The first sign that the first year students are arriving is seen in the college bus, as they, their parents and their luggage start filling in the aisles, the seats, the steps and the luggage carriers from Five Roads on. 

Today, it was especially a large crowd. The fear, anxiety, thrill and anticipation of being an engineering student was visible on their faces.

At 10.30, the welcome meet was held in the auditorium. There again, people filled all the seats, the aisle, the space along the wall, the corridors on either side and the open space outside the audi. 

They were welcomed by all HODs and the Principal. The Principal took the cake with his well delineated and illustrated address. He extended a warm welcome and told the students that they had come to an institution well endowed with facilities. 

He pointed out that the institution focussed on four  factors - teachers, parents, students and the alumni. He appreciated the faculty for their sense of duty and commitment and assured students that they were one of the strengths of GCE. 

He stressed the important role that parents played in moulding the hearts of their children. He illustrated the point with the story of mother giraffes sdropping their babies from a height of 8 metres at the time of the birth of their babies and kicking them, even for an hour sometimes, till the little one got up on its unsteady legs and tottered about. He said that was done to keep the baby safe from predators. In a similar manner, parents  must, he said, keep their sons and daughters always aware of the need to survive. He then appreciated the alumni for the stellar role they are playing in helping their juniors. 

Next, he urged students to remember that they must, like Viswanathan Anand who braved the Icelandic eruption, cancellation of the flight that was scheduled to take him to the place of the World title match, the 48 hour bus journey that he undertook to play at the World Title match, though no one expected him, at his fourth place, to win the title. He did...in a similar fashion, he assured students that they only had to work to make success happen. 

The whole ceremony took two and a half hours and one could only pity the  large numbers of parents and students who stood all the time. The audi can accommodate around 350, and today, there must've been atleast three to four to the 450 students admitted. Time for a bigger audi and the alumni's role in ensuring that that one place which they love more than their classrooms should be rightly expanded.

In the afternoon, students were taken around by NCC cadets to the labs and classrooms. God bless these fresh faced kids...