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Visit of Sahasrabudhes
Dear Friends:
This is a belated account of the lunch organized on April 2, 2018 at Bombay Gym to
meet Dr. Vikas Saharabudhe and Ishrat Sahasrabudhe Fortess members from Tampa,
FL, USA.
The following FORTESS members attended:
- Adi Cooper
- Suresh Kumar
- Harish Menon
- Lata S Prasad
- Ranjana Maitra
- PS Vishwanathan
- Pankaj Baliga
We all had a good discussion on how to take FORTESS forward in terms of:
- Increasing the membership
- Making it more relevant and attractive to a wider cross section of potential members
- Clarity in articulating the objectives of the association
- Engaging in activities which will resonate with the members
I had requested all to put on their ‘white’ thinking hats and take some time and put
down their thoughts and share them.
Adi had suggested some former TCSers whom we could approach to join and their names are:
- Pravin Gandhi
- Zaheer Chinoy
- Vinay Aggarwal
- Lalit Kanodia
- Nirmal Jain
- Yash Sahni
Vikas also jotted down his views, and I am reproducing them for your perusal:
Hi Jayant,
Many thanks for graciously organizing lunch at Bombay Gym for Ishrat and I to meet many ex-TCSers. I enjoyed meeting a colleague from all those years ago – Adi Cooper – and others who had joined TCS after my stint at TCS, namely Ranjana Maitra, Harish Menon, Suresh Kumar, Lata Prasad, PS Viswanathan, and Pankaj Baliga. I had heard and known
how TCS had grown and evolved since my time, but it was truly eye-opening and heartening listening to what these individuals have done in and for TCS. Here are my notes from that discussion and my comments on some of them. After initial meeting and greetings, the talk quickly focused on how to make FORTESS a vibrant, active organization. There were two suggestions for broad goals/targets that would or could make it relevant and also be attractive to potential members.
- (1) “Give back to society” similar to community service – One possible target could be to help improve literacy in three R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic) with or without leveraging technology – something that India needs in spades. Of course, this will require working with other organizations, dealing with bureaucracies, motivating people to take advantage of such help, etc., but TCSers are well versed in all those areas. I think this would be a worthwhile goal to pursue.
- (2) “Give back to TCS” – One possible target would be to offer mentoring to “younger” generation in TCS. Of course, that will require working collaboratively with TCS. I do not think this would be a viable goal because current TCS management would have already contacted (and even contracted) those they think could provide such help. There was also discussion of the advantages of working with TCS rather than keeping it at arm’s length. Examples sighted were alumni associations of universities working closely with the universities. Of course, if and how this can work will have to be discussed with TCS management. I think this will certainly help FORTESS in pursuing its goals. I heard a sense of urgency in increasing participation in FORTESS and making it active. That would be good, but I do not think that can be driven. It has to evolve and that will take time. If FORTESS can get one or two small activities rolling for the “give back to society” goal, it would give a sense of achievement and attract others to join the organization. Cheers,
Vikas
