Dear Members, Friends, and Followers of the XIMB Global Community:
Here is what happened at the East Coast Meet (ECM 2001) on 23 June 2001, Saturday: Extremely good turnout of 15 (not inclusive of spouses). I would consider this very good because of the fact people had to travel from way down south up to New Jersey. Vinay Gupta came from Atlanta, Debasmit from Raleigh, North Carolina, Balakrishna Dixit from Virginia, and Padma Jyotsna + better half Srini from Washington DC. To be honest, I couldn't have done this. At the outset, thanks all of you for making my weekend. 10 didn't make it and we appreciate their spiritual support.
The locals did a cool organizing job. Gaurav Tyagi masterfully marshalled the Hotel staff including the owner. But, we all agreed it was Debasmit & Bhaskar's initiative that made it all happen.
Rest of the locals provided a family like support. Bhaskar's wife Pamela, Niranjan (94), MR & Manasi (XIMB couple from 96), Rishikesh (94) all made it a dream-come-true get together. And, then there was me, the senior most and senile most. I wish I had the zeal and intellect of this diversely talented group that had come together under one roof.
I thank all of you for giving me the honor of reading out the Director's message.
The show was off to a flying start. As we read out the message from our Alma Mater, we agreed on every word of wisdom that Fr. Abraham had for us. This was followed by Introduction and speech session. Gaurav Tyagi's narrative and oratorial talents were very much appreciated. As we moved from one speaker to another I realized things were actually heating up. But, we decided to discuss work after lunch. Then, there was food. There was also silence.
Post lunch get-together was at Bhasker's house where every body got tea and I got beer. It was time to roll up our sleeves and get going on how to give. And then began a session that couldn't have been any worse (or better) than a campus group assignment session. But here is the difference. While the campus days saw one-upmanship and fight to finish we were a remarkably productive group. There were leaders, hunters, farmers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, wordsmiths, cobblers', and one drinker. The result was a huge charter of activities that we have crafted out. It captures the salient points on how we propose to build a hugely supportive Alumni Organization. The net objective remains the same. Ensuring XIMB's rise to a status of a premier, nationally/ globally recognized business school. All agreed that success of the Institute has a definite rub off on our careers, but that is just a fallout. The actual words of blue print will be soon made available on the web by Debasmit Mohanty.
Let me wind up by saying that apart from a few, most of the ideas were inspired by our friends in the Bay Area, Gulf, Singapore, and all the five centers in India. Our definite output was a Total Plan for implementing the various bits of ideas in a realistic and unified manner. For this, we realized, we have to work closely with our family in the Bay and rest of the world. Debasmit will soon unveil the Master Plan in consultation with Akhilesh, Lalit, Ananth, and others for all to see. Please cooperate actively and let's get it going.