March to the Past - Jamshedpur After 25 years

Since I came back from Jamshedpur the last two weekends have been too busy trying to manage the tasks related to settling down in a new house – a positive change from the serviced apartment I was staying in earlier. Coupled with that the work at office and fixing my daughters school took a lot of time and energy – physical and mental.

Thankfully since the Kuwait Government decided that the 3rd of January(Sunday) would also be a holiday, the week of four days vanished and that made sure that the weekend arrived early. So on a cool Friday morning I have been going through all the mails of XL84 right from say about July and then the last two weeks!!

Since Rajan’s Birthday celebrations was a celebration I could not attend for obvious reasons of distance, the only way I could reflect on those two days were the photographs and the process of narrating the events to Tinni and Tisha!! I reckon that would be the situation for a lot of us.
I did not know that people would like my rather amateurish attempts of trying to capture fleeting moments of time and I thank you for your kind words. Senthil’s poetry and Muthu’s remark on my current job are points to ponder on. Disco and NS’s and Girish’s kind words will be a good strength.

I read Abbey’s words on New Year resolution and though I would not make one, I would definitely look at sharpening my skills in terms of capturing the rapture of moods and scenes!!More than New Year resolutions I feel like committing myself to some other important steps that I need to take. Like I should ensure that I send a message or two to our Group every week with the selfish interest that if all of us do perhaps we would knit ourselves better. Like if and when I visit any place take a bit of time and find out the mates living there and at least call if not meet. That we need to be in touch is a clichéd theoretical advice, but I know how being in touch has helped me in extremely difficult times!! Anto was the one to impress upon me that this visit is a must and my regards for him!!

Twenty Five years is a long time and when I went back to Jamshedpur this time I did think about the loss of not building enough relationships with a lot of mates. The reunion humbled me a lot in terms of how people care and how I in my immaturity would have ignored those signals twenty five years ago!!


There are many occasions in life we would remember vividly and this meet was one of them for sure. I came back to Kuwait and the one thing that I have been preaching to colleagues and friends here is that they should make it a point to organize and attend and involve themselves in these lifetime situations!!


The first person I met at Howrah was Shantanu and the casual conversation during the journey made me forget the dirty surroundings of a Janashatabdi train. Prithvish my ex roomie was the second in the train. It turned out to be that Sanjoy and Ronald Sequiera was travelling in Ispat Express and the same was delayed due to overhead wire problem at Howrah. Tatanagar station was crowded and the station definitely had more crowds. We hired a Tata Sumo and while devouring the change in the city realized that the Circuit House area was pretty much the same except perhaps a traffic light or two.



The XLRI Gates had changed and when we entered the campus we could not locate a single soul. We straight went to the MDP Hostel and checked in. The first person we met was Jakes and when we exclaimed --- he was rather surprised that we recognized him with his gained girth (me too) and “no hair” head. The proceedings had already started in a building that was non-existent during our time. After a quick wash, reached the audi and found all those long lost familiar faces all hearing Shanks talk about the administrative part of our stay.



Ex Dean Jeetu Singh spoke a bit about XL and its future with bits and pieces of unstructured suggestions thrown in by the erstwhile alumni. I was itching to take shots and did manage many with my Nikon. It was also time for embracing, hugging and recognizing the new avatars that had gathered on this 21st day of December, 2009 from all over the world. Coming to think of it, I was rather proud of us that we had all made it and the driver was that pure itch to meet up with old friends!! Perhaps we met after twenty five years to put our seal to make these everlasting connections. Time will tell as always!!




A Cricket Match with the Juniors (2008-2010) was held at the new (??) playground. Rajan, NS, Murali and others showing their prowess amongst others it was an enjoyable and hilarious game!! While this was on, a few did manage an afternoon siesta and then the sun went down. A visit to Dadu’s Dhaba was a must but instead of Dadu I saw Uncles serving!! There was a perma stall serving Southern cuisine too. The atmosphere was however just like before and sitting on those benches were like reliving our earlier forgotten stints.




The evening was a bit more sombre with Father Mcgrath being felicitated by our batch. However the precursor to the event was a boring speech accompanied with an unprofessional powerpoint presentation by the present Director and we quickly tried to forget this bit. It was tremendous to see Father talking and chatting with his intact impeccable sense of humor. He made it a point to speak to everybody. The waves of energy that he manages to pass on to you is something you would feel, if only you get near him.




The night however belonged to all of us and Jakes. While the Junior Batch had put up this show of song routines, it was interspersed with Jakes prepared songs and speech routine that put fire on to everybody’s hearts. It was an evening to remember for years and went on for hours. It was something like we never wanted to end and if Jakes had doubled the menu that he had served; we would have just gone on and on. We will have an encore and I hope somebody is already thinking of an encore.

The breakfast at Beldih club arranged by Vivek was out of the world. In spite of the late night we all did manage to land up there while some went for the morning golf too. We just wanted to soak in every event that was held and did not want to miss out on any.


The Institute had a memento shop selling all kinds of souvenirs. Both the days people managed to grab whatever they could lay their hands on. T Shirts, Wallets, Caps, Jackets and the works were all quickly lapped up by the hungry. Sizes were an issue where some of us perhaps preferred a XXXL but that was not to be. At the end of it the shopping gave us a sense of accomplishment!!


A few decided to go to Bishtupur for the milk shake and rolls routine while a few again went back for the siesta on the 2nd day afternoon. And a few of us just gathered in our old lawn and went on with our chatter. Anything that was happening we wanted to continue to be immersed in and at the same time we wanted to be part of the next one too. So the evening Tea at the Sarin’s on a floodlit roof was excellent. The Bengali Sandesh made of Date based jaggery and the Ginger Tea – all combined for a heady effect. The spirits were of course there in bounty but that was for the later functions!!.



I remember the words of wisdom dished out by some of us on life and work in general. But more than that I remember the feelings that one had for each other and how we came across from all parts of the world to be together. In fact, the juniors did comment that they had not seen such a cohesive and chilled out batch earlier. That says a lot.


Came back home and read up Abhijit’s MBA Part I and managed to relive once again an unique part of my life. The next time I meet Abbey the character – I would perhaps ask --- Who was Ayesha?


And the last question is -- when are we meeting next? Will somebody start a countdown!!

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