Tuesday, February 6, 2007

A walk down Memory Lane at TCE Madurai (continued).

Continuing my walk down memory lane with pictures taken at TCE, in December 2006:


On the left, there was a game of cricket being played in right earnest.


This medium-fast bowler was really bending his back, and thwack! The ball had been viciously pulled, and a fielder went scampering to the square leg boundary to retrieve the ball.



















On the right side, there is a large new building, housing a well-equipped library named after the founder of the college.






















As I kept walking down, next on the right was the imposing main college building. It's traditional grandeur has not diminished one bit in the last 15+ years!


Another example of how, even as many modern buildings have sprung up in the campus, the majesty of the old has not been overshadowed at all!














To the right of the entrance, there was a huge yellow silk banner on the ICGVIP (5th Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics & Image Processing).


Though called "Indian", this Conference was truly international, with participants from all over the world, including the US, Italy, the UK, Israel, etc.


The list of Corporate Sponsors included international Tech biggies such as Microsoft, Adobe, AOL, GE, Google, HP, IBM, Yahoo, TCS, and Honeywell. If that does not read like a list of "Who's Who" of the movers and shakers of technology, what can? The event was also sponsored by non-corporates such as the GOI's Ministry of IT, ADE-DRDO, IIT-Delhi and TCE.


Now, that's truly impressive!








Just opposite the main building, was the TCE fountain in all its glory, releasing negative ions and truly refreshing the senses.


It certainly looked a pretty picture!




















And then, just round the corner, there was the famous ficus benghalensis (Indian banyan) tree which had "sheltered thousands of TCE students at various points in time. This was the place more fondly known as the "maraththadi"!


The gentle warming rays of the morning sun filtering through its branches seemed to suggest the tons of "enlightenment" it had bestowed on countless TCEians!










Here's a closer picture of that famous "community gathering place"!


There's a new reflective sign with directions to various departments. However, the concrete benches haven't changed one bit, and that's a comforting thought!
















This is a nice picture of numerous branches of the banyan, and the small bridge we used to cross to get to the Computer Center.


TCE students would have certainly crossed many more metaphorical bridges in their lives since passing out of TCE!




























Crossing the bridge, I was now in front of the Computer Center (note the Americanized spelling of the word!) where we had almost all our classes.


The building is maintained well, and the verdant greenery all round hasn't changed at all!


















Here is another long-shot of the Banyan Tree and the bridge across to the Computer Center.


This is what we used to see when we walked back to "The Big Tree" after lunch at the canteen.




















Walking back towards the Guest House (built near the Men's Hostel), I clicked this picture showing the nice tree-lined avenue that ends at the new canteen.


Note the neatly painted yellow-and-black stripes on the edges of the pavements...




























... which were paved with smart hexagonal tiles.






































Most of the trees in the college campus have small dark blue signs with their names in Tamil, in English (botanical), and medicinal values painted in white letters.


































Turning right, I shot this snap showing the long road exiting the College Campus.


It was a road I had travelled many times during my 3 years at TCE, but this time, there was a different feeling, laden with many refreshed memories of those enjoyable college days.






Thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with me.


I hope you enjoyed it, and look forward to your comments.


Please do leave a comment!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Karthik,
This is sathappan.. hope u remember tht u had scrapped in my Blog's comment section..
Nice to see a person writing abt his alma mater 15 yrs sown the line...
the pictures do give me a nostagic feeling to mee to, as it has been close to 18-18 months since i last visited Tce..
i am currently here working for a software company in Chennai,
What abt u??
Please mail me to ssathappan@ianutix.com
it feels enthusiatic to get in touch with a such a old aluminus : )

Sathappan

Unknown said...

Hello sir, Very happy to have the comments of an alumni in my blogs. As you have mentioned, the participation of hundreds of students in such activities as marathon indeed shows the unique value that the TCE students have. As a CSE student I am all the more happy to have your comments.

Your blog post is really good.You have captured all the spots that show the grandeur of our college. And the image showing the banyan tree and our dept is now in my system's image collection. Thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

Well written article.

Anonymous said...

hii to all my great tce mca alumnis...

im esakkiraj ...now joined mca in TCE....Happy to see my TCE old photos ...happy about the lines ...i Want all oUr TCE MCA to Come into Organised ....

with regards...

esakkiraj
esakkiraj_tc@yahoo.co.in

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

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