2007 meet

Welcome address at the eOne get together 14 August 2007

“You are not here to verify,

Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity,

Or carry report. You are here to kneel,

Where prayer has been valid.”

The mood for this 'Silver Jubilee Re-union' of eOne is completely captured in these words from TS Eliot. Coming back to your alma mater is always a moment of prayer; a mood which transcends empty words and which should ideally culminate in dedicated action.

To understand eOne, we have to travel back to the early eighties, when engineering education in Kerala was still a bit exclusivist and confined to mere five colleges, apart from the REC. In 1982, the Kerala Govt. announced the Engineering Entrance Exams for the first time. This decision activated a churning process which brought in a fresh mixture of students from varied backgrounds and academic capabilities into that first batch. The monotone of the scholarly meritorious who populated earlier batches were gone and in came a batch which had representations from every capability strata, bundled together as if by a game of chance. This heterogeneous mix gave rise to a unique batch bonding and commitment, which was very much in evidence during all inter-batch events of that time.

It was a pleasant surprise to realize that this Group still retain and share that special bond with each other, even after a lapse of twenty years. What started as a small networking effort on the internet has snowballed into a huge movement, which is now called 'eOne', in tune with the status as the first entrance batch. Today, eOne has a footprint over all major geo-political zones of the world. eOne has accomplished academicians, thriving entrepreneurs, corporate managers & senior officers of State Govt. Boards as its members. Among them eOne has an experience wealth of around 5000 engineer years!

A unique agenda brings eOne together for a re-union to mark the silver jubilee year of their College entry. eOne promises to formulate and implement a massive "Giving Back" programme to their 'alma mater', with a view to benefit the current students and teaching fraternity at NSSCE. The members of eOne have committed an immediate investment of over Rs. 20 Lakhs to build a 'Knowledge Centre' at NSSCE. This is the first installment of a larger plan for the "Giving Back" exercise, which also hopes to integrate other batches of the College in future, to create a self sustaining corpus to improve facilities at the College.

The proposed 'Knowledge Centre' will have a state-of-the-Art convention centre with high speed broadband access, direct projection systems, modern conferencing facilities etc. The purpose of this centre is to provide a "Window to the World" to the existing students and teaching community at NSSCE. This centre will facilitate interactive talks & seminars with participation of eminent professionals through remote access. A seminar calendar is already drawn up for the coming year. The facility also hopes to enrich the placement drive of the College by conducting campus interviews through video conferencing.