Reliving and Leaving

What a global business conference could not do, the alumni meet did. These were two memorable days spent meeting my classmates from the batch of ’84 at XLRI, Jamshedpur, the B-School (see photo) where I was a student. We were all having a grand reunion back at the Alma Mater. The last few months have been spent by the enthusiastic organizers of our class trying to trace out every friend now liberally peppered across the world. Some have turned entrepreneurs, some are stay at home parents, some of them are celebrities of the corporate world. It was, if anything, a time to renew old friendships and a time to celebrate.1984 was surely an eventful year for India. Indira Gandhi got assassinated, the infamous anti-sikh riots in Delhi and Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India. It was the year when India sent Rakesh Sharma into space and Amitabh Bachchan stepped in politics, albeit briefly. Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest and the soap opera Hum Log happened on Dordarshan. It was in that year, our batch of Management students graduated from XLRI. It was about reliving many memories.It was about reliving companionship. Some of us even took a train ride together from Bangalore, Chennai (it was still Madras then), Delhi to the Tatanagar railway station. The train journey used to take more than twenty four hours then and the superannuated coaches of Indian Railways only added to the nostalgia as we discussed those trips. It was time of us to adjust our mental images of each other. It was about trying to reconcile the present and the past.There were the usual exchanges. “Is that YOU?” followed by “I would have never recognized you…” and the occasional  “You look just the same!” Even XLRI did not look the same. The spartan classrooms (see photo to the right) have been replaced by swank state of the art buildings. The cricket field has moved to another location. There is no basketball and tennis court where we had left it when we had boarded the train that took us into the corporate world.We had our own Guitar Heros. There was plenty of singing old songs while the guitarists of our batch Kenny and KD sang and strummed. Every ditty of our times was sung in unified chorus till the wee hours of the morning. There was plenty of moonshine to help the mood. We were proud to see that Old Monk (see picture here) is still popular on campus while some struggled to relive memories of the only poison we could afford then. No wonder it is still among the top three in the world. We did our bit I am sure to make their Sales team happy :).Fr McGrath, one of the Jesuit priests who has been associated with XL for past 60 years of its six decades of existence was felicitated. He was given an honorary knighthood and here is an old video. Maggi as he is affectionately called is a celeb and has his admirers universally spread out across all 60 batches of XL alum. He also wrote a delightful book called Basic Managerial Skills for All (if you haven’t read it, I recommend you do). It is a book I still find relevant and useful.The Profs, the support staff and of course the current batch of students (2009-2010) played gracious hosts. The evening show put up by the XL band called Bodhi Tree was phenomenal. They sang several original compositions of the band like XL Meri Jaan and several other chartbusters. Thank you for making us feel so special.Here is a song called Purani Jeans sung by Ali Haider. Just perfect to describe the reunion.There is something magical about meeting old friends. The dusty memories of youth and youthful indiscretions are revived. Old jokes are remembered. Old songs are sung with equal gusto by those who are in tune and those who remain tone deaf. It is not about the singing after all. It is about reliving uncomplicated times and finding friends with whom it is still possible to relate without pretense. Au Revoir batch of ’84.———See a more legible version of Abbey’s classnotes from the novel Mediocre But Arrogant by clicking here http://farm1.static.flickr.com/11/12859727_d28d1eba6b.jpgAyesha’s eyes http://farm1.static.flickr.com/10/12859728_9f4d7170c5_m.and Basanto http://farm1.static.flickr.com/8/8386016_d28a6d0ca9.jpgand fond good byes http://farm1.static.flickr.com/9/12859725_aa7ce02752_m.jpgand the website of XLRI at http://www.xlri.ac.in/