age – Independence. It not only provided a space to the KIITians but at the same time filled the rooms of happiness, fun, joy and excitement. Going to bed at 10 at night was a signal that a boarder was sick. One of the moment which helps me recollect a memory was the one I lived during ‘Karmanya’ – The hostel fest of Kings Palace – 5 in the year 2009. I still remember those words of a learned man which are still safe in my memory and conscience. I shall not distort the words otherwise it will take the spirit of the man away. He mentioned, “If a person hasn’t stayed in Hostel in his life, his life is 50% incomplete. And while staying at Hostel, if he hasn’t made a Girl-friend, his life is 100% incomplete.” Today, when I look back to those instants, I feel the words were not false.

The life at KIIT Hostel guaranteed Crazy Incidents and Wild Experiences. The actual fun happened at 12:00am at night when it would be your friend’s birthday and your run fast to ensure that you do not miss out giving him birthday bumps. But the actual pains of these moments were felt while it was your turn to be there on the receiving end. It was never unwise to hit people on 364 days in a year and receive all of it together on that one day.

You would always come across a bunch of students who will knock your door at 1:30 at night to ask, “Bhai kuch khaane ko hai kya? Bahut Bhook Lagi hai..!” and your reply would be, “Kuch hai to nahi par agar kahi se mile to bulana jarur.” Unfortunately you would end up having Kissan jam, Dabur Honey or Jaljeera because it was difficult to hunt food in a jungle where all of them were hungry for years. As the time passes by and you grow from 2^nd to 3^rd year and from 3^rd to 4^th year, the wants get upgraded from ’Khana’ to ‘Cigarette’. If the Reading Room of your hostel falls on the way to the mess, god save them who go there every day to study.

Among all these, there was a desire to share and live, a wish to help others, an aspiration to fuel the friendship with which each one of them lived their life. Hostel Life teaches you not only to live life independently but also to become a human being – something which we all want to be today in the race of life. The entire staff members and wardens at the Hostel may sound rude to you sometimes but they are the actual guardians who are there to water you to grow from a seed to a tree and at the same time hold your hands when you fall.

Today, its been more than 3 and ½ year that I have left back the KIIT Hostel but the memories which I could make them is still alive and green in my brain and shall always be. I wish I could a be student again to live there and this time for a even longer period. 

Letter to The Minister - Food & Processing, Govt. of India

Date: 5th June 2014

To,

Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal,

Honourable Minister - Ministry of Food Processing Industries,

Government of India

New Delhi.

Dear Mam,

First of all, a hearty congratulations to you for becoming the Minister for Food and Processing and taking up this huge responsibility of leading the nation in the area of Food with utmost dedication and commitment. Being a proud citizen of the country, I now feel that the responsibility has gone to the safe hands and on to the strong shoulders. 

I am writing this mail to enumerate to you few problems which our (your's and my) country is facing. I would not limit myself here, rather I would also like to present to you few suggestions which I feel will help me see many of my brothers and sisters sleep with two meals a day. 

Who would know better than you that a considerable part of India's population sleep hungry everyday. Moreover, the number is more when we talk of people not getting hygienic food. Under your able leadership and guidance, I am certain that the 100% of India will sleep without being hungry everyday. Here are few suggestions, which I would like to outline to you and your team:

• Technological Advancements in Food Industry: Of late, there hasn't been much innovation in the food industry. I hope with proper investment in the field of research and technology in the food and processing industry, we will be able to extract much from the available.  
• Empowerment of teams working on Waste Food Collection: It's not necessary that only human-beings should get meals. As per British Institute of Mechanical Engineers' Report 2013, nearly 50% of food got wasted in 2013. If we can utilize this food to feed our animals, our country would have healthy animals and at the same time be clean and green
• Improvement in the ranking of GHI: India ranks 63 out of 88 countries on the 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI). I feel you should strategize all possible measures to improve our ranking in next 2-3 years

I also hope that you have a great team to work with you on this and you must be receiving several suggestions on this as well. I am also confident that you are equally concerned about this as much I am or we are. My best wishes to you and your entire team. I know the journey is not easy but when we have leaders like Madam Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Shri Narendra Modi Ji, then Waheguru will also come down to Earth to make India a HEAVEN.

Best Wishes, Regards and Jai Hind,

Varinder Singh

A proud Citizen of India

It's beyond the MALE Gender

“International Women’s Day is our opportunity to reflect as women on how far we have come and what more we need to do to make sure women everywhere have the opportunity to write their own story.  Changing the world, like living your own life well, requires a sense of purpose, the courage to pursue it and the preparedness to risk the most public of failures. Nothing big was ever achieved by cowering.” 

             – Hon. Julia Gillard, 27th Prime Minister of Australia.

Madam Julia Gillard generously shared these words on the eve of International Women’s Day on 7^th March 2013 at Canberra in Australia. She wanted to communicate the message of empowerment of women on a day on which much more needs to be done than to just say that men and women are alike. As Australia’s first female Prime Minister and a law student, Julia believed that she had much more in her bags than just documents or few copies of affidavits. She had a dream to courageously spread the message across the world that women at every stage are as strong and resilient as men. She is one who stepped out of her comfort zone many times, which made her a role model. But, the sad part of the story is that there aren’t many successors to Julia. There aren’t many women to sit at the decision making tables.  

With women occupying just 17% Fortune 500 board seats, only 19% of parliament seats worldwide, earning less than 10% of world’s income and forming only 22% of the workforce across the world, the gender gap is still far too broad. Women start careers in business and other professions with the same level of intelligence, education, dedication and commitment as men. Yet comparatively few reach the top echelons. There’s been a lot of talk in the past about why more women don’t become leaders and what our society needs to change to produce more female leaders.

It’s a fact that if we account the amount of work women do at their homes, our economy will triple. The world has been successful in developing women leaders who lead a team as big as 10,000 or more workforce. We must appreciate them because they are the ones who took a brave decision to deal with their life in somewhat different way than others of their breed. But the number of these women is very less.

I have always considered ‘women’ as those creations of God, who are bravest at heart to love, strongest enough to rejoice and wisest enough to understand.

To bring a change, we need to change to change the mindset. We can achieve this through enlightenment and education. We need to design our curriculum and workplace in such a way that it should not discriminate against women, rather it should welcome them. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, let us appreciate the efforts of Women on humanity and pledge to make this world a harmonious place for them to live.

KIIT Alumni Meet at Mumbai

24^th November 2013 was a memorable day for all the KIITians based out of Western part of the country when about more than 100 alumni’s gathered under one umbrella to meet, share and revive the good old memories. KIIT has always been in the forefront in getting connected with its alumni and more so in giving an opportunity to the passed out student to develop an everlasting relationship with its alma-matar.

The meet started with a welcome address by Dr. Sucheta Priyabadini, Joint Registrar (Student Affairs), which was followed by the KIITians who introduced themselves one by one. Dr. Sucheta shared a wonderful coined term – ‘Student for few years, Alumni forever.’ It was indeed heartening to see that KIIT Alumni’s are elevating the KIIT flag high by showing their talent in different areas of their career. The grand moment of the entire event was yet to come. The crowd applauded Mr. Venkat Sastry – the person who has arranged bread and butter for many KIITians till date and is continuing to do so in various capacities.

Finally, the moment came when the torch bearer and the most beloved Dr. A Samanta came to the podium to address his lovable KIITians. The entire room was engulfed with silence as each one of them didn’t want to miss a single word which flowed from his mouth like perfume. He talked about the entire strategy which KIIT and KISS has together laid down to grab a place in the top 500 Universities in the world. Listening to him brought joy, happiness and pride in the KIITians. What touched everyone was his quote which read, “Strengthening Alumni, Strengthening KIIT.”

The event ended with a joint dinner and students left carrying a memento with them. A memento which they have always treasured – KIIT Review, a book which keeps them connected with KIIT 24X7. This day certainly marked a day in the calendar when all those who experienced it could walk down the memory lane and made it available to spend some quality time with their teachers, mentors, batch mates, friends and fellow KIITians.