The Most Helluva Birthday Ever!

Swatantrata Bhavan Main Hall, IIT (BHU), Varanasi

The extravagant four day hiatus from the 12th to the 15th of November, on account of NMD-ATM 2013, marked by my birthday on Children's Day, finally comes to an end with a deafening boom. These few days have witnessed everything from technical sessions, cultural programmes and award ceremonies, to all the fun dinners and of course, a hell of a banquet at Hotel Clarks, on the 14th eve!

NMD-ATM, which is the acronym for 'National Metallurgy Day - Annual Technical Meeting', was being held in IIT (BHU), Varanasi after three whole decades. The organizing committee, with the help of all the volunteer teams, did a fabulous job and words of admiration from the delegates filled the cold winter air. I felt proud for having been appointed as the in-charge of the Swatantrata Bhavan Main Hall, along with close friend, colleague and associate, Sritam Rout. Being present side-stage, for almost all the major plenary sessions and the night of the enthralling Kathak dancers, was an absolute treat to the eyes.

The SB Main Hall beheld a tumultuous number of presentations, delivered by renowned professors honoured worldwide for their work in the field of metallurgy, which included heavyweights like Prof. H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia from Cambridge, An-Pang Tsai from Japan, D.H. Kim from South Korea, and P.M. Ajayan from Rice University, to mention a few. But this was just the tip of the iceberg! Parallel paper and poster presentations, as well as metallographic competitions were conducted simultaneously across ten lecture theatres in different departments, making the scale of the whole thing extremely difficult to fathom. After the much awaited visit by the Steel Minister of India, and a vote of thanks on the following day by several prominent personalities like Dr. G.K. Dey, Head of the Materials Science Division at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, the fest finally drew to a close.

The food was amazing too! With Indian, Chinese and Italian cuisines being served day in and day out, it couldn't get better than that. The icing on the cake came in the form of a banquet or dinner party at the well known Clarks Hotel, being thrown by our college for all the dignitaries present, to celebrate a successful NMD-ATM 2013! All types of non-vegetarian dishes and a variety of drinks, being served for the delegates and volunteers alike, couldn't have made for a better birthday feast for me. All this, coupled with establishing new contacts and making new friends, lead to the most helluva birthday celebration I have ever had!...

Memoirs of NMD-ATM 2013 & the Banquet at Clarks