IIT Bombay

It was fall in the land of rising sun and that time of the year when another batch of freshmen from

our beloved institute came over to Japan with eyes full of dream and heart full of curiosity to see the

unseen and explore the unexplored. The EC of IITBAA Japan Chapter got together over several

Skype meetings in spite of the busy daily schedules of most of us here at office and home (to be

noted that it is a sisyphean task on any given day, to get all the EC members together, even on

*The terms “institute” or “insti” has been interchangeably used in the rest of this write-up to refer

IIT Bombay.

Alumni Association

Japan Chapter

Freshmen welcome 2016: event report

“Shall we have it outside Tokyo this time? “

What started off as a casual banter among a

few Executive Committee (EC) members of

the still fledgling Japan Chapter of IITBAA,

actually turned out to be a remarkable event

in the brief history of our chapter.

Considering the average age of the IITB

alumnus living in Japan still in 20’s, most of

us are single, doing our best to rush to office

early in morning in this country of supreme

punctuality, manage work assignments till

evening, speaking Japanese on and off work,

coming home and cooking something that

can be called anything but food (how badly

people here cherish those good old and

carefree insti-days* of flocking to mess after

a long day, and then cursing the Hostel Mess

Secy over the food, after having a stomach-

full of healthy diet), we are indeed growing

up in leaps and bounds!

Skype), to chalk out the outline of another fresher’s welcome event that would potentially stay in

the young minds for years to come. IITBAA Japan Chapter is a small closely-knit happy family,

still in its initial days, yet we have been having freshmen welcome in the month of November

consistently over the last few years, albeit always in Tokyo so far.

“Almost a dozen of freshmen would be moving to Koriyama in October and they have confirmed to

join the event”. Aniket, our alumnus from Koriyama, a quaint pastoral town in Fukushima

prefecture, shared the information that got us all champing at the bit. Nothing could be a better

reason for us to bring the welcome event, traditionally organized at the busy and bustling heart of

the Tokyo metropolis, to a scenic location in the lap of the splendid nature of countryside Japan.

Rahul, our freshman from last year, took the lead, ably guided by the rich experience of president

Raghunandan, and tits and bits from the rest of us in the EC committee. After swaying initially

between a few good options, we finally settled with Chuzenji lake at Nikko, a spectacular

waterbody confined in between lofty mountains all around at a height of 1269 meters above the sea

level. The spot is nearly equidistant from the cities of Tokyo and Koriyama and was hence selected

as it could potentially attract the maximum number of participants owing to its location.

Get, set and go!

Early morning! And that’s just putting it mildly, it was way too early in fact, for people who have

hardly known what a “morning” is, till barely a few years back when they were in the insti (recall

those 8:30 am lectures….and this time it was 6:30. Fancy!). Two rental cars, driven by two of our

alumni, left from Kawasaki city, each carrying 9 alumni from the different corners of Tokyo and

Kawasaki city. The bunch of people who were supposed to join us at Nikko coming from Koriyama

left together by train. And began the road trip, a much awaited one; something that we needed so

badly, to let loose ourselves, and lose ourselves too.

Pic. 1: Leaving behind

the Tokyo metropolis

In some time, we slowly left behind the high rises and the ostentatious architectures of one of the

trendiest metropolis of the world, as our cars took the highways and flyovers that appear intertwined

with each other both in ground and space of downtown Tokyo. Came the countryside, lush green

paddy fields on both sides of the road, the solitary reaper and the light blue sky….horizon to

horizon, unobstructed by any human construction. Just drop down the window pane by a few inches

and you are all set to be blown away by the pristine fresh air.

Nature is all set to charm us with her fall outfit. As we near the destination at Nikko, the roads take

hairpin curves up the mountain and the mountains look drop-dead gorgeous in the seasonal fall

outfit of the red leaved trees. The mountain tops and the bottomless abysses obscured by the teasing

clouds and fogs respectively, leave you guessing their heights and depths. As we take a short

roadside stop, people jump out of the cars irresistibly to set their souls free in the opulent nature all

around.

Pic. 2: On the highway en route to countryside Japan

Pic. 3: Nearing Nikko

Pic. 4: Seasonal red leaves indicating the onset of fall.

Finally we reached. Its one of those reunions where you meet all those souls who were either your

batchmate or acquaintance in the insti, or someone whom you have met in one or the other earlier

get-togethers of the chapter months back! One senses that togetherness that we all live here in

different parts of this island country, away from home, but then we all get busy in the routined

worklife and keep waiting for the next event to bump in to each other again. Time for shakehands

and hugs. Leaving this part to the reader’s imagination what possibly can a bunch of Indians banter

about when they huddle up far away from homeland. We enter a small cozy restaurant near the bus

stop for lunch and began the self-introductions, formally. “How is Tokyo?”, “Are there lot of

Indians around in Koriyama?”, “Abey, all Indians of Koriyama are right here!”, “So, you speak

Japanese?”, “Where do you play cricket yaar?”, “Abey I can’t eat non-veg”, ….random excerpts

from the initial conversations which turned louder and cozier with time. Barely anything was left

that wasn’t talked about, starting from respective supervisors at IIT to the current boss at office!

Pic. 5: Happy family saying ”sushiiii”together

Cruise on the lake

Finally an hour-long cruise on the spectacular Chuzenji lake; yes, goes without saying that we

Indians were in majority on the cruise and then it was all Hindi! Wish there could be words to

express the spell bounding beauty of the lake, the hide and seek that the sun was playing with the

clouds behind the surrounding mountains in the late afternoon, adding a different color to the scene

all together. Goes below few shots which might serve better than words in capturing the

transcendent beauty of nature that was out on display.

Pic. 6 and 7: The many shades of Chuzenji ko

We flocked to the famous Kegon waterfall through which the water of Chuzenji lake drains, soon

after. People dispersed in small sized groups and roamed around freely as the sun bid us adieu for

the day and the dusk created a magical ambience in the surroundings of the lake.

It was a freezing cold evening and we had to hurry to get back to our respective cities, Koriyama

and Tokyo. Seeing off the Koriyama junta at the bus stop, our cars took to road again. As the

wheels started rolling, there was hardly any moment that we kept quiet even after a long tiring day.

A dinner halt at an Indian restaurant on the way and we binged on anything and everything! Finally,

a last group pic of the Tokyo junta!

Life goes on. We came back to Tokyo, got flowing with the daily schedules; has been a month since

the trip. But it was one of those days that make a place permanently somewhere close to heart; such

that when we would look back at the photo album years later, we would get drawn to it instantly.

Not all of us would be around in Tokyo forever, but life is all about the moments spent together and

cherishing them wherever we are.

Pic. 8: All smiles after much cherished Indian dinner

Worded by Prakash Chaki, EE,Class of 2013. Photo courtesy: IITBAA Japan Chapter