Farewell - Top Guns - 2012 - Vote of Thanks!

A very good evening to all of you! Respected Anurag sir, Akhil sir and respective Head of Departments and other faculty members, my dear friends and my lovely juniors. I Ankit Bahuguna is standing here to talk about what defines our batch and how this journey means personally to me.

Truth be told, I was least expecting to be invited here to give Vote of thanks representing our batch this farewell. But, I am very happy and I feel honored to be here with you tonight!

To be honest, the journey didn't begin too well... Coming here, I was shy, dejected and had a lot of pain in my heart that i had no one to share with. And it happens when you loose everything you ever loved in life! By that i mean both tangible and Intangible things. But i always believed that i could make things different. I had faith and all i needed was some strong results. In due time i realized how different my life was and today after spending almost one and a half years at IIT Mumbai and having a world wide recognition in 8 different organizations and contribution in both research and development. I know that its just the beginning. Everything i have been through so far is just a glimpse of the future to come.. as if each event screams to me to get ready... the next one will be even bigger!

I might sound a bit episodic tonight ... but, i will take this opportunity to answer some questions, left unanswered in the past. I will certainly like to mention a few events i was associated closely in college, be it presenting research papers, winning debate competitions and Technika Naitus, to inauguration of LinCom and Anant - first technical Initiative of this kind in Rajasthan, To the Induction of spoken tutorial based workshops. I really want to thank the college management: Anurag Sir, Akhil Sir, Rahul Sir , Yogi Sir, Ajay Saini Sir, Vivek sir, Satyabrata sir, Abhinav sir, Rajesh Sir, Mohit Sir, Shalini Ma'am, Sarveen Ma'am, Abhilasha Ma'am, Nimit Sir, Vivek Vyas Sir, Gurmangat Sir and Vishal Sir, who helped me greatly in making me realize my dreams. Akhil sir... I still remember the famous heated up one-on-one discussion at CL 1 on life, academics and goals... I hope i didn't disappoint you much..even if i did... I hope to cover it up with all the good work in the future :) I will also take some time to thank all my mentors: Dr. Leena Vachhani, Dr. Kannan Moudgalya, Dr. Santosh Nornha, Dr. Pushpak Bhattacharya (IIT Bombay), Dr. Hanumanta Rao (Yahoo India), Chris Mills (W3C), Vineel Reddy (Mozilla India), Anna Brandt (Opera) , Dr. Nagarjuna (TIFR) who really helped me with their useful inputs whenever I felt troubled. Thanks a lot!!!

College life is incomplete if i do not recall my friends and all the fun i had with them. Special thanks to Suresh, Dhiraj, Smiti, Himanshu, Bhashker, Kriti, Shubham, Vikram, Abhishek, my seniors Komal and Sanjay Sir for helping me in various stages of my life! Hardwork pays divident ... but great friends give you life.... Suresh literally help me get my life back which i had forgotten how to live long back. And Dhiraj.. oops DK -- If i was the genesis behind a lot of great things, then the real force/ the support/ the person who stayed up for me when i wanted him among all the adversities.. it was this one man... named Dhiraj Kumar Sharma.. Thanks a lot my buddy and my dear roomie :) There are several others in the list and don't feel offended, your contribution was equally important... and i know that from the core of my heart! I Love you all and thank you!!!

The discussion will be deemed incomplete if i do not mention all the girls of my batch. Which to be honest are looking glamorously beautiful tonight.. seriously, a site i missed dearly in the IIT Mumbai campus (not that i complain too much about Mumbai) :P

I want to thank and congratulate the entire LinCom Team superseded by efforts of Dhiraj Sharma to one put up a great event like Exergie 2012. I really found it worthy and one among the highest level!

A special mention to all my very special juniors - Hitesh, Jagdish, Maruti, Ayush, Aditya, Sudeep, Neeraj, Anjili, Archana, Ramanpreet, Shashank, Anil, Gourav who helped me in executing a lot of key events in the college. Their dedication is simply astounding! And i wish all my juniors my very best... As always i will be there for you in case you need any help... just drop me an email... :)

I stayed in the college hostel for 3 years and though i was never a great fan of our mess food, i still want to appreciate the efforts of the entire mess team and a special mention to Mahaveer for keeping me alive, while i was away from home... :)

I wasn't here regularly for the last 3 semesters and i perhaps i might be the most ideally suited person among all to face the consequences of a farewell. All this time I missed you all and I missed everything... And now we are towards the very end! But yet i think the feeling is sinking in deep... slowly and may be by the end of the night it will be at its peek! I did leave this place but in my heart it was my college, a college i found great friends, learned a lot about life and relationships, a place where my hunger to succeed aroused and i developed the strength to do the right thing no matter what the circumstances be!

Late Steve Jobs, who was an exceptional visionary and creative thinker of the modern era is one of the few people i am inspired a lot just by his sheer work ethics. So, as a farewell message I want to share a few lines delivered by Steve on life and faith:

Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.

Before, i really say Sayonara... I want to put up my signature adieu to all: Be well, stay happy, do good work and keep in touch. And yes... No Goodbyes … Just say “see ya soon”.....Thank you very much! Keep Smiling :) :) :)