IITK-SHP, correspondence-2

IIT Kanpur
Student History Project (SHP)

Year 2010

Record of Correspondence - 2

October 1, 2010

Dear 76ers,

I am writing to request a huge favor.

For the IITK History Project, Professor V.K. Stokes has asked me to dig up stories, anecdotes and quotes about and by Dr. Muthana. I remember Sandip Tiwari and Suresh Lodha had written short e-mails about him to the 76ers when he passed away. I have reproduced below the e-mail exchange from the 76ers listserv about Dr. Muthana from April 2001.

Could those of you who knew Dr. Muthana or had interacted with him write a little bit about him for the IITK History Project? Any information, no matter how big or small, would be a great help for the IITK History Project. Would it be possible for you to send me something by October 15?

Thank you.

-Rajendra Bhattarai

October 3, 2010

Dear AK,Suda,

Thanks very much for the emails and the impressive documents attached.

I wonder if you know about the little black and white compilation of photos that was called "The way we were"? It was produced in 1980, and Shirish Joshi (brother of Anjali, 76- 81) was one of the people in the project. He may have kept negatives of the photos, the quality of the printing was very bad -most of the prints were hard to see even at the time and of course by now my copy is yellowed and faded.

Just to give you an idea, I'm sending you four jpeg files of the pages - it's a whimsical choice reflecting the photographer's personality! - to give you a flavor of the book.

If you are interested let me know.

The Kahany book looks like really a nice job so far.

Greetings to all reading this,

Anuradha

October 4, 2010

One last message for the morning.

I went to our Yahoo Classof80 website and got this photo of Reza Sulaiman. He seems to be a member of the group, so can be reached. I sent out an email to Amod (the moderator of the group) and to Reza, to see if they have anything to contribute. There are quite a few decent photos in the Yahoo collection (Sleuth poster by Ajay Singh).

bye!
Anu

October 4, 2010

Dear Anu,

Thank you for the new pictures. I have so far received pictures from you and Sangeeta and Joey, and I have put up some three or four at the website.

I don't want the website to be a bore. A picture or two always adds so much interest. I'll put up more by and by as I lay hands on a few.

Thank you very much for your suggestion to get some information on our international alumni. That's a great suggestion. We'll try, but we aren't drawing as much interest as I had hoped for.

Have a great day!

Regards,
Arun

October 7, 2010

Have you received the photos etc I gave of Pioneer Batch to Sonaly and article from me and Prakash Khemani and AK Nigam? Let me know if you need any thing from the first batch.

Abhay

Ocotober 7, 2010

Dear Abhay,

Such a pleasure to hear from 60001!

Sections of the student history chapter are now under preparation. We have your excellent writeup, thank you, but I am not certain I have seen the names Khemani and Nigam before. I will check and get back to you. Thank you for your offer to help out with the first batch. I do expect that we'll need more bits and pieces of information, but exactly what help we'll need to ask of you will become clear only in the next few days.

The pictures you shared with Sonaly she would have shared with Professor Stokes. I have not myself seen them. I will copy Sonaly and see if I could not get a peek at them.

I will keep you updated.

Regards,
Arun

October 7, 2010

Here is from Khemani, first president of IITKAA!

Abhay

***
Remembering 9th August 1960, the Day IIT-Kanpur Started
by Prakash Khemani, B.Tech., EE, 1965 – Founder President, IIT-Kanpur Alumni Association
Introduction
The date of 9th August is very sacred to India because on this day in 1942, Mahatma Gandhi had launched “Quit India” movement … <excised to keep from premature exposure>
***

October 7, 2010

Dear Mr. Arun Kumar,

You will find some useful information on the site pkkelkar.info as I just put it there. This is work in progress and it is going to be updated often with more photographs and Dr. P.K. Kelkar's papers and other writing.

I will forward your email to Kavery Muthana and she can give some more information about her father.

With all best wishes,
Madhura Gopinath

October 7, 2010

Dear Madhura,

I am so happy I had the bright idea to copy you on my last message. Little did I know that I would get such a lovely essay in return. You father wrote like a poet. It is such a pleasure to read him! I never had occasion to see him in person, but having read your essay, I feel I know him so well. That is a lovely portrait you open with, the photograph I mean.

Ajit Dongre had written me your email address last month but I hadn't contacted you because Sudhi, Raj, and I had been given the responsibility by Professor Stokes for preparing a chapter about student life at IITK --- and I had been looking only at those parts of the IITK experience that concerned the student experience in a narrow sense. But so much more contributed to the student experience than the little pieces I've been muddling with. That is something I often forget.

Your essay is a great treasure. You have done a wonderful job! I will share the url with a number of people, and I will look forward to the material you have promised to add. In particular, I will share your url with Professor Stokes, although I expect you are already in touch with him.

Regards,
Arun

October 7, 2010

Gentlemen,

I have started on the easiest job: the section on women [attached]. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but here is what I have so far.

This is perhaps the easiest section because we have an abundance of material. I am cutting and culling and pasting and sequencing to make the text and the thoughts flow in some sort of logical narrative. There are very few words I have had to add, at least so far.

Just FYI.

I'll look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Regards,
Arun

October 7, 2010

Hi Arun,

Great to see you bite the bullet and start on the essays. Perhaps you can change the font on quotes - smaller and indented. Are you planning to use Anu's and Abha's material as well? It may be a more positive perspective from their viewpoint on sciences and humanities, rather than engineering. I believe there is also a Design school now, where many women are enrolling. Dont know when that was started.

Cheers,

==suda

October 8, 2010

Dear Arun, Raj, Vijay,

I have been discussing with Arun the best approach for the Student Chapter. To provide a concrete example of the alternative that I think might work best for flow, blending in with the other chapters, showing a chronology for continuity and consistence, etc, I am attaching a file that incorporates Arun's file somewhat reorganized, and including Roli's and Anuradha's contributions. I haven't seen Abha's and Sangeeta's contributions yet but they can be readily excerpted into this format when they come in. Please add in commentary and further excerpts from the original contributions as you see fit.

I am working to develop the Governance section along these lines as well. At present that section has contributions from the archives Vijay had sent, and I am expecting contributions from Anupam and Ricky.

What do you think of this format? Let me know if you think the sections on universal values in undergraduate education works. We need some targets and constraints on number of words (about 10,000 - 15,000?). How many words per major section - I assume we want to keep it balanced. Also, should we seek five substantial contributors/sources (excluding ourselves) on each section before we say we have ample material? We can put the entire contributions, for access to material we do no excerpt, archives, etc in the Archives of the History of IITK Project that Vijay is starting.

I hope Vijay is able to access these mails, and give us some advice on these issues.

Happy writing!

==Suda

October 8, 2010

Dear Arun and Suda,

Sorry, I was out for a week at a water environment conference. Attached is a short piece from Roli for exTEMPOre 35. We can also use it for the IITK History Project. We need higher resolution scans of the black and white pictures, should we decide to use them.

-Raj

October 8, 2010

Dear Jhun,

Please see below for Madhura's message and url.

Remember you have promised me a writeup. May I please expect it in the next three or four days.

I like what you've been writing about the hindu-muslim khit-pit. My own view is like the wounded Mercutio's: "A pox on both your houses" is what I'd like to say.

Arvind, thank you for you message. May I please ask you for Professor Parasnis' email address.

Regards,
Arun

October 9, 2010

Raj,

This is nice! Roli seems somewhat inspired to downplay the sad side of the womens expeience, and play up the good side.You should use that pic for exTEMPOre 35 with Sandy & Roli at the GH, and I still have to send you a couple of scans for the Human Writes article.

Cheers,

==suda

October 11, 2010

Forwarding a wonderful message from Roli Garg Wendorf who received her B.Tech. in electrical engineering from IITK in 1976.

-Raj
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roli Wendorf
Date: Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: Dr. Muthana
Hi Raj,

I had the opportunity to interact with Dr. Muthana several times and always found him very reasonable and caring.

The incident that stands out in my mind is at the interview right after we were admitted. I had interviewed at Kanpur, and my father had come along with me. My father waited outside while I finished my interview. After my interview was over, Dr Muthana excused himself from the panel and came outside. He took my father and me to his office and talked to us about our issues and concerns. I asked him if there were other girls in the class, and at that time, the answer seemed to be "no". My father also expressed concern about how I would manage in an all-male environment. Dr. Muthana was very reassuring. I don't remember the details of what he said, but he topped it with "...what of that...Indira Gandhi is the only woman too".

His taking the time then was very helpful to us, especially to my father. I remember my father quoting that line about Indira Gandhi many times. Dr Muthana understood what a big step my father and I were taking in my coming to IIT. I stopped by his office several times during my stay at IIT to let him know how I was doing, and he took the time to talk to me in spite of the many demands on his time.

Regards,
Roli

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 7:48 PM, Sudhi Seshadri wrote:

Dear Chief,

May I request you once again for some of your recollections on the roots you can trace to IITK of your interests in technology, science education for the poor, and other involvements?

Also, can you review this mail below and help with any source material.

Hope all is well with you and the family. I was intersested to see you are with the University now. Look forward to hearing.

WIth warm regards,
==Sudhi / Suda

Thanks for this, Chief. I will give Arun and Raj the heads up on this as well. Could you drop a note to Sudha to encourage her to write, as my own email to her must sound like it comes out of the blue.

warm regards,

==suda

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 10:59 PM, arvind gupta wrote:

Dear Suda,

Your reminder has clinched the issue. I will write - I must write before memory fails me. Shall send you an article by this Sunday. I am only capable of writing a personalized account and shall leave to you and Arun to edit it.

Sudha I have known well. She is Prof Krishna Bharadwaj's daughter - did MSc Maths from IIT /K. Was married to Dr. Abhay Shukla - Dr. A. P. Shukla's son. She visited me when I worked with the Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh 1981-83. I have never worked with Sudha but the brief note she has written is quite true. She got separated from Abhay long back. Abhay is settled in Pune and we meet once in a while - in a morcha or dharna. Dr. A. P. Shukla has visited me twice in Pune.

In India many centuries live cheek-to-jowl, the most primitive and the ultra-modern co-exist side-by-side.

It has been 7 years since I have worked in a Children's Science Centre incubated by Prof. Jayant Narlikar - founder of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics and located in the Pune University Campus.

Thanks for your timely reminder. I shall send you a write-up soon.

love and peace
chief

October 12, 2010

warm regards,

==suda

October 12, 2010
Dear Ms Bharadwaj,
You may be aware of the IITK History Project which is planning a publication in commemmoration of the 50th Anniversary of IITK. Prof Vijay Stokes is the advisor to this project and has charged a team of ex-students, including Arun Kumar (1975), Raj Bhattarai (1976) and myself to develop the students chapter. In this context, we are trying to generate source material that we can excerpt for our chapter. The entire source material article will be provided for archival purposes to the newly created Archives of the History of IITK Project.
Based on your response (refernced below) turning up while doing a google search, I believe you may be the right person to write a few paragraphs on student involvements with the IITK workers community, such as mess workers and others, and perhaps provide us with pointers to other source material on some of these little known studnet activities. More generally, we are looking for student initiatives on Governance, Leadership and Ethics in institutional life that has resulted in some significant IITK institutional development.
Do let me know if you have queries. As we are working to a tight deadline, and our chapter compilations are already underway, I would request a speedy reply.Thank you in advance for your contribution.
With regards,
Sincerely,
==Sudhindra Seshadri (EE, batch of 76)
Appended: Extractfrom http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2551/ . Accessed October 12, 2010
Sudha Bharadwaj Says:
September 1st, 2010 at 3:59 am
I was once a student at IITK (5 year Maths 1979-84) and was involved with the mess workers organisation then. This very honest and graphic report shows tht nothing has changed at IITK!

October 13, 2010

Dear Arun,

Better late than never! I apologize for the delay in sending this to you. Attached is a very quick and dirty, low resolution scan of exTEMPOre, the IITK 76ers Memorabilia, edited by none other than our own Suda. I will try to do a better scan later. This is done for the text and not for the pictures which wouldn’t be very good in a scan like this anyway.

Feel free to use whatever you think is appropriate for the history project. Much of the stuff here is “Boys will be boys” kind, but there are some gems such as the one from Roli Garg Wendorf. Suda did a super job of pulling it together. It was this book that so impressed Vijay Stokes that he recruited Suda for the Student Chapter job. Stokes said he wanted to include Tridib Sen’s poem “A Hunting Tale” (pp 28-29) in the history project. The entire book is printed with sepia ink. It’s handsome, hardcover book that Suda should be very proud of. I am learning editing is not a trivial task.

Happy reading! Talk with you soon.

Warm regards,
-Raj

October 14, 2010

Dear Suda,

Today I went through the entire correspondence on Arun's website on the IIT/K history project with different people. It was very interesting.

Couple of people who did wonderful things seem eclipsed. I stand corrected - but while there is lots on Muthana there is no mention of CVS - Prof C. V. Seshadri. The best note I found on CVS is by Shiv Vishwanathan - India's best Sociologist (article - Carnival of Science). Shiv incidentally was Ricky Suri's classmate in Jamshedpur. Ricky did a wonderful thing - he spent almost a year reorganising the Spastic Society of North India in Delhi. I was associated with the Spastic Society for 8 years during which I met Ricky. You'll find Carnival of Science on my website.

Ashok Jhunjhunwala should also be contacted. He has done a lot of work to make us all proud.

I will be spending two days with Balu next week in Hyderabad at the Third World Academy of Sciences Conference. Shall also meet CNR Rao.

love and peace
chief

Also Prof H. N. Mahabala - one of the most interesting teacher's.
Though Ashok Jhunjhunwala is very well known

October 14, 2010

Dear All,

Allow me to bring your attention to Arvind Gupta's email.

We are awaiting contributions from Ricky Surie and Ashok Jhunjhunwala for the Student History. Dr Balu had contributed on the music circle and Le Montage.
As suspected, it looks like Dr Balu has a lot more to contribute.

The chapters on faculty themselves are beyond the scope of the Student Chapter. But I get the point that some other faculty have had significant impact whileat IITK, and later, and could be prevailed upon to contribute their memoirs to Prof Vijay Stokes. I may also be able to pass on a message to Dr Mahabala.

Arun, Raj, what do you think? Arvind has sent me a wonderful contribution which I will send you.

Best regards,

==Sudhi

October 14, 2010

Dear Abhay,

Thank you very much. I enjoyed Prakash Khemani's account.

Could you please tell me when IITKAA came into being. Also, could you please write me Prakash's email address. I'd like to ask him for his pictures in a higher-resolution format.

Regards,
Arun

October 14, 2010

Arun,

I am copying Prakash Khemani on this message. Here is an article on the history and activities of IITKAA.

Abhay

***
IIT Kanpur Alumni Association and Alumni Giving Back

The IIT Kanpur Alumni Association was established in March 4, 1967 … <excised>
***

October 15, 2010

Dear Arun:

Like Abhay, I am also from the first batch, but unlike him, I had decided to remain in India after graduating, notwithstanding the fact that almost everyone else in the batch had plans to go for higher studies (and settling down thereafter) in the US. Looking back, I have the satisfaction of having worked in one of the leading MNC’s in India with full freedom to carry out creative ideas in diverse functions and pioneering the use of Information Technology for process rationalisation from the mid-80’s.

While at the IITK, I got involved in almost all activities, be it starting a reading room in the GCTI Hostel or creation of organisations like Literary Club, Film Society, Students’ Benefit Fund and , of course, the Gymkhana. In the initial years, I organised regular alumni get-togethers in Mumbai (then Bombay) in close co-ordination with alumni like Gyanesh Chaudhry (2nd Batch). In fact, Gyanesh and I worked closely even on other social fora like Junior Chamber (now called Jaycees) and came in touch with the leading lights of Bombay of those days. It was therefore natural that, when time came to formalise IITK Alumni Association, both of us took a lead, vastly supported by Dr. V Bansal and Dr. JP Gupta (both of 2nd batch) who had by then joined the faculty at IITK.

You have already read my memories of the first day of IITK. I have vivid and interesting memories of many more events that took place during our 5-year stay at the institute. I will be very happy to share my reminisces of any specific areas you may have in mind about the initial five years of IITK – events like the visit to the current IITK campus in 1961 en route to Bithore when the area was literally a “green field” with crops in full glory, Mercedes (truck) rides from hostel to the HBTI campus, emphasis on Carpentry, metal workshop, Physics and Chemistry practicals in the first two years in absence of other facilities, arrival of US-returned faculty and their ways of working distinct from those borrowed from HBTI, creation of institute logo and crest, numerous study tours to all parts of the country, two group visits to Khajuraho, arrival of Prof. GD Agarwal on the IITK scene, hostel life in Gwal Toli area of Kanpur and then at Kalyanpur (then spelt Kalianpur), shifting to new campus, introduction of semester system, numerous experiments with running mess in the hostels, week-end film screenings in the quadrangle of Mechanical Workshop, functions and visits of well-known personalities, arrival of IBM 1620, the numerous pranks we played, the first convocation and many more!

For the Golden Jubilee meet of the first batch (as distinct from the Class of 1965, since even those left half way for whatever reason were also invited), I had compiled an e-book containing the life profiles of 44 pioneers. However, for information security reasons, we decided to restrict the distribution of the e-book, even though it was otherwise secured – one can only see it on a display device – you can neither copy nor print it. If Abhay agrees, we can give a copy of the same only to those working on history of the IITK. It would make a good source of information as it gives the background of the pioneers before they joined IITK and also on how they have fared in the intervening period. Abhay, please let me know.

Instead of attaching my photograph to this message, burdening the download load on everyone, I will send my photograph separately to you.

With best regards,
Prakash Khemani

October 15, 2010

Dear Arun:

Here are the photographs – me in 1965 and now!

Regards,

Prakash

Prakash Khemani

October 18, 2010
Dear Professor Stokes, Kavery, Arun and Suda,
Sandip Tiwari expanded his brief e-mail from 2001 to the attached article. I would like to use it for exTEMPOre 35, the 76ers 35th Anniversary Reunion Memorabilia. I would love to have a portrait of Dr. Muthana to accompany the article.
Happy reading!
-Raj
---
Dr. Muthana and the Culture of Great Instituions
IIT Kanpur, besides opening a new world to us, prepared us rigorously for a life wherever our interests took us … <excised to protect from premature exposure>
---

October 22, 2010
Dear Sam Thanks for the Valuable photographs. We will keep the scan copy in our digital achieves. In case you will like to donate the originals , we will arrange them to preserved in physical achieves. With best wishes
Ashok Mittal Professor of Industrial & Management

October 22, 2010
Dear Dr. Mittal,
All the photographs of Dr. Muthana that I have received so far have been small and grainy. I was wondering if there is a high quality portrait that could be used to accompany the article about him. Any help you can provide would be wonderful. Thank you.
Best regards,
-Raj

October 27, 2010
Hi Arun:

Here are three photographs of Dr Muthana in 1964-65 attached.
First, Dr Muthana, myself and Dr Dahl(white washed).
Second, Dr Muthana speaking at our Convocation.
Third, Chairman Padampad Singhania, Dr Muthana and myself.
Hope, this is helpful. Regards.

Samar Chatterjee

October 28, 2010
Dear Arun,

Shirish Joshi (ChE '78) took a lot of pictures when he was at IIT from 1973-1978. A lot means thousands ... All of them have been scanned. When I visited IITK last time, I gave the whole collection to Dr Sanjeev Aggarwal, Dean Resource Planning and Generation. If you need more photos for SHP, that could be anothe resource for you. I assume you have already seen the scanned copies of short-lived campus rag called "The Cheshire Cat" - it existed in the mid-70s and was brainchild of Mahadevan Ramesh. For more on Mahadevan Ramesh, Google his name with IIT and you will have his contact info and his writings.

Best Regards,

Rakesh (Pandey)

October 28, 2010
Dear Rakesh,

Thank you very much for that bit of news. I wasn't aware. I will cc Professors Aggarwal and Mittal to ask if these pictures are available somewhere on the web, or could be made available. I will also share your message with Raj, Sudhi, and Professor Stokes.

I haven't seen any pages from the Cheshire Cat. I will ask Aseem about that. That name sounds familiar, Mahadevan Ramesh.

Regards,
Arun

October 28, 2010
Dear Arun

The material is not on the web. However, it can be made available. We are going for PAN IIT today and will be back next week. Any thing specific you are looking for?

Best

Sanjeev

=============================================================
Sanjeev K Aggarwal, Dean of Resource Planning and Generation
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Kanpur, INDIA, www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/ska

October 28, 2010
Hi Arun

Is that the classical singer? Meera & I were chief guests at a concert by her in Oman and have some nice photos with her, some where. Cant say I understand her kind of vocla performance; wish I had known she had been to IIT K. Could have looked less of a philistine while we had 'chai' before the concert.

Cheers
Sunny
(Raphael Parambi)

October 28, 2010
Dear Arun,

For issues of Cheshire Cate, please see: http://students.iitk.ac.in/fmc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=73

This is on IITK website.

For Mahadevan Ramesh's articles, please see: http://www.mahadevanramesh.com/Article.html. Some commentary on IITK there also.

More later. It is late in India and I need to get up early to go attend the PanIIT meeting in NOIDA tomorrow morning.

Best Regards,
Rakesh (Pandey)

October 28, 2010
From my recollection, number of women in the following batches (B.Tech only):
1978 - 0
1979 - 2
1980 - 3
1981 - 6

(From Rakesh Pandey)

October 28, 2010
Arun - no history of IITK will be complete without a write-up and some stories from the Cheshire Cat. If Mahadevan Ramesh can be contacted that would be wonderful. For us freshers of 1978, C Cat was a mysterious scripture, shrouded in the mists of time and of course totally anonymous with no names attached.
Also, if we can locate the 82-84 Spark issues on campus, it will help the project immensely. We should again request Professor Aggarwal to help locate these.
Aseem

October 28, 2010
Dear Arun,
There are several issues of The Cheshire Cat in the CD mailed by Professor Stokes last summer:
Background Material à Student Magazines à Cheshire Cat – VKS à “Cheshire Cat.pdf” and “The Cheshire Cat.doc”
I believe Ramesh Mahadevan (or Mahadevan Ramesh) was (or still is) part of Dakghar, wrote (or still writes) for Sulekha and used to live in Singapore. He may be in Chennai now.
Attached is an autographed page from the March 1976 issue of The Spark (courtesy of Suda) and the 4 April 1976 issue of The Cheshire Cat that comments on the former – see pages 5 and 6.
-Raj

October 28, 2010
Found this while searching for Mahadevan Ramesh on the internet.
I haven't felt this way in years...
http://www.mahadevanramesh.com/Articles/ramesh7.html

(from Aseem Shukla)

October 29, 2010
Dear All As of now we have not created a webportal for achieves. We are planning such an portal where digitalized content ( images, photo, audio, video ) will be displayed.

Ashok K Mittal

November 1, 2010
Hi Ramesh,
Please allow me to me introduce myself as a 1978 fresher who never saw the C Cat being published but learnt of the hallowed texts from the reprints that appeared year after year in the Festival souvenirs of 1978 through 83.

Then one day in our third year one Ramesh Madhav Warrier (who still knew a lot of seniors who knew a lot of guys who had known C Cat) walked into our room with the scrolls. C Cat wasn’t a group of guys he said, it was just one guy… and that was why it couldn’t continue after he graduated, because no one else could write like that. He even know the name… it was Ramesh Madhavan or Mahadevan. Of course we couldn’t believe Mr. Warrier, but it does seem that he had it right.

So now that a group of former Spark editors are trying to write the students’ perspective of the 50 year history of IITK, (which really cannot be complete without a write-up and a story from the C Cat) here is a missive addressed your way.
Did the Cat hear Spark? Now that’s a stretch and a yawn…

The Alumni Association and the Deans sent us links to your web site and the Meander archive with IITK. It’s been a pleasure reading the old issues, and the tales of NRIs Privatizing IITK and all about the Garden of Love. But years ago I was towards the tail end of a FW: FW: e-mail which seemed to originate in the depths of the 1973-78 batch, and was called Nuclear Missile Attack, What Really Happened. I read that tale in awe and wonder… realizing that this could only be C Cat… and it was still around! I never did delete that e-mail from 1998, but then the computer crashed in 2003, and life went on. Yes, I searched for the missile story on the web sites, but did not find it there.

But back to what this is all about, perhaps C Cat will be willing to embellish the IITK history with its perspective on an IITK education. A short write-up what it was all about and a tale of the cat that got a good rat.

Thanks!
Aseem Shukla
78028

November 3, 2010
Dear Aseem and the rest of the gang,

Thanks Aseem for your phone call. It was really a pleasant surprise.

Like I mentioned, I am attaching an article I wrote for some souvenir that was released for IIT K
Golden Jubilee. I hope you will like it!!

Best regards and more after I get a bit organized

Mahadevan Ramesh

The attachment Ramesh sent with this message is located at http://kahany.com/IITK/cheshireCat.html

November 11, 2010
Dear Mahadevan,

Or should I be addressing you as "Dear Ramesh"?

Thank you very much for your Cheshire Cat article. I have heard a lot about you, and read some of your writing here and there. You are quite a legend! So it is a great pleasure to get email from you through Aseem, who I must thank for his initiative in tracking you down.

I have put up your article at a page leading out from www.kahany.com/IITK/index.html. Please take a look. What was your year of graduation?

Regards,
Arun

November 11, 2010
Hello Arun,

Thanks for your email and info on the kahany.com link. It was a delight to go
through the correspondence string and see emails from people of my
time in IIT K - like Prof. Stokes, Prof. Balasubramanian and Rakesh Pandey.

I hope the Cheshire Cat article is suitable for your consideration to be included
in the history volume. For your information, all the Cat issues are digitized and
are now kept somewhere in the IIT K online system. (Prof. Vinayak Easwaran
should know the details; you may also get it with a simple Google search, I believe)

I am 'Dear Ramesh', of course and I belong to the 72 - 77
batch.

BTW, one of the fellow Cheshire Cat writers, David Barunkumar Thomas, 77 batch
(he won the Distinguished Alumnus award last year for his social work) is all set to
launch his first novel 'Rear Entrance' this Saturday.

Regards
Mahadevan Ramesh

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