The CTAE

The First Diwali Meet

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Jangid) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:08:00 +0000

Just out of the blue the idea of meet came to my mind. May be because it has been long, 10 years, that I have seen many of my classmates. I started planning about 2 months ago. And with help and support of friends the event was successful. 22 people gathered at the venue. We all had lots of discussion, promises on meeting often, snacks, drinks, dinner and much more. As expected some nautanki. I'll keep the nautanki part secret and let the attendees only enjoy the memories of it. Here is how I started.

I posted on Facebook about the meet. I actually created an event on the CTAE fan page. And it was wow! The response from the CTAE people in India and abroad was overwhelming. 16 people agreed to attend the event. 35 may be. 60 not attending. 102 did not respond. 16 was good enough figure to keep me motivated. I started calling people who are not on Facebook. I collected around 30 phone numbers and called up everybody. Got positive response from all of them. I felt really happy.

I called up Vinod Sharma (2001), who is in Jaipur. And shared the idea. Vinod also got charged up. He promised me to make all the arrangements in Jaipur. From calling and coordinating with the Jaipur CTAEians to booking the venue, all credit goes to Vinod. And the result was a gathering of 22 CTAEians. People gathered from different batches, from different so called groups, all branches and different cities. All came to Jaipur, on the roof top restaurant of the hotel Royal Orchid.

I started off at 7:00 AM in the morning from New Delhi and reached Jaipur at 12:00 noon. Left for KG's (Sharma) house at 3:00 PM. He had some work so I slept for some time. Then we headed towards Vinod's place. And then to KG Kumawat's house. From KG's (Kumat) house we called up most of the friends once again. I was happy because a most of them were on their way. After having the evening tea at KG's house we left for the venue. We reached at the hotel at 7:00 PM. Guys from Sikar (four of them) were already there, they were just roaming around the hotel to find a chai ki thadi. I am really sorry Chai was not included in our menu. But I promise, we'll include that the next time.

Around 8:00 PM most of us were at the venue. Following were the attendees: Anand Singh Jodha, Jitendra Singh Shekhawat, Kishan Gopal Kumawat, Krishan Gopal Sharma, Mahipal Singh, N. S. Shekhawat, Pankaj Jangid, Prabhu Dayal Aggarwal, R. S. Shekhawat, Rahul Garg, Rajesh Maloo, Sanjay Jain, Santosh Narayan Sharma, Saurabh Gautam, Surender Sharma, Vaibhav Goswami, Vikas Sharma, Vikash Jangid, Vinod Sharma, Vivek Mishra, Vivek Saxena, Shubhkaran Singh Dahiya. Thank you all.

There were many new faces. So we started with introductions. Some of us work in IT, some doing government engineering jobs and a few own businesses. Some were doing non-engineering jobs like sales/marketing/banking. Shubhkaran is running his own NGO since we were in college.

All of us promised to create a strong alumni. I am hoping to see more and more people in such meets. Do give suggestions for future meets.

CTAE: The Story Behind The Name

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Jangid) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:04:00 +0000

Most of you must be wondering, how come the College of Technology and Engineering is called CTAE. Does this "A" stands for "and" in the full name? No. There is a story behind this and before everyone forgets that I wish to document it somewhere. The story goes like this...

The college was earlier called the College of Technology and Agricultural Engineering hence the short was CTAE. When we joined CTAE, in year 1996, three new engineering disciplines were added to the college. Agricultural Engineering was already there which is signified by the older name of the college. So then the total branches became four - Agricultural, Electrical, Mechanical and Mining. The college now became multi disciplinary and it became natural to rename the college in such a way that signify this change. So it was renamed to College of Technology and Engineering. Sounds easy ? But the wasn't, believe me.

I remember the day when we started the first strike in our leadership. We were in second year of our college. We had a huge list of demands; around 10 major. One of them was changing the name of the college to the College of Technology and Engineering or Bhagat Singh Engineering College or something similar which signifies that it is now a multi disciplinary college. The strike lasted 20 days and then cooled off after some 7-8 demands were full filled. The name did not change.

After that we performed a strike every year just for the name change. In fact we added one more major demand; that was to bifurcate our university, Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner into two so that one university can operate from Udaipur and another from same place Bikaner. We thought this would help us because it will then be very easy to access and convince Vice-Chancellor for name change. The university came into existance as Maharana Pratap Agriculture University. We were in final year that time, in year 1999. But the name did not change.

Sure, the advantages of being closer to the VC's office were evident. He was accessible almost anytime. The VC and our college Dean showed us proofs that the process of name change had started. We knew that it will not happen in our time but still we were happy.

After we passed the college the new name came into existence. But the impact of short form CTAE is far more. Every one in the Udaipur city knows the college by this name, CTAE. Nearby shop owners, rickshaw pullers, bus drivers, conductors used to call it by various names like - CTAE, CTAI, CTI and many more but the vowel 'A' is clearly audible. Of course these are not the reasons for not changing the short form but the fact is true that it is called CTAE even officially, till now. Check out the official website of the CTAE at http://www.ctae.ac.in/. The page has a link called "About CTAE". The URL itself has a substring "ctae".

I wish at least the short form remains the same - CTAE.

First Sight of The CTAE

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj Jangid) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:49:00 +0000

I still remember the day when I went to Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur for my Post PET (Pre Engineering Test) counselling. The PET that year was conducted by M L Sukhadia University so they were responsible for couselling also. Me and my Uncle (Mr. J S Jangid) travelled from Khetri Nagar to Udaipur for counselling. Near Udaipur is Rajpura Dariba where my Uncle's son (Arvind Bhaiya) works in Hindustan Zinc Limited. So previous to the counselling day we went to Dariba. Next day all of us - me, Uncle and Cousin - went to Udaipur for my counselling. They were there to guide me in taking decision about which college to choose and which discipline is best. It was July so was raining slightly. Overall nice usual good weather.

In PET I got, I think, rank 812 or 813 I don't remember exactly. Although my rank was not good but my interest was Electronics. Usually candidates with rank in top 100 could only get Electronics. But I was still looking for some luck. No-no no suspense, I didn't get Electronics. Another priority was to get the nearest college possibly in Rajasthan. But there were only five engineering college in Rajasthan - Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bhilwara and Udaipur. All were government college and no private colleges were there at that time in Rajasthan.

Outside the counselling office we met few students of CTAE, Udaipur. Some of them belonged to Khetri Nagar, where I spent all the previous years. They shown us CTAE by pointing towards it. CTAE was visible from the couselling office because it was in the same campus. All of them were also talking to candidates and suggesting them various options. In a way helping us out. There was a black board also hanged outside the couselling office to show the currently available seats in various colleges. The board was periodically being updated by one of the counselling official.

My Uncle and Cousin suggested Electrical in CTAE, Udaipur. And that was closest to my interest also. So I went into the counselling room with Electrical, CTAE in mind. The couselling officers verified my X, XII mark sheets and shown me the available choices. I found that few seats in Electrical, CTAE were still available so I chose it as decided and they alloted me a seat.

You must be wondering how did I get Electrical in a govt. college with such a low rank. That was mostly because Electrical, Mechanical and Mining were the new branches added that year, so most candidates did not choose them. Before that year the College of Technology and Agricultural Engineering i.e. CTAE, Udaipur used to have Bachelor of Engineering in Agricultural Engineering and Diplomas in Electrical, Mechanical and Mining Engineering. So most high rankers preferred to stay away from these newly added brances of CTAE. Thanks to those high rankers.

After I came out of the counselling office me, my Uncle and Cousin all were quite relieved and happy. They congratulated me and then we left the place. While returning I was looking at the large central library building of M. L. Sukhadia University and was feeling happy. My Cousin then left for Dariba. Me and Uncle returned to Khetri Nagar after meeting a known person in Udaipur.