Alumni meet at London,U.K

1st Nov.2006

Recent visit of Mary Joseph to Canada, London-UK, Brussels and Paris have alerted the alumni fraternity very well. Here is a photo update from Shuby, London.

Guess who is who?

Glimpses of Toronto get-together

of alumni on Oct.28,2006.,

while Dr.Mary Joseph was in Canada.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Part of the team and their better halves and children with Mary

At the York University and Toronto Eaton Centre (below)

Baby Paul, Jose Varghese, Thomas Antony, Sebastian Mathew, Rexon Ray,Sajan Mathew (behind), Ajimol Joseph,Joby Joseph(behind)

are the alumni seen in these pictures .

Martin C.Mathews, Pinky Jison and Suja Nicholas sent notices of absence.

Our alumni (of both RCSS and RSOM or RISER) who could not join this time or those who did not receive an e-mail communication are encouraged to get in touch with any of us and are welcome to be part of this fraternity in future. Alumni can also send an e-mail to josenet2000@yahoo.com with contact details or call Jose at 416 638 6757.

Ask for a summary of what have been transpired in the gathering.

Highlights of the Toronto get-together of alumni of Rajagiri college in the presence of visiting Vice Principal Dr.Mary Joseph (click on pictures to enlarge)

A view of the downtown core of Toronto ...

atop Canadian National Tower, World's tallest freestanding tower

with alumni hosts and past time colleagues...

and enjoying local hospitality

Highlights of Dr.Mary's programs in Toronto included a visit to the School of social work at York University, Learning more about the Library and archiving system, visiting the campus of University of Toronto, a visit to the local CMI house, visiting/consulting several associates and alumni of Rajagiri and experiencing some of the great attractions and cultural landmarks of Toronto.

Toronto Welcomes Dr.Mary Joseph ....

Vice Principal of Rajagiri school of social work and chairperson of the board of studies in Social work of Mahatma Gandhi University and a long- time friend of many alumni Mary Venus Joseph is currently on a tour to Canada exploring ways and means to develop new levels of academic and alumni relationships. The Alumni fraternity of GTA has great pleasure to acknowledge her persistent efforts to strengthen the 'alumni-alma mater connection' and to welcome Mary Joseph to Toronto.

A get-together of the Rajagiri fraternity is scheduled for Saturday,28th Oct.2006 and Mr.Baby Paul (MSW 1989 batch) has offered to host the meet. Many Thanks to Baby and Jessy for their thoughtful gesture.... Since the last get-together in the presence of Fr.Prasanth an year ago, many alumni have several notable achievements in their profession and in their family and social life, that many would be happy to share with the group. New and more interesting jobs, new academic achievements, addition of family members, interesting assignments that include traveling to many countries, meeting new people and productive relationships and so on...

This is the time to share your happiness and the great value attached to it . Let us strengthen the friendship and fraternity to become more enriching for us and our families and also for the school where we learned several new skills.

Sharing 'Sauhrudam' at Rajagiri....

This writer had the pleasure of meeting and talking with a few members of the faculty, social workers and social scientists who lead and contribute to the campus based community development experiments called 'the live-labs', several of the continuing extension program staff and associates during August and September . It was a worthy exercise of sharing, updating and upgrading.

Beyond that I could witness the 'sauhrudam' of hundreds of sponsored children and their families who had come from different parts of the state to share their experiences on a common plat form and to take part in the silver jubilee celebrations of a project started in a small way. ' CASP' unit based at the college has flourished to reach newer heights and has opened up new avenues in life for several hundreds of children.
A day long gathering of about 1000 people, titled 'Sauhrudam 2006' was a rich blend of display of talents, sharing of experiences of children, parents and teachers. It was complimented by brief inspiring talks given by community leaders, social workers from different fields. The captain of CASP-the Community Aid and Sponsorship Program at Rajagiri is M.P Antoni, 'a great man in small size' as many colleagues refer to.

With a new resolve...in the new year

Hi fellow Rajagirians,

It is another NEW YEAR for us. Those who keep at least a bit of humanism as their face-mark, while living and working with our fellow human beings, saw the worst of catastrophes during the past year.The enormous proportion of loss of lives and the vast destruction of property following the fury of Mother Nature whether it be the tsunami that affected Indonesia, Sreelanka, Thailand, Southern India and several other nations, or the worst of hurricanes across Louisiana and Texas or the earth quakes in Pakistan and northern regions of India, wiped off hundreds of thousands of people from this beautiful World and devastated the hopes of as many families.

A number of air, rail and road tragedies took the lives of thousands...unknown and known diseases and life styles have made thousands of children orphans. Senseless human brutality also played havoc to humanity in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Gun violence ended the lives of almost 60 youngsters in Toronto.
However, the generosity of humanity has surpassed all levels to alleviate the sufferings of numerous families and innocent children all across the globe. Still millions of families, displaced people and victims of social evils are struggling to make their lives better...fighting the odds of the world... millions of children are in poverty around the world expecting more humanistic interventions in this world.
So ...we have opportunities ...infact more, to spice the world with a spirit of love, compassion and concern and to make it a little better.

Incidentally,we have a group of alumni including this writer who celebrate silver jubilee of their graduation at Rajagiri, (1981-2006) who live in different parts of the world and share most of these concerns. We send good wishes to fellow Rajagirians and friends and all our associates for a better, rewarding and satisfying year ...

Anil Ramachandran, Mathew Varghese, Joseph Thomas, Fr.Joy Mampilly CMI,Shobiamma (all USA)
Jose Varghese, (Canada)
Flowery , Ragini , Lissy (Bangalore)
Varkiachan Pettah (Trivandrum),
Baby Jacob, Beena (Kothamangalam)
Rasheeda Salim,Chandran (Ernakulam)
Valsa Johny (Chalakudy),
Sherly Devasia, Tessy Joshy (Kottayam),
Shaji Varghese (Chennai),
Thankachen (Mumbai),
Sr. Rose(Germany),
Sheela (UAE),
Rosamma ,Chandrababu(FederalBank,Kottayam),
Regi... and their families
share their Joy with the alumni friends and the faculty of Rajagiri institutions on this occasion,
especially with Fr.Moses (USA),
Fr. Alex (Director), Prof. Balakrishnan, Dr.Thankom Jacob, Sr.Thecla,Past faculty,
Dr.Sebastian Mampilly (CUSAT), Dr.Varghese Kalaparambath (BMIM), Dr.James Thomas (UAE University) and Paul Njalieth (USA)... and with the non-teaching staff and friends at the Campus ...and paying respectful homages to the memmory of late Prof.Kuriakkose.

Our Kudos to the new team of Dr.Joseph Injodey (Principal) Dr.Mary Venus Joseph (Vice Principal) and Fr.Prasant and for the great inspiring leadership of Fr. Alex.

Would Rajagiri think of Newton's heritage or....

The apple of York’s eye - When York students want to come up with groundbreaking scientific discoveries, they can now go to Newton 's apple trees, reported the Toronto Star Oct. 20. That's possible because five years ago, University biologists managed to plant three tiny trees, which had been grafted with cuttings from the Newton original, in a quadrangle on the Keele Street campus. One of those trees recently sprouted an apple for the first time. Biologist Michael Boyer, professor emeritus in York 's Faculty of Science & Engineering, said York 's fledgling trees, the first to flourish in Canada other than in research settings, take their place among other descendants of Newton 's famed tree in the United States , including at the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, and in England . "We hope this might act as a stimulus [to discovery]," Boyer said, noting it took York almost a decade to acquire and successfully plant Newton 's tree. "Sometimes great ideas flow from simple things."

Of course not an apple tree; Rajagiri could think of a mango tree from Nalanda or Taxila or Viswa bharati to invigorate newer insights.....?

For friends in other countries: York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada, the third largest in the country. York - an autonomous not- for - profit corporation, is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. The Schulich School of Business at York University was ranked number three in the world in a global ranking of the world's top MBA programs after Stanford and ESADE of Spain.

More discussion and more fun around the dinner table

Glimpses of the fraternity GTA, Sep.2005



Discussions....


Dinner and exchange


Lighter moments

This is a 'who is who' picture.,Rajagiri Fraternity Meet GTA.
(If the picture does not open on your screen click on the pic.frame which will lead to a Flickr photo page. After opening the picture, move your cursor over each person in the picture to find out 'who is who'.....)
Sorry, this picture is unavailable for the time being.

Today Thomas wrote: Hi Rajagirians,

Thanks a lot for your visit. We were delighted to have you all with us on Saturday. Happy to know that we are a great force.

Please see some photos of our getogether. More photos will follow.

Thanks and regards. Thomas Anthony
More pictures of the GTA Rajagiri Fraternity get-together below