A student presents a bouquet to alumni members at the BIT-Sindri reunion on Sunday. (Gautam Dey)

Old boys caught up on batchmates, jived to Bollywood numbers with the young bunch and took a bus trip down memory lane in town, as alumni from the class of 1986 lived up a memorable silver jubilee reunion at BIT-Sindri this weekend.

More than 60 former pupils, who had joined the engineering cradle in 1982 and graduated four years later, came together for an aptly named Bharat Milap (the reunion of Lord Rama with his brothers after a 14-year exile) for a three-day bash at their own masti ki pathshala.

The reunion began informally on Friday around 7am with the alumni signing in, having turned up from across the country and abroad. A cultural programme at Deshpande auditorium followed, during which both former and current students delivered impromptu song and dance performances.

Those who missed out on the fun could follow it on the web, as the programme was streamed live. The day ended with a special dinner while the party continued on Day 2. On Sunday, director of BIT-Sindri S.K. Singh formally launched the reunion by lighting a traditional lamp amid the presence of the alumni, faculty members, head of departments and students.

Singh spoke about the recent achievements of the institute, including its improved ranking and placement figures and other infrastructure upgrade. The number of engineering branches in BIT-Sindri has grown from eight during the days of the 86-batch to 10.

Anil Kumar Gupta, an alumnus and the general manager of Rail Land Development Authority in Delhi, handed a cheque of Rs 7 lakh on behalf of the ’86 batch to the director.

“The money will be used as a corpus fund for offering scholarships to meritorious students from financially weak families,” said Gupta.

The alumni also presented a shield to the institute. “The shield will be annually awarded to the best branch of BIT-Sindri, which will be adjudged on the basis of placements, academic performances, extracurricular activities and other parameters,” said lieutenant colonel Manoj Kumar, also an 86-batch alumnus.

The former students also offered counselling tips to the current batch and took a bus tour of Sindri along with their family members on Sunday. The reunion concluded with another cultural programme. A directory filled with details of the alumni was distributed to each of them.

“This was the first time that a silver jubilee of a batch has been celebrated here. It was a great experience for us, as we strolled along the campus where we spent four years of our lives,” said Gupta.

“The idea of organising a reunion struck a few of us about a year ago and we asked for the permission of the institute. The authorities had initially agreed to allow us to stage the reunion during the daylong alumni meet (held in September every year) but they finally gave us a different slot,” he added.