Jacob Mathews (1983)
Time has flown since we graduated from engineering college in Calicut – REC to some, NIT to others! The cares of today’s world do not allow us time to reflect on “the glorious days of old.” Each one of us is caught up juggling the 24 hours afforded each day between office/work, family, friends and retired life. During occasional moments, “in vacant and pensive mood”, those old memories of the good times of our youth may “flash upon the inward eye” and become “the bliss of solitude.”
We look back on our time in college and remember friendships formed for life. Those were formative years and each of us developed and matured to become the men and women we are today. Though we may not have been in contact since we left college, it just takes a telephone call, an e-mail or text to get the “good times feeling” going once again.
We arrived in college, fresh and green, a veritable “rainbow of humanity”, from the length and breadth of India to the far corners of the world – Ethiopia, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and more! We converged on a green hillside in Chathamangalam near Kattangal, in “God’s own country”, and made it our home away from home for 4 years. Each of us had our moments of joy, sorrow, pleasure and pain and found comfort in each other!
Like seeds scattered by the wind, we now have roots spread across the globe. However, in each of our hearts there is a special place for our fellow college mates. That bond is unique. It has stood the test of time.
We face strange times. The world is not what it used to be when we were in college. So many factors have contributed to the present state of affairs. In each of us is a desire to use our talents and abilities in our small circle of influence to do our bit to try and change the world for the better, or at least try! We owe it to our children’s future, and more importantly we owe it to ourselves. As Browning would say, “Ah but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for!”
Each day we are faced with challenges and the “fear of the unknown”. In time, each challenge will pass and the new year with new days will dawn. The words written by Minnie Louise Haskins and spoken by King George VI (the last British King to rule India), in 1939, offer solace, ‘I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light, that I might tread safely into the unknown”. And he replied, “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand in to the hand of God. That shall be to you, better than a light and safer than a known way.”’
May that hand of God continue to guide us all. The idea of starting this digital magazine, “for the alumni, by the alumni and of the alumni” was the brainchild of Subhash KM (1984 batch, Electrical & Vice-President of NITCAA). The basic premise was that it would be a place where the alumni could connect digitally and share thoughts and ideas, all linked by a common thread of having been a student at CREC/NITC at some time. Subhash managed to garner folk he knew very well to form the editorial team, so that the inaugural issue could be launched. The idea was that the magazine would attract interest from the over 40,000 alumni scattered all across the globe. We hope to bring in active participation by our alumni in the form of contributing articles of interest so that each subsequent issue would be better than the previous one. We also hope that the alumni will come up with constructive suggestions for improvement, so that this magazine can remain the rainbow in the sky it was intended to be!