Fun Under The Sun

Fun Under The Sun

(Report and some snapshots are available below. View the entire set of photos at our online album)

Coming close on the heels of our Nagaichuvai Virundhu (on 07-July-07), this full day picnic was initially scheduled for late January. But we organizers had overlooked the fact that it was on a muhurtham. So we had to reschedule it to Feb 17.

Close to 60 members confirmed to us by email prior to the event. And when the event actually started, Eden Garden at Blue Lagoon Beach Resort was 74 strong!

Being a full day event, there were quite a few plans to keep all those present engaged. The games were all planned and executed by the fresh young blood in the chapter: Arvind S, Arvind S (ya, two of them with the same name and initial ), Kalaivanan and Denzil Daniel – all from the 2007 batch of B.E!

The day started with the game “who forms the longest chain” in which people were divided in 4 groups and had to innovate and form a long chain from whatever they had with themselves.

Human chain!

And some people got real creative in this!

Creative!

This was followed by several rounds of games that one would have seen in Kinder Garden sports meets:

.

Lemon n Spoon

Sack race

Then there was a game that tested how slippery our hands were! People had to pass water along one long chain and hands and deposit it (if any) in a mug at the other end.

Pass the water

Next was an event that had people scampering around with plastic balls and buckets. This was akin to Jodi No. 1, with mostly real couples taking part in this. One of them would have to throw a ball facing the other side, and the other would have to pouch it in the plastic bucket.

Pouch the ball

Don’t get shocked, this little guy wasn’t part of any couple Kids were special entrants in the event

By then our people were fairly tired and proceeded for lunch. That was one opportunity for interaction and everyone used it quite well. What was heartwarming was that members from the first ever batch (1955) were present as well! Our hearty thanks to Mr Kamalakar Naidu and Mr Arthanari from that batch who graced the occasion with their presence.

After that, all members proceeded with introducing themselves and highlighting in what way they can help fellow Techian alumni. That would soon be posted as a separate entry in this blog. Keep watching. And one specific point that came up time and again was that PSG alumni have spread far and wide in the world; when one has to travel abroad, he can sure find some Techian at his destination. All members were urged to make use of this extensive network that our beloved alma mater has bestowed us with.

After the introductions were done, the last game for the day was held: Tambola / Housie! With Chairman Mr Navaneetha Krishnan calling out numbers one by one, everyone was frantically scrutinizing his/her own sheaf of tickets. After the game went on for a couple of rounds, refreshments were made available for all. And that signaled the end of yet another beautiful gathering of PSG alumni at Chennai.

Entire list of PSG Alumni who attended the full day picnic at Blue Lagoon Beach Resort on 17Feb2008:

Name/ Batch

1 Sivaperumal Murali 1992 Mech Sandwich

2 Sukumaran 1978

3 Kamalakar R Naidu 1955

4 R Kunjipatham 1970

5 C Madhu 1992 Mech Sandwich

6 D Elango 1992 Mech Sandwich

7 Rajamanikam 1992 Mech Sandwich

8 Kandavel DME 1971

9 V J Venugopal 1960 Civ

10 KK Subramanian MSc 1981

11 C .Ravindran BE civ 1978

12 M Sundaram BE Prod 79

13 R Rajendran B Tech 1970

14 T Wellington BE Prod 1978

15 V Srinivasan 1978

16 S Natarajan BE 1974 ECE

17 S Manoharan BE1974 ECE

18 M Muralidharan BE Mech 1987

19 K E Krishnan BE 1970

20 Jothi

21 Navanithakrishnan BE 1977

22 Arvind BE 2007 EEE

23 Arvind BE 2007 ECE

24 Kalaivanan BE 2007 EEE

25 Jayapaul BE 1978

26 Nedumaran BE 1978

27 Chokalingam BE 1978

28 Ramesh K Iyer BE 1978

29 S Vishwanath BE 2006 ECE

30 Ramasethu BE 1978

31 Denzil Daniel BE Civ 2007

32 V Muthukrishnan Btech 1978

33 R Gomuraj BE 1987

34 S Barath BE Metallurgy 2007

35 S Ashok Kumar BE Metallurgy 2007

36 J T Saravanan BE Metallurgy 2007

37 M Arun Prasad BE Metallurgy 2007

38 M Vijay Ramanathan BE Metallurgy 2007

39 S Rajiv Gandhi BE Metallurgy 2007

40 C J Ragunathan BE Civ 1978

41 Arun Kumar B Tech Biotech

42 A Arthanari BE Elec 1955

43 R Narayanan Be Prod 1979

44 A R Doss BE Civ 1966

45 S Ragunathan BE 1978

(Along with family members, the total strength was 74)

The organizing team expresses its gratitude to Mr Sukumaran and Mr Ramesh K Iyer who sponsored Rs 3000 each towards the event. Our thanks are also due to Mr V Srinivasan who sponsored Rs 2000 towards the event.

Down The Memory Lane-PSG Tech Alumni Get Together News

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If only we could travel back through time

 G. Satyamurty

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Photo: Special Arrangement

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Some of the members of the 1959 batch of the PSG College of Technology, along with their Principal G.R. Damodaran (seated left on a chair), during the Silver Jubilee reunion 25 years ago. —   Coimbatore: “To meet, to love and then to part is the sad tale of many a heart,” said Byron.


Though it could have been said in a different context, being together for five years, nurturing any number of dreams and ambitions, then getting into the maelstrom of life, facing the trials and tribulations with dreams dying first and fast and meeting five decades hence after being battered by circumstances and probably wisened by age is an experience that many of us can only dream of.

The 1959th BE Graduates of PSG College of Technology are such a fortunate lot. But not all. Of the total 99 (91 from Tamil Nadu, 4 from Karnataka, 3 from Kerala and 1 from Andhra Pradesh) of this batch, as many as 22 have passed away.

The whereabouts of six are not known. But as some of the alumni said in their 47th reunion that “we will continue to meet till reduced to one”, the rest are going to meet on July 15.

Of the 71 classmates still in contact, 12 are industrialists, 10 educationists, 25 worked in Government Departments, especially Electricity Board, 18 in private sector and six have migrated to United States.

“All of us are 70 plus. But still 14 of us are professionally alive while the rest are leading a retired life,” says A.V. Varadharajan, one among them.

Of course, tragedies have befallen some and eight of them have lost their spouses. While 25 persons continue to live in Coimbatore, 17 are in Chennai.

With professional colleges being so few in the country in the 1950s, studying Engineering was a Herculean task for many. “I was so poor that I could never even dream of becoming a BE but for the munificence of the founder Principal G.R. Damodharan,” recalls Mr. Varadharajan. These graduates have become virtually “who’s who” in the engineering scenario.

K. Thiagarajan, in his contribution to the souvenir called “If only we could travel back through time”, recalls the feats of ‘Table Tennis’ Shanmugham, and adventures of Vasudevan who kept a knife ready for self-defence as he was cycling from Coimbatore to Tiruchi.

He also recounts how Christopher Devapragasam, one of the first year teachers, used to dress elegantly. He sings paeans about the boys’ chemistry with the chemistry teacher D.K.P. Varadarajan.

The recollections regarding the participation in a public protest against the claims of Kerala for the border towns of Devikulam and Pirmedu and also about the indefatigable A.N. Ramachandran who went about collecting signatures for serving raw rice in the hostel canteen.

Mohandas, who later became the Director General of Police of Tamil Nadu, was the physics teacher for the batch. His magnetic presence in the dramas used to ensure “not only praises but also prizes” for the college, says Mr. Thiagarajan.

‘Annachi’ Shanmughasundram had the courage to borrow a cobra from snake charmer and wrap it around his neck in the style of Lord Shiva for a fancy competition.

Innovations of T.K. Subramanian bring out a broad smile. He had the guts to organise a debate with the provocative title “The problem for civil engineers is just a pastime for electrical engineers” (probably in the mould of Shakespeare’s King Lear -- as flies are to wanton boys, are we to gods).

When the alarm clock slipped from the table and crashed, he wrote a poem titled “An elegy on the death of an alarm clock”. Its punch line that came at the end read “even then you rang and died”. M.K. Natarajan, in his ‘Down the memory lane’, recalls the enlivening moments that the teachers had with this batch.

Be it Prof. Venkataraman’s lectures on projection of line with geometric models or the efforts of Mr. Christopher to keep the students under control or Lecturer Ganesh’s method to remember numbers provide an insight into the life and learning of the students of those times and the esteem which they accorded to their teachers.

He also points out how many of the students got alienated from Electrical branch to join Civil and Mechanical branches, thanks to the antics of a professor.

His memory of the Hostel Day in which the famous speech of Antony was translated by one of his classmates is full of wit without malice. When the actor was appealing to “Romans and countrymen”, the translator was saying “romamudayavargale (people with hair) and kattangale (country brutes) .”

He recalls with pride that probably they belonged to the only batch that had the privilege of doing manual work of digging the foundation for the construction of a stadium at the hostel, that instilled the values of hard work, dignity of labour and, above all, the impression that engineers are the nation builders.

The editorial committee of the souvenir feels that the Golden Jubilee Reunion is realistic in the sense that “our physical conditions still permit to exert ourselves to undergo the strain. In a way, the meet is important since it may be the last major meet,” it adds.

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Thanks To The Hindu From Page:http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/13/stories/2009071350030200.htm

Meet the man of many talents-PSG Tech 1960 Alumni

Meet the man of many talents
Staff Reporter

Barnabas Tiburtius’ book of poems on a range of topics released

— Photo: S. Thanthoni

(From left) Jasper Utley, former Director of British Council, actor Anu Hasan, playwright Aysha Rau and author of the book ‘Verses from Inner Space’ Barnabas Tiburtius in Chennai on Monday.  
CHENNAI: At 66, Barnabas Tiburtius, the man named after an Apostle and a Roman Saint, keeps himself busy working for a micro finance organisation formed to alleviate poverty, managing a school, reading books for at least three hours everyday and posting something regularly on his website, www.livingspark.net.


A book of poems, titled “Verses from Inner Space”, penned by this electrical engineer from Tiruchi was released in the city on Monday. “Poetry to me is like modern art. I have painted the poems with my own emotions. Those who read it will see them in a different dimension. I never qualify my writings. I didn’t pick and choose my poems for this book,” said Mr. Tiburtius.

Simple pleasures in life such as bathing in a brook, a walk along the Western Ghats, a single autumn leaf that captured his imagination; and complex things like the universe, philosophy, chasms and astral spirit have found expression in this book.

The poems, born out of deep experience and penned in clear language, shine up their meaning at the second reading if not at the first. They have been put under four headings — Inner Journey, A Journey of Dedication, Nature Journey and Global Journey.

“Though I started reading when I was just 12 with an uncle’s gift of books by Milton and Wordsworth, I started writing only in 2002 since I had been working and travelling all my life. Process and industrial control kept me busy,” said the man, who was instrumental in introducing Gate Array LSI technology in industrial alarm monitoring in Thermal and Nuclear Power stations.

He was awarded the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award in 1993 for technical contribution to the country.

But he instead chooses to talk about cosmic spirituality, simplicity, the concept of Advaita and being one with God. “I have read the Bible, Bhagavatha, Upanishads and other books and some people would consider it sacrilege being a Christian to have read such things.

But I find great truth in the Upanishads. I would say they just don’t understand my dimension.”

Noted playwright and author Aysha Rau released the book. Film actor and TV personality Anu Hasan received the first copy at a function held at the Oxford Bookstore on Haddows Road. Jasper Utley, former Director of British Council, read out a selection of verses from the book.

Ms. Anu said through the book, Mr. Tiburtius took the readers along with him on his journeys and shared his experiences through poetry.

“The Cheetah is really poetry in motion and he has captured its power, focus, single mindedness, grace and beauty in that poem.”


Thanks To"The Hindu"-http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/12/stories/2008021258070200.htm



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A New Website For PSGTech Alumni Chennai Chapter In Google Pages Has Been Made Kindly Visit

Dear PSG Tech Alumni,

Welcome to PSG Tech Alumni- Chennai Chapter!

A New Website In Google Pages Has Been Made Kindly Visit At :

http://sites.google.com/site/psgtechalumnichennai/home


Revisiting those beautiful college days.


Please fill in the simple form and register. Also ask your year mates
and other Tech Alumni to visit this site and enroll.

The E-Form Is Available On This Link, Kindly Spare A Few Minutes To
Fill It So As To Increase The Strength of PSG Tech Chennai Chapter
Fellowship!!!

http://www.emailmeform.com/fid.php?formid=628405

Please give your suggestions . We are in the process of creating a
comprehensive complete data base of all the PSG Tech Alumni in and
around Chennai.

There may be few senior Alumni who are not computer savvy. Please post
details of such alumni in Chennai, if you know them.Kindly Down Load
This Form From Attachments Below .Fill it Up And Send It To

psgtechalumnichennai@gmail.com



Or Post It To The Below Address

Mr. P.Navaneethakrishnan ,
O&S, Associates
34E, Frist Avenue,
Ashok Nagar
Chennai – 600 083
M : 9840223170



We Expect A Great Participation From You All.

Warm Regards.

For PSG TECH Chennai Alumni Chapter,


Office Bearers And The Executive Committee Members.
R.Rama Sethu.
1978.B.E.,[ECE]Batch