The Founder's Voice - By Calvin Raj

I, Calvin Raj am one of the founding members, the first captain, power-train head and first driver for Team Solarium. ‘Amazing’ would be understating the experience form the 2 years spent with the team. First and Second year of Engineering went by quite quickly, there being a few memorable and fun moments – Sec ‘C’, Bolt action, Spectrum, PVC being keywords to some of the stories associated with them. During the Third year of engineering, I was working on a project, part of MESA and R&D team. Dr. Roy, the faculty in-charge of the R&D team approached us with a challenge – NSVC. We initially hesitated, but, Dr. Roy and Dr. Lakade, HoD of Mechanical Department at that time helped up, giving us the confidence to go ahead, resulting in the formation of a team, filled with only SE and TE Mechanical students.

This is just the beginning of a team of rag-tag engineers that would defy the norms and standards, taking crazy levels of risk - the beginning of ’Team Solarium’. The team would evolve over time, changing its approach and style, not forgetting the legacy. There were technical challenges, intense working hours, administrative pressures, legislative curve balls (In the form of demonetization, GST, etc.), breakdowns, internal disputes and other issues, but, we came out of these situations stronger and more resilient, resulting in joyous and treasured moments – lots of them.

I was just another guy

An opportunity came by

   Little did I know

   How it would go

I showed my interest

History, that’s what’s next

   Team Solarium came to be

   A small part it, was me

Emotions would run high

With a low, nearby

   Some things could drive you mad

   Other things would make you glad

There’ll be sleepless nights

Just to set some things right

  I was just another guy

  The opportunity went by

Little did I know

Now I know more