The annual flagship event of GAABESU, the Global Alumni Day 2021 was held this year on the last weekend of the year. Due to the difficult situation we are all going through, the event was converted to a ‘virtual’ event.  The event was  spread over two consecutive days, Saturday 18th and Sunday the 26th of December. Both these days' events were held using the Zoom platform and they were also streamed LIVE on GAABESU's YouTube channel. 

BeQuizzed 2021 -

Prelim Round, 11th December

The first event was a Quiz contest,  organized by GAABESU. BeQuizzed 2021 generated a lot of interest across batches and generations of alumni, with 16 teams participating in the prelim round on 11th of December, After 30 keenly contested questions, Six teams eventually made it to the Grand Finale.

1. Quarantine Quizzers

2. Triumverate

3. Clockwork

4. The Weekdays

5. Bokultola Bulndebaazs

6. Jab We MET 

A recap of the Prelim round can be viewed below:

BeQuizzed 2020 - Prelim Round

BeQuizzed 2021 - Grand Finale, 18th December

The Grand Finale of BeQuizzed 2021 took place on Saturday, 18th December from 8 pm IST.
For over two and half hours, six finalist teams fought tooth and nail over six rounds of carefully selected questions, that included texts and images as well as audio and video clips. The Quiz Masters Saurav Mukhopadhyay and Rohel Deb, with able support from Parbati Bose, Swapan Saha, and Amitabha Das, presented a memorable evening that was as entertaining as it was informative.

The team that triumphed in the end was Bakultola Bundelbaazs, comprising alumni from batches 1995 and 1999. Incidentally, they were also the defending Champions since they had deservedly won this trophy a year back as well. 
Get to know the Champions below:

The Grand Finale of BeQuizzed 2021 can be viewed below. 

BeQuizzed 2021 - Grand Finale

Global Alumni Day, 26th December

The main event took place the following evening on Sunday, 26th December from 7:30 pm IST.

The event kicked off at the scheduled time with Smt. Kasturi Basu (1993 CE)  taking the role of the all important show anchor.  Anchor welcomes Prof. Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, Hon’ble Director, IIEST, Shibpur; Prof Arindam Biswas, Dean (International Relations and Alumni Affairs), IIEST, Shibpur; Smt. Anjana Ganguly Roy (1977 ETC), President GAABESU; Shri Sitansu Sekhar Ghosh (1980 ME), Secretary, GAABESU; Shri Syama Prasad Datta (1967 CE) and Shri Amitabha Datta (1974 CE), Convener, 8th Alumni Day to the programme.

Welcome Session

The Welcome session started with a moment of silence to the honour of the alumni members and faculty members who have left us forever. After that the Convenor of the 8th Alumni Day 2021, Shri Syama Prasad Datta addressed the audience, which was followed by a speech by the Honorable Director of IIEST, Prof. Parthasarathi Chakrabarti.  Smt. Anjana Ganguly Roy, President - GAABESU delivered her welcome speech. 

Shri Manoj Kar (1980 ETC)  was then tasked with the responsibility of launching the Digital edition of the Alumni Link. 

The Welcome session of the 8th Alumni Day can be watched below:

Alumni Day - Welcome Session

Business Meet

The Business Meet, an inseparable part of the Alumni Day legacy, was scheduled next and over an hour and half, the audience was taken through a very interesting and informative panel discussion, moderated by the versatile Prof. Partha Pratim Chattopadhyay (1984 MET), and anchored by Smt. Kasturi Basu. Eminent personalities from the Academia, Industry, Administration and Student representative from IIEST took part in this discussion and delivered their opinion on 'Challenges in Engineering Education in Virtual Era '. 

The pannelists are Prof. Amitabha Dey, Dean of IIT Bombay, Smt. Sukla Mistry, Director of Barauni refinaries of Indian Oil, Prof. Sarit Das, the founder director of Roper IIT, Chair Professor of MIT, Shri Souvik Sengupta, studednt of 3rd Year EE, IIEST. 

The Business Meet can be watched below:

Alumni Day - Business Meet

Cultural Program

And then, it was the time for some pure, unadulterated entartainment and fun, namely the Cultural Program.

This part of the evening was presented by Smt. Kasturi Basu, and it was close to 60 mins of artistic extravaganza, ranging from song and music to melodious story telling by our own alumni, bridging all the barriers of generations and geographies. 
This was a pre-recorded presentation meticulously compiled by Shri Indranil Sen, who also enhanced his own reputation as a singer. 

The entire Cultural Program can be enjoyed by clicking the link here: 

Alumni Day - Cultural Program

Open Session

This spellbinding session was followed by a more informal open session, also anchored by Smt. Kasturi Basu and laden with some chit-chat and opinions shared by some of our alumni. 

All good things come to an end!

And unfortunately, the 8th Alumni Day by GAABESU also had to come to an end, eventually. 
After a mesmerising three and half hours, ranging from the formal Business Meet to the pure entertainment of the Cultural Program, the programme ended with a vote of thanks from Sri Sitansu Sekhar Ghosh, the Secretary of GAABESU. 

The show might have ended for this year, but we promise to be back with another stellar event, hopefully no longer a virtual one, once again on the last Sunday of 2022.
Till then, please stay safe and take care of yourself, and each other!
 

And in case you wish to revisit this great evening, here is an edited clip of the entire program. 

Alumni Day - Edited Complete Program