Choice of Commencement Speakers.

WISHING ALL GRADUATES EVERYWHERE

The choice of a commencement speaker in American Universities is based quite frequently on worldly accomplishments, rather than being based solely on formal, university-centric, accomplishments. It is as it should be: Even the purpose of formal education is to assist the graduates in helping the world along anyway.

Years ago, we heard Steve Jobs giving a moving commencement speech for Stanford students in 2005. The latest example in 2012: Nipun Mehta, Founder Of Service Space, Delivers Inspiring Graduation Speech To Students At The University Of Pennsylvania. Neither of these have earned PhDs, but both have exhibited a lot of unconventional thinking.

Views from the UVCE Mega Reunion, 2011.

At the UVCE Mega Reunion yesterday, several distinguished alumni were recognized by presenting each one of them with the Sir M. Visvesvaraya signature ಪೇಟ — head gear —, among other things such as a shawl, a necklace, a plaque and a trophy, as you can see in the photo here. Deccan Herald has published a list of the award recipients¹ and Ramesh Aravind, fellow alumnus and a movie actor, was awarded one later in the evening, during the Mano Murthy-directed music concert.

The concert, though well conceived and ably conducted by local RJ Rapid Rashmi, was a disappointment in terms of the acoustical experience. I had imagined that the Palace Grounds would somehow produce a more satisfying effect. After all, the venue is part of a Maharaja's palace, right? Wrong.

The food fare for the evening dinner was an extravaganza of such proportions that it seemed like a mini food court. I later learnt that this is Bangalore culture these days, and this concept is very prevalent at weddings, etc.

It is nice to mingle with fellow alumni, and the concept of a mega reunion is particularly interesting because it allows for a larger scale operation than a single class reunion would.

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¹ The idea of upgrading the status of UVCE to that of an IIT was also proposed.

Honorable Janardhana Swamy with Indian Institute of Science alumni in Silicon Valley.

It is heartwarming and uplifting to listen to the Honorable Janardhana Swamy, Member of Parliament of the Government of India, who spent a few hours this morning amongst his fellow Indian Institute of Science alumni.

The value of this meet was not only that he is one among us Silicon Valley engineers, but one who has taken an extraordinary sequence of decisions culminating in his being elected to the Lower House or Lok Sabha — लोक सभा — of the Government of India. In the nearly two hours in which he chronicled his journey from Silicon Valley through High-tech jobs in India to, finally, the Indian Parliament, he pointed how media can be exceptionally powerful in today's world in influencing voters' education.

He has, since taking office, been engaged in the creation of an ecosystem of institutions — Indian Institute of Science, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Defence Research & Development Organization,  Indian Space Research Organization, et al. — in his native Chitradurga district of the Karnataka state.

An important thought one comes away with after listening to him is that only high goals, coupled with the ability to assess and solve the intermediate problems that will inevitably be presented on the way to the goal, can achieve the seemingly impossible.

The Pleasure of an Alumni Meet

The pleasure in getting together with your past alumni friends is unbelieveable! I had such an experience today at the IISc Alumni Silicon Valley meet in Milpitas, California. (The group operates a Yahoo group web site).

1. A highly nostalgic account of some life as an IISc student was recalled by Prof. A. K. Rao. (He was on the IISc faculty subsequent to his graduation).
2. Dr. N. Balakrishnan of Supercomputer Education and Research Centre (SERC) joined us on the telephone even though it was about 2:15 AM for him! This 20- to 30-minute interaction brought emotional tears in me. You see, unless you think in terms of monetizing any powerful idea, you lost the ability to promote even greater amount of monetizable ideas.
   
3. A rather eye-opening account of volunteering by Dinesh Thirumurthy and his wife immediately after the Tsunami disaster hit the communities in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 was presented. His account was useful in that it made it a little clearer that nearly anyone can provide help of that sort.
4. After lunch, we had a nice presentation of the Tabla by a local maestro Ravi Gutala. (Not that it matters, he is not an alumnus of IISc. He is a close friend and teacher of Murthy Gudipati, a prime mover in the alumni association).

Moral: Don't miss an alumni meet if you can afford to attend it.