Reliving BITS Memories, BITSAA Houston Chapter – BITSians’ Day 2014

HOUSTON: BITSAA Houston Chapter met at Udipi Restaurant,Sugar land, to celebrate its 2nd Anniversary coinciding with the BITSians’ day, which is annually celebrated on first Friday in August, by 40,000 plus BITSAA alumni all over the world.

Despite being a weekday, more than 30 BITSians,young and old, came together, driving from as far as Woodlands. The high light of the event was the presence of a recent graduate from BITS,Pilani-Dubai campus, which happens to be the only Overseas Engineering college wholly administered and run by an Institution located in India. .

It was a nostalgic and wistful reunion for all the members who shared their life-changing experiences during their undergraduate student life at all 4 campuses of BITS.

The anecdotal references about the campus life at BITS as narrated by spouses were especially amusing to hear from the spouses of BITSians!    the pro, presenting the agenda from  all four campuses come together to celebrate the event. It was exhilarating to have BITSians from  1954 batch to 2009, along with their families, reunite for the event.

BITSians have broken the stereotypical image of engineers and have become successful in non-traditional fields such as film making, music composition and book writing. Several have become successful entrepreneurs in Silcon Valley..

Prof. L K Maheswari, the Chief Guest of Honor for the evening had just retired from BITS, Pilani after serving the institute for more than 40 years.

Dinkar Nandwana, of batch 2007, had ably put together and emceed the program. Krishna Vavilala, a native Houstonian and the senior most alumni of Pilani from batch 1954, presented Prof. L K Maheswari with a memento who thanked him for the services rendered to BITS, Pilani.
Prof. L K Maheswari, after he receiving his Phd in Electronics from Pilani, has joined the Institution in 1971 and served as Vice chancellor of BITS till 2010 and then as an Advisor till July 2014. Prof. Maheswari shared some of his most memorable and challenging experiences during the expansion of BITS from a single campus at Pilani to four campuses increasing the college enrollment four-folds.

With great sense of pride he mentioned that BITS management was approached by Government of Andhra Pradesh  and Dubai to set up its branch in Hyderabad and Dubai respectively. He affirmatively stated that BITS stands out from most of the Indian colleges as it admits students solely on merit and not based on quotas or reservations.  He  also shared the challenges faced by BITS management and his role in introducing the All-India Entrance

Examination, called BITS Admission Test (BITSAT) for admitting students in its undergraduate program.
With great pride he announced that BITSAT has set a gold standard among all other competitive exams in the country.
Prof. L K Maheshwari’s speech was followed by dinner and group snaps.
For further information abot BITSAA Houston Chapter, contact Krishna Vavilala @ 713-795-5169 or Dinkar Nandwana @ 217-974-0623