The JUIT Alumni Cell, Solan organised an Alumni Talk with Ms. Katyayani Bhatia, an alumnus of 2011 batch who is an officer in the Indian Revenue Service of 2018 Batch. She is currently the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, Government of India. Before joining the Government service, she worked in IBM Microsoft and State Bank of India. She is a voracious reader, an ardent admirer of Indian handlooms, she also mentors students for competitive examinations and runs her own blog, "The Melange" .She is very passionate about gender issues. As a probationer, she started gender sensitisation sessions at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, and continues to contribute on gender issues. She has also recently co-founded a gender collective named Viraam, addressing gender violence.
Dr. Tanu Sharma introduced Ms. Katyayani Bhatia to the faculty members, students and the alumni.
Dean of Academic and Research Prof. (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Gupta and Registrar Major General Rakesh Bassi (Retd) congratulated Ms. Katyayani for her great achievement in the various field she has worked till now. Dr. Saurabh Bansal welcomed Ms. Katyayani and also introduced the JUIT alumni cell. He also congratulated her and invited her to the campus to interact with students and faculty.
Ms. Katyayani Bhatia thanked everyone for organising this meeting and wished it would have been held offline in the campus. She started with the learnings and experiences she grasped during her life journey which helped her. She started the talk by showing some pictures of her life back in university. She emphasised on focusing on positivity and confidence in life. She also stated that there are efforts, desires and we all are striving to achieve our dreams but one should always go with the flow. She also talked about the implicit trust that exists between a student and the faculty which helps each of us to grow and take risks and explore ourselves.
She was also a member of Technical Club at the University and had also attended their conferences in Delhi. She also attended the India Today Conclave in Delhi where she understood the importance of the power of conversations and discussions. It was here where she learned about the realm of ideas. She talked about how JUIT Literary Club helped her to become a voracious leader and be a content creator. She also talked about how she learned teamwork and learning from other people. She also expressed how our strengths and weaknesses can be complemented by the group of people we are surrounding ourselves with & how simple routine life experiences end up teaching us much more.
Katyayani shared her experience at off campus internships after 3rd year and how her interview went with Microsoft and how she got selected there.
She talked about how wonderful the human mind is and the wonders it can do. She was the only intern selected in cloud computing. She spent her last semester in Florida where she has also worked as a research assistant in cloud computing. Next, she expressed the importance of schools, university in our life and referred to it as a 'foundation'.
After coming back from Florida, she started her preparation for civil services. She cleared the exam in her 5th try and also talked about how she almost cracked the exam in her previous tries but couldn't, not because she was not capable but because she lacked confidence and explained the importance of right attitude towards failure.
She joined the State Bank of India in 2015. She started her training in Missouri which filled her essence of peace, accomplishment and relief with a feeling of responsibility. She is the founder of "Viraam". She has initiated a series of gender sessions. She has regularly spoken on gender-related issues and has previously written on the topic of Menstrual Equity.
Next, she talked about how the faculty in JUIT had faith in her and how that has motivated her throughout the process. She ended her talk with the words "No Dream too Big", (the moto of the Jaypee group) motivating everyone to follow their dreams.
Dr. Hemant Sood congratulated our alum on her achievements and wished her success.
Interaction round began with the questions revolving majorly around her work life. She explained all the major aspects of her job which includes 'public dealing' income tax grievances, judicial issues pertaining to the department. When questioned about overcoming low points during her preparation, she took simple measures like cleaning her room, buying new plants and got back on schedule by doing a cost benefit analysis between giving up and still striving for the goal. She called it a 'sine curve' and not an 'exponential curve' as there are always ups and downs in life.
Professor Medury also joined the meet he congratulated her on all her accomplishments and wished her well for her future. She was asked questions about the jobs she did during the preparation and managing time throughout. She gave both equal amounts of time and was able to manage everything. She was asked about any quotes she has always believed in. She answered with two quotes "No dream too Big" and "Argue for your limitations and sure enough they are yours".
Next, she talked about her initiative "Viraam" which basically started to begin a conversation about "violence" which women are afraid to speak about. She wanted to start a conversation on all forms of latent and subliminal gender violence. It is all about educating women on what emotional abuse is and how talking and counselling can really help.
The forever present gender data gap is found in every field. Prof. Sunil Kuma Khah also expressed his concern regarding this topic. He believes the poor mentality of people is the root cause of these differences and inquired if our alum has done anything to change that. Katyayani believes that the change cannot be revolutionary but generational. She feels various government policies have helped in changing mindsets and her initiative "Viraam" is a step towards that direction. Heading towards the end Dr Sudhir Kumar Sir also congratulated her.
The session ended with a Vote of thanks by Achyut, the Secretary of Alumni Cell.
