Losing two stalwarts in a day — a big loss to the PEC Fraternity

Respectful bye-bye — Er. Bikram Singh Grewal (1923–2024) & Er. Amarjit Singh Kohli (1942–2024)

Tejinder Singh Bedi
@tsinghbedi

Jan 31st, 2024 was quite an unusual day in the rather quiet history of the Punjab Engineering College of Chandigarh. The institute lost two of its brightest alumni stalwarts on the same day!

Er. Bikram Singh Grewal, presumably the longest-living and the senior-most alumni from across the globe of the 1943 batch of Civil stream and the oldest student of his parent institute, MacLagan College of Engineering, Lahore, and former Chief Engineer of Public Works Department & Roads, Punjab from 1971 till retirement in 1981 breathed his last at his Chandigarh abode after completing a very healthy and active life of a complete century! Er Grewal was due to celebrate his 101st birthday on the coming 15th of February.

Er. Bikram Singh was a great source of inspiration and a role model for the younger generation pass-outs from this prestigious college, who made sure to regularly attend every global alumnus meet at the campus even in the most advanced years of his life! Antim Ardas for Er Bikram Singh Grewal Sahib is to be solemnized at the Sector 8 Gurdwara Sahib in Chandigarh on Feb 5 as per program beneath.

Equally saddening was the loss of Er. Amarjit Singh Kohli of the 1964 batch at his Green Park flat in Delhi on the same day at the not-so-old age of 82. Er, Kohli had earned a very respectable name as the Director of the Bureau of Indian Standards before venturing full-time into his concurrent lifelong passion for organizing several cultural and musical events across the country joining hands with and honoring almost every known who is who from the world of Bollywood and Music from as early as the first half of the eighties itself, initially under the banner of his well-known cultural society, Kala Sangam eventually rechristened as — Sakha,- meaning everyone’s friend, as he truly was. He remained in touch with most of his Bollywood friends till last year remembering them all on their birth and death anniversaries regularly. The last we spoke was on his last birthday on the 9th of August 2023.

Er Kohli’s passion for setting up the formation of PEC’s (Punjab Engineering College’s) first old boys association, named PECOBA from Delhi later renamed PECOSA (the term boys being replaced by students with the institute becoming an increasingly preferred choice of girl students too) remains his greatest and unparalleled contribution to the PEC fraternity and the institute to date especially when hardly any Information Technology tools were accessible to him for search and connect with anyone just like today! The get-together meet-ups for the alumni of the institute he organized in Delhi are possibly still the largest ever meet-ups of PECOSIANS anywhere across the world. The print directory of PECOBA he brought out in 2000 remains a cherished gift from him with most Pecosians till date.

He was also the first to run a series of homage programs dedicated to our other fellow Pecosian, Ms. Kalpana Chawla, India’s first woman space astronaut starting from the first at the PEC Campus itself, in which this author too had the privilege of singing, “Itna to karna swami, Jab pran tan se niklein… to a full house auditorium, co-attended by Er. Jaspal Bhatti of the 1978 batch, his equally talented better-half Savita Bhatti, and many other old boys.

If there was one PECOSIAN other than Er Jaspal Singh Bhatti, who had single-handedly carried the name of the Alma Mater to the world of Silver Screen and Glamour in India, or Ms Kalpana Chawla who had carried it to a Universe out there in Space too (!), it was Amarjit Singh Kohli only who had pioneered its permeation through his all-round multifarious cultural activities with almost every known celebrity from the field of arts and music in the country as early as in the first half of the eighties only and for which he can be safely referred to as the First Brand Ambassador of the Institute. Isn’t it an irony of fate that Kalpana’s death anniversary also falls just a day after the choice of Jan 31st by these two stalwarts!!

Bhog and Antim Ardas for Er. Kohli is announced as on Feb 04, 2024 (Sunday) between 12.30 Hrs to 13.45 Hrs — IST followed by Guru Ka Langar at Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sahib at Greater Kailash — II, Block E in Delhi and can be joined virtually too by accessing the following link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81357554959?pwd=KEWsArjpq3rWCJYCvdkTVwkcBtWZeD.1

Meeting ID: 813 5755 4959

Passcode: 9svA31