- IIT-Global Dream- 2002
In Year 2000, I had no clue what a Yahoo Group was. Yes I had a NEC PC at Work but at home I had a basic Amstrad with a Monochrome Monitor a 40 Megabyte RAM and a Floppy Disc.
Did not understand Internet and there were so many companies trying to create search engines to help find information on the internet.
Believe it or not there was an Archie, a Veronica, Jug Head, Yahoo, Web Crawler, Lycos, Alta Vista, Netscape, Ak Jeeves, MSN, Google.
I used Yahoo and alta vista for searches as Google was unknown at that stage.
I got rid of my Amstrad and got myself a Windows XT, mainly to find out all about my Brain stem stroke what the possible causes were and how to cope with life.
This is when I became a Computer addict. My Computer was my Main Companion 24/7 with me stuck at home 24/7
in 2001 I was invited by IIT Madras alumni association to join my batch Yahoo Group. It was 31 years since I graduated from IIT Madras in 1970 and moved to Sydney in 1976 and had lost all connection with my classmates. Snail mail was the only option virtually and I was not much od a letter writer then nor am I today.
My Batch IIT Group was a Hit and I was extremely happy to reconnect with so many good friends and find out what they had done the last 31 years and where they were living now etc. Hundreds of emails were exchanged through our Yahoo Groups.
In 2002 I was in London on a long holiday and staying with my sisters not doing much.
I had an early morning dream and dreamt I had created a GLOBAL IIT Madras Yahoo group that was open to all alumni from IIT Madras. I felt excited but all my sister had in London was a basic computer like an XT and was slow as hell. It was my nieces computer. I shared my Dream with my niece and she said mama when I come home from work tonight I will help you out. She did and IIT Madras Golbal Yahoo Group was created.
In a Few days time my niece helped me send invites to as many IIT Chaps we could find and believe it or not many approved and joined and helped out spreading the news about my group. In a Matter of days my new Yahoo Group had 500 members. The group connected me with seniors and juniors from my college.
I came back to Sydney and told my IIT Delhi friend about my IIT Madras Global Group and he sadi why limit it to IIT Madras. Make it IIT Global to include all Five IITs. Why not I said.
I Changed the GROUPs Name to IIT GLOBAL and to my Good Luck I connected with Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala who is an IIT Kanpur Alumnus but was teaching at IIT Madras. I had shared articles on InterNet Kiosks in Rural India which was Ashok's Project that I found exciting.
Prof Jhunjhunwala next Linked me up with IITK Alumni President Ravi Chalu and before we realised we had 2000 members in IIT Global from all five IITs.
IIT Global Yahoo Groups still exist even though in Sept 2017, I decided to call it quits having managed the groups for 15 long years and I was burnt out and health problems like needing a Pacemaker meant it was Time to back off.
So this was another Early Morning Dream dream Come True for me.
Here is a BLOG I CREATED
IIT GLOBAL BLOG
Click on Caption to see the Blog that I do not maintain any more
