5th HIM Artificers’ Meet (Family) – 03 Nov 2018 at the Purnam Mall, Bilaspur

Usually, HIM Artificers’ have been conducting its annual get together around Diwali, as most the partners are on leave, but the event was given a break during 2016 & 2017.  It was year 2018, three years have gone by since the last HIM Artificers Meet at Palampur, there was a strong and palpable urge prevailing among the HIM Artificers’ community for meeting in 2018.  Accordingly some of the partners suggested Bilaspur casually in a jiffy and the list started to pile up.  May be the huge response to Bilaspur meet was due to its convenient location as well as lack of GTs in the preceding years of 2016 & 2017. Never the less the list kept growing and growing, which was nightmare for organizers owing to constraint of suitable accommodation at Bilaspur. At times it looked difficult to have provided comfortable stay for partners & families of this magnitude (92 couples + 8 stags + kids) totaling towrads 260+. 

Subsequently, the organizing team was constituted and services of Mr Vibhor, brother-in-law of Ptnr Suneel Arya A/92 has played an important role in making this successful and biggest meet ever in the history of HIM Artificers. Myself (UD Sharma A/74) had to dash down to Bilaspur for a survey. As Purnam was under construction and it had only 10 rooms, we had to book almost all the available hotels at Bilaspur. Vibhor / Suneel Arya A/92 managed a good deal for hotel Sagar View & Prem Sagar. Further, with the help of ASP Vijay Saklani A/87, manged to get handsome discounts at Lake View (HPTDC hotel).

The 5th HIM Artificers’ Meet was concluded on 03 Nov 2018 at Purnam Mall, Bilaspur and was graced by the esteemed presence of Ptnr Cdr MN Sangal, VrC A/35 EAP, the only Naval personnel, the Veer Chakra winner from Himachal Pradesh. He was awarded Veer Chakra during 1971 Indo-Pak war for his extremely professional feat which enabled Indian Naval Missile boats bombarding Karachi harbour. This operation by Indian Navy had scuttled and rendered Pakistani fleet in-operational.

On the D day, all went fine, except few hiccups in Prem Sagar, where accommodation was not up to the mark. Making allotment was nightmare, as all classmates wanted to stay together, which was impractical. My gratitude to Partners of A/106 and few other juniors and stags to having made adjustments as the accommodation was scattered at four different places.  

The second day was spiced with Boating in the Govind Sagar lake and finally topping up with delicious Bilaspuri Dhaam (at Vibhor’s place), which was sponsored by Suneel Arya A/92. There were quite a few partners who could not attend owing to domestic exigencies, have donated their part of subscription eithr to Bilaspur-GT or Divya Manav Jyoti Anathalaya, Dehar, Mandi (FB Page – DMJA). The list of donors is:  

Special thanks to Ptnrs Sunil Guleria A/73 and Anil Thakur A/88 for T Shirts, Mukesh Kumar A/86 for Logistics, Vijay Saklani / Prem Sharma both A/87 for Mugs & Caps, Vijay Saklani A/87 & Karan Guleria A/88 for Car Stickers (sponsored), Suneel Arya A/92 for Identity Cards, Prem Sharma A/87 & Tanuj Sharma A/101 for List, Banner & Navigation Maps, Mahesh Sharma A/83, Sanjay Sharma A/85, Sanjeev Shandilya A/86, Sunil Patyal A/88 & Rakesh Kumar A/88 for general administration and collection.

Organising Team: Ptnrs; Sunil Guleria A/73, UD Sharma A/74, Ajay Sharma A/75, Mahesh Sharma A/83, Sanjay Sharma A/85, Mukesh Kumar A/86, Sanjeev Shandilya A/86, Vijay Saklani A/87, Prem Sharma A/87, Anil Thakur A/88, Sunil Patyal A/88, Rakesh Kumar A/88,  Suneel Arya A/92, Tanuj Sharma A/101 and Arvind Rana 106.

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Tags: 20185th GTAjay Sharma A/75Anil Thakur A/88Arvind Rana 106Arvind Rana A/106Bilaspuri DhaamBoatingCdr Ashmeet Sidhu A/73DMJAGovind Sagar LakeHotel Lake ViewHotel Prem SagarHotel Sagar ViewHS Rana A/87Karan Guleria A/88KR Verma A/44Mahesh Sharma A/83Mukesh Kumar A/86Prem Sharma A/87Purnam MallRajender Rana A/88Rakesh Kumar A/88Sanjay Sharma A/85Sanjeev Shandilya A/86Sarbjeet Rana A/70Suneel Aarya A/92Sunil Guleria A/73Sunil Patyal A/88Tanuj Sharma A/101UD Sharma A/74Vibhor SharmaVijay Saklani A/87