Empowering Minds – tête-à-tête with eminent Bitians

An ocean of memories poured down when our esteemed alumni Mr. Vijay Mishra (EE, 1984-88) and Mr. Pankaj Kumar (ECE, 1984-88) visited their beloved Alma mater and reminisced those essential four years with their batch mate and close friend, Dr. Prof. D.K. Singh, Director, BIT Sindri. Together, the trio had an ecstatic reunion for the current batches to witness, with the saying – “Once a Bitian, always a Bitian” etched into their minds. The visit was organized by Dr. Ghanshyam Rai, Placement Officer, BIT Sindri and his energetic team of TAP coordinators.

The guests were welcomed warmly by Dr. Ghanshyam Rai and were introduced to the audience. Vijay Mishra was the branch topper during his days as a Bitian and achieved the feat of becoming an expert in Hydropower. He’s currently designated as the Chief Engineer, Central electric authority, Ministry of Power, Govt. of India. Pankaj Kumar was also the branch topper and has held reputed positions of responsibility such as the Director of Ministry of Communication, Food Production and Agriculture. He’s currently designated as the Secretary, Bureau of energy efficiency, Ministry of Power, Govt. of India.

Post felicitation of the guests via mementos, they proceeded to share the nostalgic vibes and words of guidance with Pankaj Kumar Sir moving on to the dais first. He commenced the session by taking the audience back to the days when he and our honorable Director Sir were roommates and they all founded a club they named “Cosmos Club”, whose whereabouts were shrouded in secrecy, instigating the “Illuminati” vibes. He emphasized upon the inculcation of skills required to overcome the modern hurdles with Communication skills being of paramount importance. He quoted that good communication skills are the most important ability required to attain success and suggested the improvisation of both Hindi and English vocabulary. Then, he advised to brush up basic computerized office skills and to do something productive, however infinitesimal every day. Next, Vijay Mishra Sir came up on the dais and expressed his astonishment upon beholding the Engineering drawing room of his era converted to the TAP cell conference hall. He visited the premises after almost 3 decades. He spoke about his life after graduating from BIT and emphasized upon the importance of moving on from past experiences. He said the past is not to be repented and advised to develop the non-technical skills that are not imparted by the institute’s curriculum. Quoting Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s saying, he guided the young Bitians to excel in their respective disciplines and endeavor to attain and remain at the top position. He also said that even the smallest of objects and efforts hold great significance and should be adequately utilized.

Following the extremely inspirational lectures, the session turned into an interactive, guiding conversation between the present batches and their highly experienced seniors. Some of the queries were:

Q. Students tend to indulge in vices such as alcoholism and drug consumption, demonstrating lack of our historic Indian culture. What can students and authorities do to revive our lost customs?

A. Pankaj Sir – Value Education should be preached and from my experience in the London School of Economics, I’d say life skills form an integral part of engineering, especially in foreign lands.

Q. In your quest to learn new things every day, how’d you overcome the challenges?

A. Pankaj Sir – Time Management should be prioritized and ego should be suppressed. Vijay Sir – Worrying about things that vanish with time is futile. Those should be allowed to disappear and without any regrets.

Q. Students tend to deviate from their branch or core and end up in different sectors, especially coding and data analysis. How to proceed into core?

A. Pankaj Sir – For core, one should pursue Masters and the highly sought after sectors are the demand of the market. There’s no issue in pursuing the off-branch sectors as the proper management ensures enhanced professional scope.

Lastly, they offered their gratitude to the institution by announcing scholarships to be awarded to deserving candidates and the fruits of their experience proved to be supremely inspirational guidelines for the audience to follow, especially the wide-eyed freshmen. The anecdotes of their astounding feats and never ending proclivity for excellence surely demonstrates the popular institutional aphorism – “Bitians are second to none.”