Meeting in USA (West Coast)

14 Dec 2002

Meeting Date

: 7 Dec 2002

Venue

Bombay Garden Restaurant, Newark,

California (USA)

Here's an update on the US West Coast Alumni Meet 2002. As happens every year (and everywhere!), the spirit was 'We are proud to be from XIMB !'. Though the meeting point was Bay Area, it was heartening to find people driving up a couple of hours to attend. Apart from the excited chatter, gossip, food & a movie afterwards, following were the main points of discussion:

1. Alumni database: The office led by Dr. DP Dash has put in major efforts on this front and have done a tremendous job at that. Nevertheless, it was thought that with the alumni strength abounding, there is a definite need to develop a tool that can be 'self-managed' and 'universally accessible'. A separate email will be floated on this shortly.

We have a few volunteers and many ideas, and with support from the Alumni Office on campus and regional coordinators worldwide, we hope to achieve a milestone. The enthusiastic response to this initiative was immediately captured and successfully converted into a small yet sure Fund Collection, in the trusted custody of our regional coordinator-cum-cashier Debasmit Mohanty!

2. Keeping the Alumni Meet sacrosanct: We resolved to meet every year irrespective of the pressing demands on time. It is also a request to the rest of the Alumni community to make it a point never to miss a Meet if you have the opportunity to be at one. Remember: each person's presence matters.

The following lucky persons were at the Meet:

1) Vasudha Ramachandran (1999) with hubby Sanjay
2) Rajesh Narasimha (1992) with wife Rachna and son Shreyas
3) Debasmit Mohanty (1997)
4) Maneish Mehrotra (1996)
5) Sanjib Dash (Ex-PGP 1999) with son Anuraj
6) Kausik Misra (1996)
7) Ritu Narayan (1997)
8) Sabyasachi Das (1998) with wife Lucy and daughter Anoushka
9) Mamta Mishra (1997)

Special thanks to Professor WS William (Dean, Academic) and Dr. DP Dash for having sent us your thought-provoking message that was immensely appreciated by all present and reinforced the warm feeling of continued belongingness to our Institution.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year ahead!

Regards,

Vasudha Ramachandran (1999)

Mamta Mishra (1997)

12 June 2001

Meeting Date

: 8 June 2001, Friday

Venue

: New Taste of India, Fremont, California (USA)

Being in California has a latitudinal disadvantage in Summer. In the sense that the evenings are delayed and the mornings begin early. So when you decide to meet at 7 p.m. in the evening, its kind of oxymoronic (becoz it's either 7 p.m. or evening, but not both together). Anyway...

People who reached at 7 p.m. were Raj and Sarita, from the very first batch of XIMB, batch of 89. And people who reached in the evening were Bibhu, Rashmit, and Himanshu, all from a batch with the digits reversed (98). Rest reached in between.

Here, I must add two notes:

1. Rachna Gurtu (98) and Navneet drove for 3 hours to attend the meet!
2. Ritu Garg (97) and Amit attended the meet with just couple of hours of advance intimation. Kudos to the XIMB spirit!

Having a sharp learning curve, we all readily agreed that the intros would wait till everyone arrives. Someone said six, but I guess it was four; yes, it's the number of times we had to introduce ourselves in the last alumni meet in Bayarea. Dinesh (97) captured it all in his camcorder. Is it possible to make a digital copy of that, Dinesh? In that case, we may post that to our group.

The most illuminary guest of the evening was Hritwik. No, not Hrithik Roshan. This Hritwik is Dinesh and Rina's 4-week old boy (rather 4-week young, if I take Navneet's advice). Let us all congratulate them on this new arrival.

Post introductions, there was some serious discussion on:

1. Setting up a formal Alumni Chapter in Bayarea
2. Setting up a scholarship/alumni gold medal for one current student of XIMB.

This discussion was quite elaborate and open. Lot of issues came up. Sarita (89) has volunteered to come up with the summary. Do wait for that important mail.

Next in agenda were songs by Raj (89), Himanshu (98) and Bibhu (98) and solo acting performance by Rashmit (98). However, becoz of other evening engagements and lack of time, we had to disperse without enjoying these events. This leaves something for the next meet,I guess...

List of people who attended the meet:

1. sarita mohapatra (89) &
2. raj singh (89)
3. Sanjay Pattnaik (94) & vanaja
4. purnendu panda (96)
5. Kausik (96) & mamata misra (97)
6. dinesh mohan (97), rina & hritwik
7. ritu garg (97) and amit
8. rashmit singh (98)
9. bibhu d chaudhary (98)
10. himansu shekhar (98)
11. rachna gurtu (98) & navneet, based in Sacramento
12. akhilesh k sinha (98) & manisha

List of people in and around Bayarea, who could not make it:

1. rajesh bhaskar & family (92)
2. roshan subuddhi (96)
3. ks & family (92)
4. sanjib dash & family (99, Ex-PGP)
5. nadin rath & family (89)
6. pragati das and family (97), based in Sacramento
7. maniesh mehrotra (96)
8. navin gupta & family (97), based in LA
9. tony mohanty & family (98), based in LA
10. debasis pattnaik & family (89)
11. rohit kumar (98)

Akhilesh Sinha
1998 Batch

OLD REPORT

25 September 2000

If I say that it was a successful alumni meet on 23 September 2000 here at

The Indian Palace Restaurant

in Newark, CA, it would be quite inappropriate. It was not an alumni meet, it was a family get-together. The XIMB family get-together. Only that day did I realise that my family, our family, is so strong.

Yes, people from almost all batches starting from 1989 to 2000 were there!! Yes, we all talked, talked a lot. No, we did not have to play any games to break the ice. It was all spontaneous. And soon we found that we know each other for quite long.

When DP (Deva Pratim Dhar, 1989) narrated his stories of New Zealand (he is a citizen there) and Nestle, his zeal made it quite clear why he is nesting there. His movements up in the corporate ladder are quite remarkable and motivating. And so are his movements in the US of A. He is on a 4-week vacational tour here. I am not sure which is the State that he has not visited. Raj & Sarita (both of 1989 Batch again) were ideal hosts. Raj was active with his camcorder on... he captured the entire event. I heard that he is an excellent singer, but I guess we need another meeting to certify this. Right Raj? The other day someone remarked that economists are "the intellectuals" of the world. I am sure all engineers would strongly rebuff this statement. However, let me assure you that if you meet Sarita, you would vouch for the economists.. (definitely yes, if they help you save money in US dollars !! But for her, I would have lost... how many dollars ?) Another attendee from the 1989 Batch was Debasish Pattnaik. He had to leave early as his daughter was unwell. Thanks for coming, Deb. We hope that your baby is fine now.

Rajesh BLN (1992 Batch) has been quite lucky for us. Within weeks of his arrival here, we could have this get-together. Stay here for ever, Rajesh!!! Or shall I say keep coming here...?? KS (K Srinivasan, 1993 Batch) reminded me of Orissa with his immaculate Oriya. I was trying to recall if XIMB offers any courses in Oriya as well... I stretched my ears heard to find out the language he used to talk to his wife and baby. Roshan Subudhi (1994 Batch) was most of time found outside the restaurant. Ostensibly for smoking. Any other guesses ?? Kaushik and Mamta stay closest to the place. So they had to come late, which they did.. But they did make up by going late as well. So, no issues... Or were you hinting that next time we should go to someplace in SFO? Dinesh Mohan (1997 Batch) was the other "family person". Very calm and quiet. Do you miss the beaches of Chennai, Dinesh ?

Rohit Kumar (1998 Batch) was found narrating (or intimidating people by) his driving encounters!!! He no doubt deserves a gold medal in finance, at least going by the way he has claimed his insurance... Saurabh Swarup, the guy from the y2k batch had to really catch up for the meet. Had quite an experience in reaching the place. He would vouch for the fact that India is the place to be if you have to use public transport.. Finally I must specially thank Sharmila (DP's wife) for her suggestions about how to organise the next get-together. I assure you, it would be much more interesting next time...

Lastly, on behalf of all the Ximmers here in the Bayarea, I would thank Father Abraham for his encouraging letter. Sarita read your mail out to the group and we all felt proud to be a part of the XIMB family. We are aware of the progress our Institute is making and we are confident that under your leadership XIMB will gain its due place among the top management institutes of the world. We are committed to keep up the standards and the tradition set by the Institute.

It would have been a pleasure to include the achievements of our alumni here, but I guess it has to wait till the next mail from the Bayarea Chapter.

Akhilesh Sinha

Class of 1998

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS (Batch-wise)

PS: 1. The alumni database for the Bayarea is updated and a copy has been sent to Prof. D. P. Dash. In case, anyone needs it she may contact him.

2. As desired by Fr. Abraham, for the purpose of motivating others we need to come out with the achievements that we have made in the corporate world. I understand that it's a difficult task to count one's achievements as achievements; still may I request all of you in the Bayarea to post your designation, roles and responsibilities either to the egroup or to me?

Alumni Home: Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar 751 013, INDIA, E-mail: <alum@ximb.ac.in>