Despite heavy rains and dreary weather the gathering of IIT Alumni on Saturday Feb 22, 2003 in New England held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Burlington drew a fairly large crowd. The event organized by IITSINE, which is the IIT Alumni Association in New England, brought a lot of cheer and good will.

The event began with a tribute to Dr. Kalpana Chawla who was lost to the world in the unfortunate shuttle disaster. The IIT community is very passionate about technology and the loss of a fellow Engineer was felt deeply. Puran Dang offered a tribute to Dr. Chawla who he said, “made Indian Americans proud”

“The After New Years Party” is a time for us to bring some cheer in the cold winter months, said Vinay Aggarwal, who is the Executive Vice President of IITSINE. The gathering which had over a hundred people in attendance included Dev Vrat Gupta, CEO Narad Networks, Ranjan Matthew (President, Gajendracircle.com), Dr. Amar Gupta (MIT), Dr. Dwarika Agarwal (Vice President Leach & Garner Company) and many others. Some of the attendees were also present at the IIT50 Celebrations in California and they shared their experiences with the group.

Dance and music by children and professionals formed the highlight of the evening. Diyya Agarwal and Ambika danced to a Devdas number while Amrita Saigal, Vinisha Patel, Komal Patel and Mansi Shinde danced to a Madhuri Dixit number. Sonam and Sagar Dilwali presented a robust Bhangara. Three wonderful musicians, Ashish Nimgoankar(IITB) and Ashish Kapur(IITD), who are students at MIT, and Nitin Mitta, a professional Tabla player provided the music for the evening. They sang beautiful semi classical numbers including all time favorites such as “Laga Chunari Mein Dag“ and others.

The IIT Alumni Association welcomes non-IITians to their fold as well. Dr. Swaran Goswami (IMANE Member-At-Large), Dolly Raja, Prem and Tej Tandon and others were part of the gathering. Apart from this event, IITSINE hosts technical talks and provides a link for IITians to connect with their alma mater.

IITSINE is a PAN-IIT association having representatives from all seven IITs. To learn more about IITSINE, please check out their web site at http://www.iitsine.org.

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