XLRI 55th Convo - Distinguished Alumnus Award - A quich sojourn to Jamshedpur (26th March, 2011)

The Black/Yellow Calcutta Cab was thoroughly screened by the Taj Bengal security staff and so was I when I stepped in to the bright expansive lobby. Jaspal answered the house phone call. It was room 524 in the exclusive block where we were to converge. I finished my call and saw Ajay Singh sitting on a lounge sofa waiting for whatever!! Went up to him and then both went to JB’s room, while the others joined in at regular intervals. The evening was High in Spirits and we ended our party at 2 AM, though fully aware that the next day was going to be a long one.

Early morning on the 27^th, Sanjoy, Ajay, KD, NS Muthu, me and Jaspal the Great met at the Guest House of SCB for a cup of tea and then we set off for Jamshedpur. The first halt for food was at Shere Punjab near Kolaghat a place between Kharagpur and Kolkata. The menu was interesting...please do notice the first headline on top on RED. What does that mean?!!

We finally reached Jamshedpur at about 3 PM before another halt for natural biological reasons. We started searching for Rolls and Milk Shakes. Neither happened and we landed up in Kwaility and then the MDP at about 4 PM barely giving us time to occupy our seats at 4.45.

Thanks to Jaspal, we had all confirmed bookings and we suddenly saw Vineet Nayyar emerging from a room in the same block. Later on when we saw the program, we came to know the reason behind his arrival.

The auditorium was chock-a-bloc, with passing out graduates, their families and friends, and lots of other people and a few press guys. Muthuraman the Chairman of the Board of Governors spoke and then relinquished his post, the new one being Nerurkar, MD of Tata Steel. You would be pleased to know that both Vineet and Jaspal are now members of the board.

The graduation ceremony was long that was preceded by the Convocation address where Vineet advised the new graduates to be “catalysts of change”. He also said that risks should be taken and advised them to fly!!

We were however sitting quietly when the moment for Jaspal arrived. While he walked onto the stage I ran through the middle of the aisle to capture the moments. Jaspal’s speech was brief but it was humbling when in the midst of his encouraging words he suddenly acknowledged us five sitting in the middle and the whole auditorium turning around to see us!! I wish we were more of us from XI 84 present there!! It was like basking on your friends glory and we did get a tan!!!

The evening dinner at Muthuman’s bungalow was fabulous. All the students were invited there along with the faculty and it was a grand affair.

The night was of course a long session like we had when we were there in 2009 with Jaspal, Vineet, us and a few others again engaged with tales, gossip and lot of single malt!! Adieu!!

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