Annual Luncheon
November 30th 2008 

Ever since our inception six years ago, the end of year Annual Luncheon has come to be regarded as the highpoint in IITLC’s calendar.

This year the lunch was held at Bombay Palace restaurant in London and we had a turnout of more than 80 members for this event.

 
A view of the large gathering we had at Bombay Palace Restaurant on the day.

The chief guest was to have been His Excellency, Sri Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, the new Indian High Commissioner to the UK.  Unfortunately His Excellency could not attend because he had to rush off to India on account of the terrorist incident in Mumbai.  It was therefore appropriate that our members observed a minute’s silence at the start of our proceedings to respect the memory of the victims who lost their lives in that terrible terrorist episode.

A souvenir was again produced for this occasion. You can click on the link below to view this.

Souvenir for DEC 2008 function

Our members had a lot of time to network, socialise and to just enjoy themselves. Mohit Kumar was the MC, with Peter Chan helping out as needed. Between the two of them, they kept the members well entertained.

 Click here to view the Souvenir

 
Just look at all the scrumptious dishes. The food was excellent!

It was also a great opportunity for the Committee members to get to communicate with the members, their friends and family.

The Chairman - Shyamal Desai gave a report on the year’s activities, which have been varied and numerous.  He also thanked our two corporate sponsors -  KPMG and  The Rajiv Gandhi Centre at Imperial College London, for their support during the past year. BK Gurtu – the Committee member responsible for public relations and sponsorship also spoke about the value and need for more corporate sponsors for IIT-LC.

 
Committee members sharing a joke or two.
From left to right – Mohit Kumar, BK Gurtu, Peter Chan and Satish Arora.

With IIT-LC now recognised as a Charity by the Charity Commission in October 2008, it was timely for Dr Raj Jain to remind members of the implications of our Charity status and the consequent responsibilities. As a responsible charity, IIT-LC will shortly be identifying the various charitable activities we plan to embark on and how to implement them.

IIT-LC also announced the formation of a Youth Wing and our young Committee member  Naresh Bansal spoke a few words about the plans he had for this.

Prof.  Ajit Shenoi from Southampton University also spoke to the members about how we could develop IIT-LC as a force for good in the field of higher education for the mutual benefit of UK and India.

We were glad to make our second award for the ‘IIT Alumnus of the Year’ and the award for 2008 was to given to B K Gurtu  for his unstinting services to the Chapter over the years and in particular for his work in getting sponsorship.  The award  last year was presented to Shyamal Desai for his hard work on communicating with members, creating our new web site and administration generally.

The Raffle is always a popular feature and this year’s collection of £617 went towards our Charity fund. Ajay Chaudhary organized the raffle.  We would like to thank our generous sponsors for the various prizes. 

 
Peter Chan and Ajay Chaudhary drawing the raffle prizes.
The proceeds of the raffle will go towards our Charity fund.

Our thanks to our hard working Committee for organizing such a fabulous ‘Do’. Please remember that our Committee give their time and resources very generously and without them, there would be no IIT-LC activities.

That the event was a resounding success is not in doubt. Everyone spoke highly of the organization, the food and sheer friendliness of the people there.  We shall all look forward to next year’s event!