Flurry of activities...Civil Engineering Department had invited two eminent civil engineers from Salem for the inaugural function of their Society. It was an opportunity for me to get in touch with my last year's set, since they had turned seniors and were in charge of conducting the programme. It was a joy to see how kids who had looked at one with frightened eyes were today confident enough to organise, conduct and present a programme. 
This was followed by Progen-i 10, the annual programme where TCS presents it best student award and where the department releases its souvenir and conducts a symposium. The chief guest from TCS said that as major consumers of GCE's talent pool, they looked forward to employable graduates. He urged students to no longer keep thinking along expected lines. They could not afford to keep believing that the earth was round, when in fact, it is flat, in terms of emerging technologies. Creativity should play a major role in their thoughts, he asserted. He believed that Salem could boast of not only its mangoes and manganese and steel plant, but also of GCE as its treasure. 
ECE celebrated its ComCom10, which I sadly missed due to my absence from college on Friday. 
Festember 10, the annual competitive ground for engineering institutions was attended very eagerly by our students and one can proudly say that they stood 4th in the overall position. Their TLA, HLA and ELA members have again done well, bringing back home their pride and self-esteem. I had seen the kids practising for the drama round and was hopeful of something good. My hopes were not belied. Such competitions expose our students to the best of talents outside their small circle here and get them to appreciate the bigger picture.

It's the beginning of a long weekend for the kids...some doing the disappearing trick in the afternoon itself! Ha..ha...
Everything's quiet and subdued on the homefront. By that I mean, the college. 
The class on Advertisements and Marketing was animated and lively, thanks to students who seemed to like the topic. 

Teachers' Day was celebrated by our students with a neat little function in the auditorium. 

Student secretaries of the associations got together under the able leadership of Prof.Rajkumar to offer a Certificate of Merit to all the members of the teaching faculty. 

It was a thoughtful gesture fully endorsed by the Principal, Prof.P.M.Kavimani, who, we musn't all forget, is an alumnae of this institution. 

In his short speech he advocated the creation of students who would care about the society they live in.

A short entertainment programme it was,  with a lot of loving sentiment about the role played by teachers in shaping young minds, a few flash shows on teachers and of course, songs and dances by students. 

As usual, a few teachers braved the howls of the students as they sang songs to entertain them and perhaps, chase them away from the hall too ( At least that's what I attempted to do as I yowled out the Que Sera song). Dr.Venkatesh, accompanied by Prof.Noorula, and Prof.Kalpana  did have sweet voices and sang songs that I would love to listen to again.

The experience told me one thing again...the sound system is so awful that I nearly ran out of the hall on hearing my own voice come out of the mike in an echo that startled me...I kept hearing two or three voices too...quite disorienting and a rather unsettling feeling.

All said and done, our students must  be appreciated for utilising the opportunity to tell their teachers that they do care. I've always felt that in colleges, there is a disconnect between teachers and students, since each goes their way, once the class is over. On days like these, one realises, 'Yes, these kids do care!'