Did I mention how the alumni had their annual get together recently.
They seemed to have had a blast at the get together. Jinu and Arpitha, two volunteers were full of wonder about how really senior alumni became child like and pranced, danced, screamed and hit one another with the enthusiasm of teenagers. Around 150 students had turned up with their families, spent a day at Yercuad and then spent a day at their alma mater's, taking their children to the classes they had attended (and not attended? :) ) 
It's indeed a special moment when all those memories come flooding back and one feels young at heart, once more. GCE is always yours, dear alumni. 

GCE Salem has been selected by AICTE to be a QIP centre, enabling 6 research scholars to register with Civil, Mechanical and EEE departments.

The application for this was made in a matter of two days by the Principal and it feels good to know that we have been considered good enough to be a QIP centre. 

Another step forward in encouraging and improving the climate of research in the institution.

Aktis has recruited 6 of our students. Wow...is that fantastic news or what! 

Last year, it was 4. I'm very happy for the 6 kids selected. They must be crazily happy. Well, they've kickstarted the drives and we shall now look forward to the other companies with confidence and good preparation. 

What's more is that, the HRs remarked that the communication skills of the students has improved by leaps and bounds. If that doesn't make me happy, what else can?

I believe that all the efforts,  taken by the students, the Principal and the Placement Cell, to prepare for what I call the 'Season of Success and Happiness',  are worth the trouble and pain. 

Congrats to Uday and his team of Mechlions. They must, at this moment, remember that Dr.Jayadev had helped them streamline the process and given them all that they wanted. I hope the boys and girls live up to the faith, prepare well for all companies and prove the mettle and calibre of the institution. 

Kudos, to the children.  

Things are happening at whirlwind speed and I'm finding it difficult to keep pace with the developments and happenings. 

First things first - Aktis, visited the campus and we are sure that atleast four students will be selected, if not more. 

This time, campus recruitment is all centralised in the Digital Library. Six partitioned panel rooms for group discussions and interviews, the conference hall for pre-placement talks, the computer centre available for online tests - Uday, the student co-ordinator's unstinted efforts to offer the best facilities to companies has borne fruit. The guest house furnishings too have been given a makeover and Uday tells me that everything's sparkling clean, thanks to the hard work of the students. The Principal, Dr.P.K.Jayadev has offered students all help to improve facilities so that no HR has cause for complaint and his appreciative encouragement of student co-ordinators to make sure that we are in no way inferior to private colleges in infrastructural facilities for placement must be lauded. This will have a long term impact on enhancing the brand image of the college. 

Now, on to the last two weeks. 

Dr.RSD Wahida Banu organised a meet with an advocate, Ms.Sumathy, to talk to the women working in the institution. The advocate was a good speaker, who impressed all with her direct and frank talk. She also addressed the students. The effort to empower women with the feeling that law is always helpful and benevolent to women was much appreciated. 

Freshers came to classes on Wednesday. They were happy to get acquainted with the instituion and the buildings. Orientation programmes were organised to familiarise them with the facilities and the curriculum by the department heads. 

Senior students addressed them on the best ways to become the best student - the tips and strategies to enhance their learning - what technical skills would be expected of them at the end of the final year, the importance of autonomy in their academic work, the need for acquiring confidence and communication skills. 

The first year students have had the best reception they could ever have hoped for, I feel. Their admission was smooth and fast, the post admission meet with parents short and crisp, the orientation programme , helpful. 

And, now, I'm ready to scream from the rooftops and declare to the whole wide world - Department of English has had its first ever net connection made in the Language Lab. Now, internet resources for language learning can be offered to our students. I can't stop smiling in joy and grinning. I feel like the Cheshire cat in Alice's Tales. Thanks to Dr.Jayadev. God bless him.

Revive 11.0, the intra-departmental symposium in the Computer Science Department got off to a rousing start. I was impressed by the solemnity with which the final year students organised the show. The intention is to encourage students of second and third year to explore their technical skills and to hone their research skills with paper presentations. Prof. A.M.Kalpana addressed them and exhorted them to surpass the records set by the previous year students in academic and placement rankings. I've always enjoyed a rapport with the Computer Science students and as always, I don't doubt their ability to excel at whatever they do. 

Wow...that was quite a lot of things to put down in a small blog page.

 

What makes the first day at college so remarkable? I think it's the feeling of pride that a parent experiences, the thrill of anticipation that the fresher goes through, the pre- admission fever that grips all in the campus and culminates so satisfyingly on the first day - these are the most memorable things happening on the first day at college. 

Emotions run high...parents are anxious to rush through the admission at one go, no one wants to wait and it's almost as if parents are ready to throw the gauntlet down and retreat. This year however, the admission was at its smoothest. Daring to break traditions, the Principal asked the departments to take over the certificate verification, the fees to be paid in the office and the hostel admission fees to be made in the D1 hall. Outside the principal's chamber, a line of chair against the wall, made the wait a lot more comfortable than having to lean against walls in serpentine queues. 

The evening meet was well attended, since the admissions were over by 4.30 p.m and the meeting lasted just an hour and a half. Speeches by the HODs were possessed of the spirit of brevity and that made listening to talks a pleasure. 

What  I love most about the day, is that it's not just a day for the youngster...it's one for the whole family. There were beaming grandparents, proud parents and well wishers, grim faced parents worried about the fees, scholarships that can take their burden off their shoulders, happy youngsters enjoying the sights, sounds and experiences on their first day out...

Aaahh...my belief and trust in the system of government colleges that aids and encourages literacy and education for even those from the lowest rungs of society, if only they have the will to achieve, is strengthened as in every year.

 

Rather busy days, both at college and at home. 
The second volume of the GCE newsletter has been published and is well received. A lot of effort went into its  production and all credit goes to the team that put its heart and soul into its production. Efforts are on to bring out hard copies to present to HRs who visit the institution, UGC and AICTE expert panel members and to the Commissioner, so that the achievements, big and small, are highlighted.
Tomorrow, the first year students are being admitted. The Principal is making all efforts to make it a smooth one by facilitating their admission in the departments. Lunch is being offered to the first year students and their parents. I must say the lunch served on these days is piping hot, fantastic and much appreciated by parents. I'm told by students that this lunch is similar to their everyday lunch and if so, I think that's wonderful. 
That reminds me, the chappathi being served in the girl's hostel came under the Principal's scanner when he went on a surprise visit. He has advised the cooks to prepare better ones. It's rather sad that the best efforts of the management and authorities in providing chappathi makers, the best dough available in the market and the best brand of dalda are not complemented by the chefs at the grassroot level. Their noodles, bread, butter and jam, dosas and biriyani are appreciated, however.

Word's spreading about the NASSCOM test to be madatorily taken by those aspiring for jobs in TCS, Wipro, CTS, Infosys, HCL etc. I do hope the kids start their preparation earlier to have a headstart.
Looks like reading comprehension is going to be given a lot of importance in the verbal section. Maybe it's time for me to think of making atleast 10-15 GRE/IELTS/TOEFL reading passages compulsory in the third year CSL lab, next semester. 
It's that time of the year when placement looms large in the horizon...student placement co-ordinators want to invite the company that will recruit large numbers in the first slot given to it, instead of promises, disappointments and heart burns, when even the best students are not recognised in the flurry of the one day,one stop recruitment processes followed. 
I feel if the NASSCOM tests are successful, students will call the shots, instead of the companies. But, for that to happen, students will have to prove their calibre and mettle in all aspects.
Also, we have not yet learnt the art of advertising the skills of our students...we take things in a very simple, unhyped fashion, when sometimes 'simplicity' is mistaken for 'simplistic'.
Give the kids a break. 
As a post script, I should add, Prof.Jayadev, I heard, has assured the student placement co-ordinators of all possible help in  the smooth conduct of the placement drive. He has asked students to make sure that there were no complaints about shoddy hospitality on any account and to go that extra mile to ensure comfort and pleasantness of ambience in hosting the companies. He has urged students to start their preparation in earnestness to get the best job offers. Student co-ordinators are all smiles and full of hope.

Google throws the most surprising features at me. This morning I was taking a survey on the use of Multimedia in the classroom and on submission, I was informed that it was a Google Doc and that I could design my own survey. So, here's a questionnaire  that I've designed for my third year students in an effort to survey  how students have improved their language skills in their first three years at college.

Please find the questionnaire at the following link. Feel free to take the survey and check your responses too.

Professor Jayadev, Principal-in-charge visited the department and was shocked to see the pathetic state of the lounge adjoining the rooms -around sixty  broken chairs, tonnes of garbage, cardboard boxes filled with papers and empty covers, badly damaged ancient printers and roller printers, rusty towel hangers, magazines, 70s calendars, partition boards, broken  notice boards, albums and hundreds of other nick-knacks strewn all over, with just a narrow walking space to reach the rooms. 

What surprised me pleasantly was that, he immediately rolled up his shirt sleeves and got his department students to remove chairs to his workshop to fix them and make them usable and distribute them  to the departments  and called up the Admin ministerial staff to find out what, of the papers, was important and not. Within an hour, everything was cleared and now, we don't have to jump over chairs and push the garbage aside to find our way to the department.

Whew...I'm glad valuable space is now available for academic purposes instead of being wasted as dump yards. And, but for the vigilant eyes of the Principal, this would've gone unnoticed, as it had, for the past five years. However, it is sad, that the sanitation staff do not take their work seriously and need to be prodded to do their daily work. If this is the case in a department, there is no wonder that the first year students always complain of untidy and unswept classrooms. 

Pro-active heads, who take quick and practical actions, are not afraid to take risks and are  ready to lead by example are needed to get the wheels rolling. In his stint at office, Prof.Jayadev has initiated a number of measures to allocate rooms for the first years; he has asked each department head to specify what they need for the department. He is accessible to students, goes on rounds and is in touch with the ground reality at the institution. 
The Office Automation Software, a valuable asset to the departments and the office, which had remained unused for the last two years, was once again given a new life, again, because the Principal realised the utility value of the software, contacted the software provider, arranged his accommodation and in a week, got it going at full strength. 

I'm really taken aback by  Principals who , heart of heart, through their long years as Professors and Heads of Departments, cherish a desire to transform and usher in changes for the better, for the institution. Maybe, that's how an institution keeps growing, when changes are for the good. 

One already knew that technology was the new buzz word in the campus...but, to have a training programme for about ten days using the video conferencing facility? I would say, 'Way to go, GCE!'

An ISTE sponsored FDP by MHRD delivers lectures and expert talks by IIT, Mumbai professors from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Distances have shortened and learners have experts at their doorstep. 

I'm amazed, but wonder, how does it feel to deliver a talk to a camera? In the MIT free courseware materials, lectures are delivered in classes with students which is recorded. Here,  I think it  is easy to relate to the teacher. 

At VIT, at the International Conference on 'Teacher Development' that I was attending last week,  we had four video conferences, with experts from Canada, USA and UK talking to the audience from the comforts of their home or room. With the facility to offer their PPTs too alongside, it was indeed a refreshing experience. Punctuality is the watchword, because they start and end on the dot. 

I should stop eulogising all this, because I only look like a techno-moron all the time, ha...ha...ha.

I recall with fondness my days as an ordinary examiner - assessing, awarding marks, ruminating on the errors in writing, reflecting on methods to be used to improve the situation, coming up with what one believes are  brilliant methods to train students, smiling over the errant messages from students at the end of their papers, marvelling over the skill of students in masking their answers filled with 'make no sense at all' kind of words for pages on end, being engrossed in shading the miniscule circles and rectangles in the OMR sheets, etc. 

Gone is the charm, for I realised as a Chief Examiner that life is dull - one only has to assess how examiners are assessing and gently show them the direction that their assessment should take. The rest of it is filled with signing one's name endlessly...filling in details in registers, proformas, claim forms etc. Ehew...

I believed that having signed my name a thousand times would give me a saintly aura, only to realise that one loses one's sanity and any semblance of saintliness as one goes through hundreds of papers with a microscope in hand to ensure that the good ones are not denied the marks due to them and that the cat-on-the-wall kind of students get what is not due to them...if one understands what I say. :)

All said and done, this was an experience of a different kind. Showed me that I had oodles of patience and tons of adding- up- scores skills. 

Professor Srinivasan (Chemistry) is retiring on the 31st of May.He has visited every department this week, thanking everyone of his colleagues, senior and junior. 

He has been one of the best teachers I have come across in this institution. I respect him for his dedication to his profession and for the very dignified manner in which he has conducted himself all these years. 

His passion for Chemistry is reflected in his research work with his scholars. They turn out some of the best research work,  acknoweldged by the academia across the country and abroad. 

The joy he takes in teaching is to be seen - he walks with a spring in his step when he has to go to class and one often hears both pin drop silence and animated interaction in his classes. 

His role as Officer in charge of the Science Association sees him bringing out the best in the first year students. He offers them opportunities to listen to some of the best minds in the field, to organise events and competitions, to carry out project work, etc. Students adore him, both inside and outside the class.

I've seen him in his elements as a Chief Faculty Advisor - one of the best organised, methodical and perfect Chiefs possible. All records are sure to be updated and perfect under him. His compassion is also note-worthy. He has never been hesitant to ask for the rights of teachers and students under his care. 

A service of about 35 years is no mean achievement and to be a professor much loved and respected by his students is an achievement by itself.

Preparation for the Speaking Lab Exam for the first years has been keeping me busy these three days.

Tomorrow and the day after, the college is going to become one of  the most inaccessible places on earth with the District authorities taking us over. But that is another  tale...

For the first time today, I saw how technology can enthuse people and create ripples of excitement in an otherwise staid and routine life.

I happened to meet Prof.Lakshmana Perumal, the COE. He's  normally very quiet, subdued and professional . But with his new Micromax, he's turned so animated and so eager to experiment with his Nokia. He showed Prof.Anbalagan and me the new phone. 

As he explained the various features, he was truly like a little boy, so gleeful and joyous at the various applications available. His eyes shone and he was totally animated. His enthusiasm was catching.  

I'm not much of a tech freak myself, but I could see and share in the excitement, as the sky opened up before our eyes with the positions of the constellations with their names, position of planets and the moon unfolded before our eyes like magic.  It shows one the nearest gas stations, restaurants (Karuppur Punjabi Dhaba was there), the nearest ATMs, opens mails, accesses Wikiandroid, plays music, takes videos, records sounds, shows one the road maps and is all touchscreen. Oh, wow, amd  at only Rs.6000/ it seemed like the most affordable toy ever. 

But above all, it showed me that hidden inside serious academics are little boys who have not given up the simple pleasures of life, like being happy with a little thing.  


I also went to bid goodbye to the Principal, Prof.P.M.Kavimani, who is assuming charge at Chennai as Addl.Director at DOTE. I wished him well and promised him that the GCE newsletter team would keep him updated on its developments. He, in turn, came up with an exciting suggestion - setting up a Community Radio for the benefit of the students in villages nearby, the women, farmers and others who could tune in and listen to our broadcasts. I know that Anna University Chennai has an FM station since I was one of their guests giving a talk one evening. I don't know if this will become a reality, but the idea has germinated and I hope the valuable suggestion given by Prof. Kavimani will bear fruit.

The FDP is over...with a info crammed session by Dr.Shanthi Thilagam from NITK, Suratkhal. 
Dr.Chandrasekhar has accomplished a neat and well organised task. His smiling face in spite of what must've been a hectic spell of organisation must be mentioned. Some people blow their tops  or sour up when things go wrong, but his smile only remained the same. Everything went off like clockwork and I would've loved to have given a feedback, but then people might think it's an inside job, praising oneself, since I would be representing GCE. 

The past one week has been one of discovery for me. I'm attending this training programme on 'A Paradigm of Advanced Computer Networking and Soft Computing' from Monday along with 66 others from different parts of the state. 

I'll confess...I signed up, because I needed to meet AICTE norms regarding staff development, but surprisngly,  what a good week it's been.

I found some incredible teachers in the resource persons -  Dr. Thamarai Selvi from MIT, Chennai,  Dr.Vaidehi from Anna University, Chennai, Dr. Ramamoorthi, Dean/Sri Sakthi Institute of Tech and a former TPGT and GCTian, and Dr.Purushothaman, most notedly.

From Dr.TamaraiSelvi, I learnt how to be confident and passionate about education. She introduced me to Grid Computing and Cloud Computing. Her session moved fast from the evolution of Knowledge Age to Evolution of Sharing. Grid computing falls back on Service oriented Architecture for its operation, wherein companies can 'Publish', clients can 'Find and Use'. It is a collection of distributed resources connected by a network. 

She also touched on e-learning under cloud computing and invited teachers interested in it to work with her. That sounds interesting as I'm also introducing  technology in the classroom and her work sounded interesting and worth exploring. 

Her second PPT on Teaching and Learning methodology was an interesting and enthusing one. She focussed on Bloom's taxonomy and encouraged teachers to consider 'productive pedagogies' which would induce higher order thinking and listed out the strategies that we should inculcate in students : Creating, Evaluating, Analysing, Applying, Undertanding and Remembering'. I felt that this is what students should be taught in classes, not the rote learning/ shallow, surface level kind of learning that goes on now.

Dr.Vaidehi was the quintessential professor, calm, sedate, confident in the knowledge of her area, concrete and illustrative. She gave examples wwith which one could relate to the topic. She spoke on Wireless Sensor Networks. Her example when she explained why a packet should be dropped - A teacher tells everyone to pass a message : 'I want to meet Anita'. The message goes around and finally comes to the teacher herself. Now, the message must be dropped, as it may otherwise be duplicated'. Oh, how well I understood that concept.

He rexplanation of Cluster Head of sensors : A person selected as a Class representative for a semester/ A professor appointed HOD for three years and rotated after that. She explained how vineyards are monitored using WSN and how in Health Care, a patient is monitored for changes in breathing, ECG, posture, pressure, etc by video, ECG, Noise etc. Her example of Ambient Intelligent Home as the future of Wireless Infrastructure was fascinating. What was even more wonderful was that, she was heading project teams carrying out these studies. 

Dr.Ramamoorthi was full of information and knowledge gathered over his nearly 35 years of academic work. He explained how Neural networks use bio-mimetic techniques. An example he gave of Lofti Zadeh's Good Hybrid vs. Bad Hybrid was hilarious. 

Good Hybrid                                Bad Hybrid

British police                           British cuisine

German Mechanic                    German police

French cuisine                          French mechanic

Swiss Banking                          Swiss lover

Italian Lover                             Italian banker 

He said the correct components must be selected to build a good hybrid system. 

He also gave an interesting story in the course of his talk. A paper was being reviewed. The reviewer sent the following report: 'Good and original, but, what is good is not original; and, what is original is not good'. That was a light hearted  info presented with humour.

Dr.Purushothaman's session on Cryptanalysis was the stealer of the show. He presented a session that showed how encryption and decryption in the web are easy for one who knows how to do it. He presented classical techniques such as Substitution Technique, Caesar's Technique, Modification and Fabrication. The revelation that the letters of the English alphabet offered simple sets  of  26 factorials caused surprise that the English language which is the cause of heart-ache in new learners, is also the base for Cryptanalysis. English never fails to surprise me. 

There's one more session tomorrow and then the week of lectures, warming chairs, good food and cool classrooms comes to an end. 

However, my year of hard work, incessant labour and thankless jobs that I've carried out, ends on a note of hope for me, for I've learnt that my joy in learning has not diminished. I'm ready for the next academic year.

The college is fortified like never before. For once, we are all scrabbling around in search of the ID tag when we near the Adm Block. The police guard the block like it's a Category Z subject. We are questioned even if we bat our eyelids for a fraction of a second longer...or move the arm suspiciously. 

Bags are searched for arms, ammunitions and other inflammable materials and sadly, the only inflammable I had was my 'vatha kolambu' for lunch, as a police official sadly found on examination of the numerous storage spaces of my bag. In fact, I found a long lost pencil of mine during the search!

Well, just in case you thought that the security was for the safety of the staff and students, you are way beyond the mark. Ballot boxes are stored in LI and L2 halls and the D1 hall. Guns, rifles registers and crackling belt phones on a special frequency are sighted and heard ( I meant the last one here) all over. Even our parking spaces have been taken over by swarming hordes of policemen and one has to apologetically park it in the usual place.

I take refuge in the lab, since power supply to the department has been cut off and will remain so till the counting day. 

We all take long detours to reach the departments, since the block has been made a single entry point. All of us have a lost a few kilos and look  like shadows of our own selves...

I'm sure, once they leave, I'm going to miss having my bike guarded through the day...and my ID card will find its way back into the dark nether zones of my bag.

Life will never be the same again, till another election is held.

 

Feel rather low and down in the dumps, because as the year draws to a close, I feel that with the large number of classes I've been handling, I may not have done justice to the children, because I have not had time to stand and chat with them. I miss the chit chat on the campus roads and canteen ...in fact, I realised I've not been to the canteen more than two or three times this year! 

The stress and strain has also had its toll on my cheerfulness, making me dour and glum, except when I realised that I was turning into a typical teacher - distant, cold, aloof  and out of touch with my first years...and then, I pulled myself out of the sad state of affairs. Even my visits to the library and reading have been sacrificed at the altar of duty. I've not visited the library in more than a year!!!!

The extremely short semester compounded by the election has not made things easier, as one rushed through the lessons and classes...

Hope things are better the next year. My optimism and joy in teaching never desert me. :))

The principal was given a fond farewell by the Association of Teachers at the initiative of Prof. PGV on his promotion as Additional Director at DOTE.  

Heads of Departments and faculty members spoke, recalling their association with the principal in his long stint of nearly 30 years at the institution. They spoke of his solutions to the long pending demand for domestic billing for electricity in the quarters, his sanctioning of arrears and funds for development activities in the mechanical and civil departments, his encouragement of research proposals and his simple administrative style.

The principal was his humble self as he spoke of the memorable days at Bargur where he learnt his reins, his tussels with administration, his strong understanding of administrative rules and regulations  and  his desire to help all.

It was with the feeling of happiness that he was not really leaving the instituion, only moving to a bigger seat of power, that everyone left the hall, wishing him success, achievement and happiness. 

It's the lunch break and I've just returned from one of the most spectacularly organised and presented events of the year - Zinastini- Science with reason- organised by Prof.S.Srinivasan/HOD, Chemistry. I felt the event was a fitting finale for his career that has spanned three decades - (he's superannuating  in May), so well presented ! 

Dr. K.R.Murali, Deputy Director, CECRI, Karaikudi, the illustrious academic was the Chief Guest. His talk on Nano materials was immensely interesting. For me, personally, his talk drew me once to contemplate on the use of Nanomaterials in Children's Literature. 

The Principal spoke on scientific temper, innovation and the need for young people to become achievers, drawing the example of Ms.Sinduja, a Class IX student who is the world's youngest CEO from Tamil Nadu.

Prashanth, the Secretary was elegant, classy and tastefully dressed for the occasion in a well matched suit. He stands out as a leader par excellence, as I don't think anybody else could've carried off the suit with such comfort and ease. He effortlessly co-ordinated the whole show and led from the sides. His was an invisible force, that everyone quietly acknowledged and accepted. He is undoubtedly going to be one of the best leaders GCE has seen in a long time. 

He was ably assisted by Sharath, the comperes who performed like seasoned artists, Nivya and a team of discipline monitors. 

Dr.Dharanitharan was the master puppeteer - his strings were one of firmness, encouragement and quiet lead. 

As for the entertainment that followed, these were noteworthy for their attention to dignity in fun. The solo songs karoaked by Ashok, Jeeva and Lucky were stunning. 

A martial art show by a black belt holder had me in open mouthed awe, as he swung his Bruce Lee chain, stick and broke tiles. 

For the first time, Naga students performed their traditional dance in colourful attire and a vocalised humming that throbbed with intensity. 

The girls who danced were all graceful and obviously well talented. 

I'm sure that Dr. Srinivasan/HOD, Chemistry will remember this Zinastini as one of the best in his long career. I've a lot to learn from the enthusiasm and perfection of Prof.Srinivasan, whose long career has not dulled his interest or his passion for teaching. He's always there on the dot for his classes, his Chief Advisorship taken with a rare sense of responsibility and he always has a smile for his fellow teachers and students. GCE will certainly miss him the next year on.

Graduation Day 2011 was held at Periyar University auditorium. A huge, echo-less, well planned one with a lot of space in the front for a robing room and three rooms at the back for performers, in case of a performance. 

Well-lit and large enough to accommodate 1000 people, it excited a tinge of jealousy in us all. 

The ceremony was unusally well attended wih around 525 graduands and around 700 guests. 

Their P.A. system was fantastic. Wonder when the dream of the alumni to have such an auditorium in the college will come true!

Anna University Coimbatore Vice Chancellor Dr.K.Karunakaran was the Chief Guest and he gave a rousing speech on the need of the hour - employable graduates ready for the technology boom and value driven engineers. 

I met a lot of the old students and the moment I saw their faces, there were memories of them in the classrooms, playing mischief, playing truant, standing outside classrooms, sleeping inside, enthusiastically participating in the class, sharing their woes and joys  with me, surprising one with their intelligence, aritistic talents and joyful attitudes. And, today, there they were, happily queueing up to receive their degree certificates. I'm sure it was a moment of pride for their parents too. 

In fact, when graduands are asked to bow to the audience, they do not take it seriously and walk away. So, today, I gently reminded them to remember their families and parents who were responsible for their education and to bow down to them. There they were, bowing down humbly,  I'm sure , in silent acknowledgement of their contribution to what they are today. 

I did it at my Ph.D convocation, mentally bowing down to my husband who had been my inspiration through those five long years, and perhaps, that was what prompted me to tell the graduands the same.  

The ceremony began at 11.15 sharp and ended at 1.45. I was ravenous and so must have been a lot of others.