Reminiscences from the year 1989

By Srinivasa Gopal [1990-BTME]

1989 was a fantastic year. The world was seeing the fall of communism, Russia Broke down, the wall between East and West Germany broke. Dr Manmohan singh Was just about to set forth the free market reforms that would drastically invoke Globalization and throw up Indias economy to the entire world. It was also Sachin Tendulkars debut year as he made his first public appearance in a Test Match in Pakistan. IIT was filled with activities those days with companies Setting forth campus placement schedules. Infosys was the star attraction at these Campus placement camps as they were just going to become world leaders after Almost a decade of Perseverant business practices.

I still fondly remember our friendly 6 a side inter wing cricket matches at the Alakananda Hostel, nearly 18 teams took part in these contests and one of them emerged winner. Also cricket club introduced the flood lit cricket tournaments and I must confess That some of the talent that I saw in the IIT cricket fraternity those days , I wonder Why some of those boys did not play at a higher level for the State teams or even for India.

It was also the year when the Ambati brothers became famous because of designing A shortest path algorithm with lower time bounds for the Travelling Salesman problem. For some of you all who may have followed the life of Ambati brothers, their personal Life took a turn for the worst due to a family dispute in the mid 1990s, such prodigious talent go waste due to mal practices in society.

The schroeter cup as it used to be called then was a cup which the hostel with an overall Record in sports managed to win. The winners almost always used to display a boisterous Self and used to engage in drunken revellery showing off their cup with booze as well To everybody inside the IIT

Ofcourse if one takes a trip down memory lane , one cannot forget Mardi Gras and GFKR tournaments. GFKR was a inter collegiate basket ball tournament organized for the men, it was named after the consulate general of Germany and KR was the tournament for women. It saw the entire country assemble at our campus and also used to Provide glimpses of what it takes to organize tournaments of such a big scale.

Mardi gras as I hear is called Sarang now, was also the star attraction especially the western music contests used to draw a lot of crowd from outside the campus with pretty women Performing some of the disco beats that one sees in the discotheques in the city. However singing Pink Floyds ‘We do not need any Education” inside the hallow portals Of an Institute such as the IIT was quite contrary to academic expectations , but still Provided a lot of fun to all the people.

I for one can never forget the academics at IIT as well. In fact personally my favourite Was Operations research, in fact I was to specialize later on in Math modeling during my post Grad years. It was really fascinating to meet Dr LSG nearly 18 years after graduation year, seems that there are two everlasting entities in the IIT , one is the Gajendra circle And the other is Dr LSG
( jokes apart) When I did stumble into the odd friend from the IIT days of 1986 – 1990 , or when I do keep in touch via mailing lists ,I am Proud to say that most of them have made it up in the corporate ladder and some Of them are holding high positions in the academia as well. Some of the odd friends did even tie the nuptial knot with some of thier fellow female Class mates and lived happily ever after.

IITians are always good in theory and the number of discussions we had in our Hostel wing on the possibilities of Time Travel etc after watching the movie “Back to the Future was fascinating”. Also getting dumped into the pond near the hostel zone With just my underwear on during Holi was another incident that I will never Forget from my days at the IIT.

The education at the IIT still keeps my mind fresh , even now that I am Amidst younger generation of family , I still enjoy my night outs before my Computer writing java scripts that connect databases and mail boxes via Java script or authoring research papers for conferences.

Also am proud to say that my niece has taken after me and is in her sophomore school and is also very good At academics and is also pursuing her goal towards getting an admission into the University of California at Berkely.

Am also happy to note that all my friends like me also have younger ones to look upto them , and it was my dream to clear the JEE in 1986, and it looks like the children Are doing better these days by being better equipped these days to learn as the digital and the internet revolution has moved us from Generation X to Generation Z.

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