Alma Mater Matters....

The preparation for the Golden Jubilee (GJ) celebration of IIM Ahmedabad was going on since more than a month. Ongoing preparations for the same were being continuously communicated through emails by Prof. Atanu Ghosh.

I was dead busy, since the time I joined my present job. Gakkai and household responsibilities were happy add-ons. Somehow I couldn’t feel the heat of the GJ celeb. All cold reasoning …….. I am residing in the same city and can anytime visit the dorm I stayed in, meet the profs I warmly remember of…. or it might be the give-up attitude due to the office workload that never loses weight and leaves negligible time for peeping into my heart to know what it actually loves to, or…… an apathetic feeling that “Who knows me neway and how my participation matters to the celebration?”, “none of my friends will come leaving their important life”, etc. etc. I might be the only one feeling so detached about the event….blame it on my insufficient bonding with my classmates during the 2 years of study.

Bidisha and Suhruta who were always senti about the insti informed me that they will be coming. I was excited about the only fact that I will meet my old buddies….. Yes, I ate with them, ‘drank’ with them, mugged with them, cried with them, got Ds in quizzes with them …….. with them I could be ‘me’…. which seems to be a rare event in this campus. Now, they are married to ‘God knows whom’ (I mean I only knew their names) so I was excited to meet them and their respective spouses……expecting to see them happy with their new lives.

The D-day approached….both of my friends landed in the city. I started to feel the heat now J All the nostalgic feelings started pouring in….. yes it’s my Alma Mater and I should visit it especially in event of such a big celebration…..I received so much from it….. come-on, it is a lifetime thing etc. etc.

I went to the campus on 25^th hoping to find the LKP flooded with Alumni. As soon I reached LKP I was amazed……the only thought that crossed my mind was a saying in Bengali… “Loke Lokaranyo Jano Manob Shunyo” (people people nowhere). On top of it only a handful of the current students could be seen among the participants or in the organizing team.

What could be the probable reason(s) behind such a poor turnaround? Even during Chaos so many alumni turn up. What had held so many of them back on this eventful occasion?

No marketing about the attractive events like Abhijeet’s performance/ was it the heavy registration charges/ wrong timing during the commonest holiday time…..WHAT has failed in this Great Institution??????

During the power packed Abhijeet’s performance I terribly missed the Tempo shouts which I expected to echo till the next 50 years. Where was the tempo of –

“WIMWI ka Tempo high hai baki sab ki …….” gone???

On the other hand, batch ’91 was celebrating its 20^th year and Alumni of that batch had come even from overseas. Their tempo was at their all time high. They were shouting, dancing and celebrating. What was their motivation? And how was it different from the Golden Jubilee celebration?

Reasons still continue to be at large about these contrasting events …. Hope this institution takes the cue and does some evaluative exercise. Then only it can survive the next 50 years with the Glory intact.

On a positive note I could meet several of my classmates and dorm mates (someone mentioned that our batch turnaround was the maximumJ)

Again on this day this insti gave me the opportunity to hear Abhijeet that too like a Chief guest (sitting in the third row and no money ...he he he). The '91 batch was dancing ...... seemed they were on a real high :D..............I was missing Bidisha and Suhruta soooo......much as I knew they would have definitely been there with me for dancing :)

But finally he sang the dance numbers........... Not able to hold back I joined them......many (read few) other alums also joined in and I could dance just 4-5 feet away from him:) Though Abhijeet strongly dislikes a crowd dancing so close to the stage but....... as he repeatedly mentioned......IT WAS IIM-A and thus so many flexibilities!!!!!! One of the gr8 '91 batch requested to sing with him.....and guess what.......he let that happen too!!!!!

My takeaway......I learnt that , I do care and have atleast some sentiments about my Alma mater….thanks to Bidisha and Suhruta for being the catalyst. And yes.....their life partners scored 110 out of 100 on my chart :)