Jadavpur University Alumni Association Hyderabad Chapter

JUAAH magazine - Latest Editions

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Megh Peon (Cultural)

 

From The Editor's Desk

When grief threatens to overcome my soul my go-to poem is Maya Angelou’s “When Great Trees Fall,” particularly the lines “When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile.” But when I think of Chandanadi, I fail to conjure up that cold, sterile world. Chandanadi would have undoubtedly fitted Angelou’s description of a ‘great soul’ not because she was a privileged member of the country’s premier service - the IAS or because she was bestowed with a rare aesthetic acumen as a creative artist but because she could dream of transforming the world with whatever resources she had at her disposal, at any given moment. If appointed in the education department, she would build compound walls and toilets in government schools in rural areas, attended by impoverished children, and after superannuation, she would spend her entire pension on providing the women and children of tribal villages an opportunity for a better life. Chandana Khan was not the great pine of the forest, magnificently tall enough to reach the sky but more akin to the vast banyan tree, within whose canopied boughs countless small creatures found shelter, reared their young – their homes, snug and secure.

 Even her art was functional. When funds were short her paintings adorned the bare walls of government-run tourist resorts. The same technique of using gilt-edged, colourful wedding invitations to create beautiful collages on canvas, was used to train young artists from orphanages who seldom had the means to buy costly supplies. She often collaborated with her friends from the art world to offer a much-needed platform for budding and struggling artists to showcase their works – applying the same principle as cross-subsidy to draw crowds. She had truly embodied the Renaissance spirit, not for her creative persona but because she could recognize perfection in the human soul when it fulfilled its true potential. Hence, she could easily draw out the shy homemaker from the crowd and encourage her to find that spark within herself.

When great trees fall, they crash loudly, leaving the earth quaking in their wake. On a bright, Autumn morning when Chandanadi tiptoed into the next world, there was no upheaval. In her innate wisdom, she had ensured that the prop roots reached the ground to anchor and uphold what she had envisioned through “Margin to Mainstream.” She did not leave behind a cold and sterile world but a verdant green land of enduring hope and fulfilled dreams. Borrowing once again from Maya Angelou one can say her true legacy would not be defined solely by her career as an administrator or her painting but by the countless lives she touched during her lifetime.

Anindita Chowdhury,

Editor, Megh Peon

Symposium (Science)

 

From the Desk of President

I am pleased to welcome all the young minds of the twin cities of Hyderabad to our 12th Annual Science Symposium being held at IICT, Hyderabad. The Jadavpur University Alumni Association, Hyderabad has been taking up varieties of programmes and projects since its inception in Hyderabad. The University, Alumni Association has many of its members who are well established in their respective fields of Science and Technology. We felt that the University Alumni Association should take up projects and programs in the fields of science and Technology and thereby use our existing human resource for the benefits of our members and society in general.

The present initiative of holding a symposium at IICT auditorium on Popular Science is a result of our resolve to launch a program in the field of science. This year we are organising our 12th symposium on 31st August, 2024 at IICT auditorium, Hyderabad. High school students of 8th to 12th standard attend the symposium where we create an interactive forum and platform in the hope of spreading awareness and popularising science. This year we have added a new dimension to the Science Symposium where we encouraged the students to submit scientific articles which have been scrutinized by the experts within our association. We have received good response and I am happy to mention that three articles have been selected this year. We hope to take this new step further in the coming years.

I am overwhelmed by the response we have got from speakers and the students alike. I am thankful to all the members of the science symposium committee who have made this possible. We are profusely thankful to the Director, IICT who has given permission to organise the programme in IICT auditorium, Hyderabad. I would like to thank the well wishers for their support to organise the symposium.

My best wishes for the success of the Symposium.

Aniruddha Sengupta,

President, JUAAH

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From the Desk of Convenor

It gives me immense pleasure to organise the 12th symposium on Popular Science on 31st August, 2024 at CSIR IICT Auditorium, Hyderabad. Our association has taken a humble approach to create an opportunity for the school students to listen and interact with masters in their respective fields directly through this symposium.

The speakers of this year have been consciously selected. The first speaker is Dr. Prashant Garg, an ophthalmologist and specialised in Cornea infection diseases. Presently he holds the position of Executive Chair LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Hyderabad. He is the current incumbent of the Dr. Paul Dubord distinguished chair of Cornea. He is an internationally renowned leader in corneal infections. A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, both national and international, he is on the Boards of several international organizations, societies and scientific journals.

The second speaker Professor Sayam Sen Gupta of Department of Chemical Sciences at IISER, Kolkata is the awardee of the prestigious “National Teachers Award” received from Hon’ble President of India. He has held several positions nationally and internationally including the prestigious Alexander Von Humboldt fellow.

I am sure that the all the participants will get benefitted, and also motivated in pursuing their studies and research in science and technology to make our beloved nation more developed in economy as well as in science & technology. The symposium includes talks by eminent speakers; poster competition, mobile science lab for a hands-on learning experience and Quiz competition.

Starting this 12th edition of our symposium, we are happy to introduce a new event called 'Live Project' to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship among students. After our 2023 symposium, we invited students to pitch in with their innovative ideas focused on application of science in solving real-world problems. Two of these ideas were shortlisted by a distinguished panel and we are providing seed funding to help them build a working prototype that they can showcase during the symposium. We are excited to announce that students from Unicent, Nagole and Kallam Anji Reddy Vidyalaya Miyapur will showcase their models 'Adapta Bench' and 'Eco Bricks' respectively during this symposium. This will be the culmination of their hard work and dedication through the last few months in exploring and creating impactful scientific models.

I would like to thank all the executive, advisory and science sub-committee members and well-wishers for their support to organize this symposium.

Dr. Chanchal Sarbajna,

Convenor & Vice President, JUAAH

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From the Desk of Co-Convenor

In terms of gaining, immediate societal benefit, highly focused but incremental, certain scientific idea convincingly proves its utility and is implemented faster by the society for its betterment. The idea need not be a rocket science but if the idea solves a burning crisis that too for certain marginalized population, there can’t be a better utilization of science for common people. This is true for our country with 1.5 billion people and nooks and corner of which has multiple unique, burning crisis which need not be a crisis for other regions or people.

Keeping this in mind, Jadavpur University Alumni Association, Hyderabad (JUAAH) which is organizing 12th Science Symposium in collaboration with CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad under CSIR’s JIGYASA program on 31st August 2024 in IICT Auditorium called for a newly inducted Essay Competition ‘Science & Technology for a better future’ from the students of participating Schools. We the organizers gave the very general and vague-looking topic and silently expected students to give ideas, need not be novel but should be concertedly innovative and focused, to solve a specific problem. We gladly received the overwhelming response from many school students who gave wonderful ideas, and find tough time to choose the winners.

We look forward to students’ active participation and hope they will have fun while learning new ideas during the symposium.
With warm wishes and regards.

Dr. Rajkumar Banerjee,

Co-Convenor, JUAAH

What binds us together?

Is it that spirit of restlessness which translates, no not into any jitteriness or disquietude but into activity – a constant endeavor for betterment? Perhaps guided by the same spirit our founder fathers – Rabindranath Tagore or Aurobindo Ghosh had set up the National Council of Education. It is duly transmitted to our DNAs however short the time a Jadav spends on the campus. Some of us left the university almost five decades ago while others just a few years back, yet those silent tugs at our heart strings can be felt wherever we are.
"Megh Peon (Earlier known as Sei Somoy)" for a creative space

And it is this spirit of restlessness which has inspired us to look beyond our annual literary magazine. Like the household spider relentlessly weaving its web, connecting however distant and disparate the objects are, we too want to reach out to every Jadav, even those at the farthest corner of the world with our e-magazine. Do read, contribute and spread the word…

We are all ex-students of the Jadavpur University, which is situated at the southern part of the metropolitan city Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. The origin of this institution dates back to 1905 when the then British Government decided to divide Bengal under the pretext of administrative reasons. People rose to the occasion in Bengal. Luminaries like Gurudev Rabindranath and Rashbehari Ghosh felt the necessity of having an educational system based on national ideals. Thus the National Council for Education, Bengal (N.C.E.Bengal) came into being on March 11, 1906. Subsequently, the Bengal National College was established on August 15, 1906 for teaching science and humanities and the Society for the Promotion of Technical Education founded the Bengal Technical Institute on July, 1910. This was merged afterwards with the N.C.E, Bengal. The present site of the Jadavpur University was obtained on lease from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation by N.C.E. The engineering college was shifted to this place in 1924 as the College of Engineering and Technology, Bengal (E.E.T Bengal). Shri Aurobindo Ghosh, who became famous later on as the great yogi of Pondicherry, was the founder Principal of this  college. After independence this institution gained the status of full-fledged university on December 24, 1955. The celebrated scholar Professor Triguna Sen took over the charge as the first Vice-Chancellor. Every year the university organizes its convocation on this day to commemorate the occasion. The university at present is divided into the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts. Each faculty governs a number of departments.
It is really amazing to see that top-graded engineers, linguists, historians, geologists, physicists, mathematician, chemists and pharmaceutical technologists are coming out from the same campus every year. Besides having degree colleges, the campus also houses a school and a number of well - equipped research laboratories (details available at the university website http://www.jadavpur.edu). It is indeed a privilege to get an opportunity to study at this institution.

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On the eve of the golden Jubilee (21 st December, 2005) of Jadavpur University, the Department of Posts Government of India issued a postage stamp in recognition of its educational contribution towards the country.

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