Yes .. finally after missing so many opportunities in the past to attend a Amrita Alumni Meet finally we (I and Janani – both Amrita Alumni) were able to make it to the Amrita Alumni Meet @ Mumbai …
We planned it in such a way that we would be able travel to Mumbai early in the morning so that we would be able to take darshan at the famous Mahalakshmi temple in Mumbai. After getting down at Dadar we took a local train to the Mahalakshmi station from where it was a 5 mins drive to the temple. We got a really good darshan with not much crowd in the temple. We then took a train back to Dadar and we headed to Preetam da Dhaba for lunch. I felt the food there was pretty good … especially I liked the soup and the Biryani .. just that it was expensive. :)
Finally then after a round of road side shopping we headed to Ramee Guest Link where the meet was organized. First thing, I met Gokul, who is the Manager Amrita Alumni. Its good that they have created a dedicated person to take care of Alumni affairs. Then the MBA gang started to pour in … Staring with Neerav (2005) then Govind (2003), George K (2004), Anupa George (2005) Anuj (2003) – hope I didn’t miss anyone and not to mention myself (2004) and Janani (2005). There were some Engineering and other courses folks who also turned up (I am bad with names .. Jyothish is one guy I remember). I guess lot more people didn’t turn up because of prior engagements / Onam Holidays.
We started with introductions by each member. Gokul updated us on the alumni activities at various locations. He also updated us on the Special Interest Groups (SIG) on the Amritians Portal. We all brain stormed on how we can get the Alumni network stronger and have more members contribute. We realized that not many people were aware of the Amritians portal and that we had to do better to get the large chunk of the 15500 alumni members to join the network @ http://www.amritians.net/. We came up with ideas on how we can use existing social networking websites (eg. Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) to act as channels/gateways to get to the Amritians portal. Another excellent idea that came up was to use SMS message to keep members posted on the latest activities and to get confirmations on event attendance etc (coz ppl may not check mails regularly but would check SMS for sure).
After all the serious discussions it was time for the High tea. We got some more time for general catching up with old friends before we called it a day @ 7 in the evening. We then took a share cab back to get back home to Pune. It was about 11 pm by the time we reached home. As we retired for the day it was a satisfying feeling of having achieved a long pending Mahalakshmi temple darshan and having met old friends after a long time – All in one day. Wow !! What a day !! :)
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