Dear Friends, Fellow ITians and Samganaka Abhiyantriks,

It is with happy thoughts and fond memories that I write this letter to all of us.

We are one of a kind. We all share a very unique common heritage: of living together through sine dies and end-sems, night-outs and Lankatings, Morvi, Viveka and Vish.., midnight strolls under the leafy promenades of BHU and contemplating fundu ideas on the Ganga Ghats, and, AKT and AKA.

A mere mention of these sepia-tinted (at least for the old-timers) images brings back a flood of memories - some good, some bad but each of them indubitably unforgettable - of those four years in Benares, studying Computer Science and Engineering but living a dream, that defined and made us who we are today. And it is time to recapture and relive those days of magic where time lazed along with us.

These were some of the thoughts that prompted some of us to meet a month back. We all remembered our IT days fondly and wanted to reestablish the link to our Alma Mater (to be able to give something back) and rebuild the frayed and jaded bonds between ourselves. Appropriately, we met in the bachelor pad of Soumitra (batch of ‘98) in Silicon Valley. The eight of us who were present in this first meeting spanned the gamut of our department's existence: while Sanjay Dani (batch of ‘87) represented the first graduating class, Soumitra brought up the rear. By our second meeting, we had representatives and contacts from all of the graduating classes. It felt great. And the ideas, heretofore being merely discussed through distribution lists and personal emails, began to take concrete shape.

We all agreed that the best possible path to realize our dreams was to form an Alumni network supported by the requisite infrastructure - websites, database, programs, core teams, members and volunteers and liaisons with our department. Fortunately, Professor K. K. Shukla, present Head of the Department is an active promoter of our endeavors and is very interested in establishing such a network. He understands that such a forum is essential for a healthy development of the institute (It might not be out of context to mention the commendable work being done by other IIT Alumni organizations). And as a first step in this long march, we plan to have an IT-CSE Alumni get-together in April ‘03. Through this, we hope to bring face to face as many alumni as possible to reconnect, relive and renew their bonds.

Since 1987, approximately 450 of us have graduated in 15 years. Of these, nearly 15-20% call Silicon Valley their home. If most of these 60-90 alumni respond to our call, as hoped, and make our first alumni convention a success, we would have established one of the first nodes of our alumni network - a Silicon Valley Chapter. We hope that this will provide the necessary impetus to create such chapters across United States, India and the rest of the world - we definitely go places. The collection of these will form the CSE Alumni group, which will eventually become an integral part of the larger IT Alumni family.

And, I am happy to mention that some of the support infrastructures are already taking shape as I write. Sanjay, who has taken the initiative to establish ITBHU.org, the umbrella organization for ITBHU alumni, helped us establish the CSE homepage at http://www.itbhu.org/chapters/dept/cse/ being maintained mainly by some of the present final year CSE students. Please visit this site and give your valuable suggestions to improve the site and also time and expertise to build it. We hope that this will become not just a repository of all alumni information but also a "Limbdi Corner".

But, we still need to do a lot. We have to define our mission, vision and goals. Establish contacts will every alumnus. Plan, organize and channelize our programs. Respond creatively, financially and technically to the needs and requirements of our department and future members of the alumni family. The list is long and will keep expanding. We need you and your active collaboration to be able to do this.

A formal e-invite with details is being sent to all of our interested alumni and their family (either in Bay Area or further away) for the April 26th Convention. Please mark your calendars. It is being held in Santa Clara City. Please accept our gracious invitation and make this event a grand success.

I have rambled for long; but I can't help it. I am excited. And I hope you are excited too. So, please spread the word (along with this letter and the invite) around. It is time for the Samganaka Abhiyantriks to come together. It is time for Kashi Yatra again.

Yours Sincerely,
Ganesh Sharma Tyagali.
Convenor.