25 May 2003
We had the alumni meet of the Orissa chapter of the XIMB Alumni Association on 21 May 2003. The meet was held at Teesri Manzil, an open air dance floor on the terrace of Bhubaneswar Club. Our alumni co-ordinator, Prof. D.P. Dash was the Chief Guest of the evening. The Institute was also represented by Prof. D.V. Ramana, Prof. Banikanta Mishra, Prof. M.N. Tripathi, Prof. M.K. Samal, and Prof. S.K. Mohapatra.
The meeting was chaired by the President of the Chapter Mr. Titan Nayak (PGP 1994)<nayaktitan@rediffmail.com>. Secretary of the Chapter Mr. Gautam Bhanjadeo (PGP 2002) <g_bhanjdeo@yahoo.com> presented the annual report of the Chapter. Prof. D.V. Ramana was requested to be the Advisor of the Chapter and he has accepted the proposal. A small presentation taking all of us down the memory lane was made by the Student Alumni Secretary of XIMB.
The meeting was followed by a dance party. It was enlivened by a musical perfomance by artists from Kolkata. Much to the delight of the crowd we saw our professors also taking to the dance floor.
Chinmay Pani (PGP 2004 Student)
Student Alumni Secretary
<pani_chinmay@yahoo.co.in>
[On behalf of the organisers]
P.S. During the meet some alumni did not like the presence of the external guests in the party. The guests were actually invited by our sponsors, so we complied with it though we tried to keep the number to a bare minimum. We should further minimise this in the future.
25 May 2002
XIMB ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
ORISSA CHAPTER LAUNCHED AT THE BHUBANESWAR ALUMNI MEET: A REPORT
Date: 22 May 2002
Venue: Hotel Marrion, Bhubaneswar
Blistering heat with mercury shooting up to 460C and humidity well beyond 75%... that was the daytime scenario in Bhubaneswar on that eventful day of 22 May 2002. As the sun went down and the mercury reluctantly dipped, people trickled in one by one. The 'arrivals' continued well past 8:00 p.m. (the scheduled time was 6:00 p.m.!). Due to a communication gap, some of our alumni went around the city looking for the venue, bewildered and foxed. Gradually, the gathering swelled in numbers from single digit figures first to multiples of 5 and 10 and so on.
Quick to register and sign up (of course slow to pay up), the gathering went about introducing themselves to one another, shaking hands (some grudgingly) with familiar faculty-members and other colleagues. The scene now set, all took turns in formally introducing themselves to the gathering and recollecting their most 'memorable moments' in the Institute. This ranged from a back-bencher who missed most classes being awarded a B+ for honestly admitting to it, to slogans coined by batchmates (like 'Titan Watches as Jindal Strips'), to losing grades for 'arguing', to all kinds of embarrassing moments and so on... much to the amusement and joy of all present.
The office bearers for the Orissa Chapter were nominated and elected:
Titan Nayak (PGP 1994) President: nayaktitan@rediffmail.com, t.nayak@angelfire.com
Goutam Bhanj Deo (PGP 2002) Secretary: g_bhanjdeo@yahoo.com
Ravi Jain (PGP 2002) Treasurer: ravimjain@yahoo.com
This was followed by the Director Fr. Abraham and Dean (Administration and Finance) Fr. George sharing their dreams and visions for the Institute.
Then came the much awaited drinks and cocktails, briefly interrupted by prizes given away by the faculty-members present, for the most interesting reminiscences. As some sipped their drinks, some downed or gulped theirs to join the wobbling and shaking crowd on the stage, in steps with Hindi re-mix and Punjabi pop, amidst a discotheque set-up. Seeing a portly alumnus swaying vigorously to the music, a learned faculty-member observed, 'Reminds me of the book Teaching the Elephant to Dance: The Manager's Guide to Empowering Change by James A. Belasco.' Trust the faculty-members with their wit! The stage covered, the bar drained, it was time to dig into the exquisite delicacies like chicken durbari, mushroom supreme in sun-dried tomato sauce, stuffed aubergine and the works, topped off with ice cream and chocolate sauce.
The event had its impact; although it might have been delayed by over a decade! But then as people left, there was only one sentence on their (by now heavily spirited) lips: yeh dil mange more... Kudos to all those who pitched in to organise, sponsor, contribute, attend, and enliven the gathering by their sheer charm, enthusiasm, and feeling for one another and their alma mater.
List of the faculty-members who attended:
Abraham, E. Fr.
Dash, D. P.
George, C. L., Fr.
Mukherjee, Jaydeep
Sahu, Kaushik
Tripathi, M. N.
List of the alumni who attended (Batch-wise):
1989 Arabindo Ratho, Prashant Agrawal, Bismaya Mahapatra
1991 DP Dash
1992 Ashok Singha, Ashok Tripathy
1994 Titan Nayak, Kishore Swain
1996 Ritesh Sharma
1997 Sanjeev Sasmal, Alok Acharya
1998 Anil Kar, Suchit Mohanty
1999 Mamata Sahu, Satyadeep Mishra, Jai Prakash Sahu
2000 Chandrahas Panigrahi, Biranchi Mishra, Saroj Sahu
2001 Srichandan Sahu, Kali Charan Das, Biswajit Panda
2002 Ravi Jain, Alakananda Mishra, Gautam Bhanj Deo, Sanket Tripathy, Kapil Verma, Ashutosh Rath, Vikash Santuka, Ritesh Goenka
Ex1991 Dev Dutt Das, Bimal Mishra, Swapan Singharoy
Ex1992 Arabinda Acharya
Ex1994 Suresh Mishra, Gautam Parija
Ex1999 Santanu Mohanty
Ex2002 GSS Gopal Krishna, Che Abhijit Sahu
Reported by:
Arabindo Ratho (PGP 1989) <aratho2001@yahoo.com>
Titan Nayak (PGP 1994) <nayaktitan@rediffmail.com><t.nayak@angelfire.com>