Our convocation was on 16th January 2010. Aloke, Tarun, Subhasis, and my self had ticket on the same train on 14th night. Even Aloke, Tarun, and mine was in same coach in howrah-koraput express. We chatted till train reached kharagpur, where Subhasis boarded.
After reaching Rourkela, we first went to institute guest house. But no rrom was available by then. The rooms were alloted to the students on first come first serve basis from the list of students who applied for accomodation. then we went to hall 6 (C V Raman Hall of Residence) and called Rajib. In the morning I met Gota, and together with Tarun, we went for a morning walk through the hall area. Then I met OP, Parma, Vikas, Gaurav, Thakre, Shine, Arun, Sujith, Nitin, Swanand, Yogesh, Pande-ji, Jaikant (Gupta-ji), Alekha, Sumit, Sunil, Biswa, Suraj, Sailesh, Baneshwar, Nitesh, Santosh, Balaji etc. We did registration in the morning. Dibyendu joined us in the afternoon. We had a rehearsal for the whole convocation process in AV Hall (Bhubaneswar Behera Hall) after the registration.
In the afternoon, while myself and Shine started for booking for a room in a hotel , we saw our HOD sir was having discussion with B.Tech CS pass out students in front of department. We decided to go and meet him and convey our regards. He cordially invited all of us to his office and had a long discussion on various issues. After that our M. Tech friends came and met HOD sir.
I had requested Niranjan if ha can help me in finding some accomodation in govt guest house or some good hotel for my parents who were to reach there on 16th early morning. He accompanied me for this and we did a booking in Hotel Deepthi, govt guest house was full.
Our chief guest for the convocation was Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. He could not reach Rourkela on 15th due to some problem in Bhubaneswar. He reached Rourkela by train from there on 16th.
I called my parents to reach NIT campus by 7 in the morning, because I heard that there were only 40-50 seats for the guests in the AV hall, and I didnt want to take any risks. My parent had to wait little bit out side the academic campus, as the convocation guest cards were with me. I pconvinced them to attend the convocation with three points in mind. First, their contribution and sacrifices for my higher studies after a certain age. Second, ex president of India Abdul Kalam was coming as chief guest. Lastly, I wanted them to show the NIT Rourkela campus and the campus life.
Our convocation started as per schedule. Many teachers and their family members couldnt find seat in the AV hall, as all the seats were filled up from much earlier. The chief guest didnt join the program from the start. First the degree was awarded to the persons who completed phd last year.
