From old to new, all travel back in time

CHANDIGARH: For 96-year-old B S Grewal, Punjab Engineering College is still Mugalpura Engineering College. Grewal is the alumnus of the 1943 batch of the college, when it was known as Mugalpura Engineering College in Lahore.

Last year too, Grewal was at the college with his batchmate Harbans Singh and another friend from the 1947 batch Tandon. Both of them passed away last year.

Manjit Singh Gill of 1967 batch and B S Grewal (right) of 1943 batch catch up with each other.

“I was here last year with Harbans Singh from the 1943 batch and Tandon from the 1947 batch. I don’t think anybody from my batch is alive. In fact, there is nobody from the 1944 and 1945 batch too,” says Grewal, who could move with great difficulty, but made sure to mark his presence at the alumni meet.

While talking about his time at the college, Grewal recalls: “It was a nice college. Our batch had around 15 Muslims, six Sikhs and nine others, including Hindus.” Grewal did his civil engineering from the college in Lahore and went on to become SDM in 1943 as soon as he passed out from the college. He retired as a chief engineer in February 1971.

He says that engineering was like the ICS (imperial civil service). Indian administrative service (IAS) was earlier known as the ICS.

Y P Mehra from the 1959 batch was engrossed talking and posing with his friends from the 1959 batch. “We are not 83-year-old today, we feel 18 today,” says Mehra, adding that he feels like he is living the days of 1955 when he had enrolled in the PEC.

“When I had joined the college, the intake was 40, 10 each for electrical and mechanical and 20 for civil engineering,” says Mehra.

The Punjab Engineering College Old Students Association (PECOSA) organised their Global Annual Alumni Meet on February 16, 2019, on the college campus. The batches of 1959, 1969, 1984, 1994 and 2004 were honored for completion of 60, 50, 35, 25 and 15 years of excellence in engineering.

K K Vohra, president of PECOSA, said the theme of the alumni meet had been chosen purposefully as “building bridges across alumni” in order to connect all the PEC alumni across with world with the alumni association.

He lauded the role of the distinguished alumni of the institute in the development of infrastructure in the Northern states of the country, leading to green revolution and accelerated industrial growth.

He said Kalpana Chawala, Padam Bhushhan Jaspal Bhatti, Padam Shree Satish Kumar, Padam Shree Chander Mohan and the chief guest on the occasion Shalabh Kumar had brought laurels not only to PEC and PECOSA, but to the nation as well.

Shalabh Kumar is a PEC alumnus of the 1969 batch and is now settled in the US and is the chairman and CEO AVG Group of Companies, US. He is considered among the top 100 electronic hardware engineers of the world and has 22 patents to his credit.

Vohra said an international PECOSA conference would be held shortly in the US to bring all the alumni across the world under one umbrella for the benefit of PEC and PECOSA.

More than 800 delegates, including around 100 from the US, Canada, Australia, UK and Nepal, participated in the event along with their spouses.

The chairmen and managing directors of leading corporate houses of the country, heads of various PSUs and boards besides many senior IAS, IPS officers and retired generals of the armed forces participated in the alumni meet.

Around 11 scholarships and awards amounting to Rs 4.89 lakh were presented to the meritorious and needy students of PEC.

The chief guest shared secrets of his success with the alumni and emphasised the importance of being a practical engineer.

PEC director Prof Dheeraj Sanghi distributed the awards and scholarships worth to the students.

Dr Uma Batra, deputy director, Punjab Engineering College, also addressed the delegates, who had come from various parts of the country and other counties.