The two-day reunion event will be held at three venues — Palace Grounds, Jnanabharathi campus and the UVCE campus at KR Circle on January 2 and 3, 2011.
Come January 2011, thousands of alumni from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) are expected to converge in Bangalore for a mega reunion. Hundreds of alumni have booked their flight tickets from as far as the UK and the US.
The two-day event will be held at three venues — Palace Grounds, Jnanabharathi campus and the UVCE campus at KR Circle on January 2 and 3, 2011.
The event has been organised to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Sir M Visvesvaraya, the founder of the college, and one of the country’s earliest technocrats.
Preparations are afoot for the event for over two years now with alumni members networking, getting in touch with their peers and seniors, and setting the tone for the reunion. “We’re expecting about 5,000 alumni to land up, and that’s a modest estimate,” says Alice Abraham from the UVCE Foundation which is spearheading the event.
UVCE is not just one of the oldest engineering institutes in the country, it has also, over the years, remained the first choice for top rankers of the Common Entrance Test. Some of the brightest minds have graduated from this institution and are now excelling in different parts of the world.
If all goes as planned and this reunion is a mega success, the organisers hope this will set the trend for other institutions in the country. “This is not just a hello-how-are-you and it’s-been-so-long kind of a get-together. There are definite philanthropic motives to the reunion,” says Sridhar Gowda, UVCE alumnus, who is the co-founder of a book publishing house in the UK. The excitement in his voice is palpable even as he lists out the big names that will attend this event. From VK Atre, former defence secretary to BV Jagadeesh, philanthropist and Rajyotsava awardee; from Ramesh Arvind, popular Sandalwood actor to K Jairaj, additional chief secretary, government of Karnataka — they are all expected to participate.
Individual invites are being sent out by the Foundation. “Online media has been such a help in reaching out to former students,” says Gowda. There’s hectic activity on Facebook’s UVCE alumni page titled “UVCE Mega Reunion 150th Birth Anniversary celebration of Sir M Visvesvaraya”.
“The college which not only made us experience freedom in its true sense but also invariably taught us lessons of responsibility attached with it! :),” writes Gururaj Shabaraya, on Facebook’s UVCE reunion page.At the last count, 570 members have confirmed participation.
“Formal registrations are open. About 200 alumni from the US will be there,” says Gowda. Family can come along, too.
Sir MV would have been proud to hear that. After all, the statesman’s advice to the first batch of students who joined this college way back in 1917 had little to do with technical knowledge, and everything to do with life. Sir MV told them: “Draw a straight line of conduct and walk strictly on it irrespective of other people’s crooked curves.”
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