A wonderful reunion and expedition in Africa

Its Time For Africa … ITFA 2018

We are just back from a grand College reunion at Nairobi called ITFA 2018.
A big group of classmates from the 1984 Electrical Engineering batch from College of Engineering Trivandrum under the banner Nostalgia CET EE84 set course to Kenya for an African expedition. The interesting part was that our group was not just this 29 EE class mates but a larger group of 78 people. Apart from the EE84s and their spouses, the group also had some more CETians (non EE84s but of similar kind…) and their spouses. With 13 more from the new gen deciding to join us for this African expedition, the total number of the ITFA group swelled to 78 in number.

Indeed ITFA 2018 was a memorable trip of 8 days in Africa for all of us. The trip gave us an opportunity to re-bond and spend quality time with old class mates, their spouses and best of friends, 34 yrs after leaving CET. The people who attended including the youngsters are very much a part of the success of this trip. We had an amazing time exploring Africa together. In this time we went on a Wild life Safari in Massaimara to witness the “Great annual migration of Animals”, travelled to other exotic locations in Kenya like Lake Naivasha, Ol Pajeto Conservancy and the like. The group got a flavor of African music and dance, interacted with local tribes and had a closer look at their lives and culture.

There was never a dull moment in these 8 days, as we had many activities planned for each day to keep us engaged. Apart from usual music and entertainment events in the evenings, we also experimented with some serious conversations through the “Past, Present & future conversations” session to charge up the (literally) grey and graying cells. These conversations brought out some interesting perspectives and ideas from different segments of the crowd. I believe some of these may trigger certain new initiatives for the future.

It was amazing to witness the enthusiasm of our crowd. I saw the team holding on despite the tight schedules and tiring long drives, and then again participating in our late evening entertainment and early morning walks as well after that. This shows the die-hard spirit of our team.

I believe one of the main reasons the tour was so memorable is because the entire crowd meshed extremely well and we became a homogeneous group and moved around with singular purpose – “have fun and make best of this great tour”. A big salute and sincere thanks to our spouses, our guests (the non EE84 gang) and the youngsters in our group for their full involvement and enthusiastic participation in all events.

We put our heart and soul into ITFA planning and with the excellent support of our able and committed friends ( the org. Committees) we could execute with near perfection. At the end of the day it gives us all immense joy and satisfaction that the show went on well and to note that each and every participant of ITFA 2018 enjoyed the 8 days African expedition.

It was a unique experience travelling with this group of friends and really look forward to the next one in 2019.