Department of CSE organised its Progen -i, 8.2 today. Shri. P.Vasudevan, Senior Manager, HR, TCS was the chief guest. He was there to award the Best Student Award instituted by TCS last year. This year, Anjana Devi with 88% was chosen to receive the award.

At the inaugural function, the chief guest gave a rousing speech to the students on the need to be industry ready, to have good communication skills and to desire perfection in all tasks.

He highlighted the fact that in today's competitive and recession hit IT industry, the need of the hour was to be ready for the industry, in terms of its requirements and work environment. He said animals survived because they lived for the moment, the moment of kill, the moment of survival. The next day was immaterial. The present trend in industries is to survive and survive they will because they are able to diversify and branch out. He asked students to find out what platforms were being used in projects and to equip themselves with good knowledge of the organisational and client needs.

Next, he stressed the need for good communication skills, not just in English, but now that the IT industry had to look elsewhere than just US for its markets, to also learn atleast one foreign language - Japanese, French, Portuguese, German to name a few. He also pointed out that memorising atleast five new words from the dictionary and using them during the course of the day and reading and watching news channels including business news channels would go a long way in mastering vocabulary and speaking skills. He mentioned his teacher from Loyola who taught him this mantra.

He wondered aloud why three precious months should be spent on training when students should come well equipped to them.

Thirdly, he unequivocally called for a spirit of quest in students.

He narrated the story of how Japanese fishermen on finding that the yield of fish for their sushi was falling due to fish that were brought dead thought of a plan to bring them fresh to the market. They constructed tanks in the boats that kept fish alive and fresh till they were brought to the market. There was still no market as people were dissatisfied with the fish - they claimed that the fish were lethargic and dull. That spoilt the taste.The poser he had was, what do you think the Japanese did to bring active and super fresh fish. The audience didn't have an answer to that. He informed us that the Japanese added a shark to the tank of fish and in that struggle for survival and strategies that the fish had to adopt to keep alive they were active, smart and fresh. The sushi was absolutely divine. He wanted students to be able to keep themselves abreast of the industry's needs and be able to serve their employers well.

He appreciated students of GCE for their hard work, intelligence and commitment and assured students that TCS would surely be recruiting students from GCE just for these fine qualities and had only one request to make - to remember the three guidelines he had just given. I liked the speech for the clarity, organisation and power packed in it. He had the audience listening to him in rapt silence.

There were more surprises - he had already refused the hotel accommodation. He stayed at the college guest house. He just joined the faculty and students in the simple buffet lunch served under the shamiana and spent a leisurely half an hour chatting with the staff and students. I know Indian industry , especially the Tatas is headed in the right direction with the right values. This young man was prime example of this.

There were events like paper presentation, quiz and Mad Ad for the participants along with a host of other technical events like debugging and a few other names that I am not able to recall now.

The first years have started their final series test and soon it will be time for them to give their exams. 2009 is at the doorstep and what an eventful year has 2008 been. 2009 promises to be as chocabloc with activities and plans as 2008, what with autnomy that may come through. God Bless GCE.