Nostalgia 2006 – Old memories and new dreams

Nostalgia 2006, the alumni meet for our Institute Army Institute of Management (formerly known as National Institute of Management, Calcutta) was scheduled for Aug 26th after few changes. The college crowd (current batches MBA-9, MBA-10) was very much involved to make it special in all possible ways. It all started few months back when I started getting emails and calls for the student reps. I was happy and was expecting to see few batchies, who ones use to depend on GP (Gill palace, a road side dhaba, open for 24 hrs) for energy.

The day came when the NIMC countdown clock was about to reach the 0th count. I slept late the other night, as I had to do the usual last day preparation for the AIMAA presentation (AIM alumni association, a new venture to network the alumni). Got up somewhere at 9:00 in the morning (which is late as per professional schedule and early from NIMC point of view) and collected my new personal visiting card with the blog address in it and reached the venue at 10:45 IST.

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With few alumni and the current batches the event started when Dr K.K.Chaudhuri (Director) addressed the congregation. He stressed on the point that the success for any institute is measured by the success of its alumni. He requested all the alumni to be a loyal brand ambassador for the Institute at all possible venues. Thereafter the registrar TR Nial shared his viewpoint. I was then given a chance to speak about the upcoming AIMAA activities. One of my tasks was to motivate the existing batches for brand building. Keeping the participation in mind I made it as interactive as possible. I tried my part and ended it silently offering a challenge. But on request I did make it loud by asking, “Howz the Josh” in nimc istyle. It was followed with Q&A session. After the presentation I expect at least 50 mails in our mailboxes, future will only be able to calculate the right variance for my expectation.

Thereafter different Alumni, representing different companies and ex batches shared their experiences. It varied from marketing to HR, IT to finance. Some introduction sessions with the fresh batches were also arranged, the same NIMC istyle introduction (you know what I mean). At around 1 noon we had tea and then I had a special meeting with the website crew (Narendra Kumar Singh,Abhishek Malik & Avinash Dubey). It was attended by few more MBA systems and alumni. Thereafter we had special AIM/NIMC lunch in the very famous mess (where all the curvy sofas were replaced with straight wooden chairs, we did unsuccessfully tried to figure out the reason for the replacement). Meal constituted of Plain rice (pure white in color), Roti (without oil), dal (green one), chana (small black type), bundis, Karela surprisingly without Aloo and another sabji with an optimal mix of everything (Aloo included). According to former Mess secretary Umesh (MCA-2), “This (the last one mentioned) is a special NIMC sabji, which is creatively innovated to hide the privacy of all vegetables included)”. I am sure you must be missing it; join the crowd who are missing it.

In the second half, the website crew presented the newly designed website. Narendra and his crew did a really nice job and hopefully we all can witness it online soon. I added some tips at the end like offering space for all the alumni, free advertising option for all good companies. Then Syndicate bank, the official sponsors of the Alumni meet 2006 introduced their loan programs for students within allotted 30 mins. The session continued till 5:00 where we had introductions and other small programs.

At 5:30 the cultural programs started, some songs, great dances and amazing skits. In one sentence, “Ha ha ha, Bada Maja aya”. After the cultural programs I saw the real alumni crowd (due to month end the local alumni could only make it after their office hours). The dance party started which might have continued only till 9:30 pm due to curfew imposed by our new registrar. I left at around 8. Before leaving I had talks with Abey of MBA-2, Sachin Narang of MBA-2, Piyu Dutta of MBA-2 , Indradeep of MCA-1, Pramod Mishra of MCA-1, Umesh of MCA-2 and many more about the upcoming AIMAA activities. Saket Prabhakar of MBA-4, attending his 3 alumni meet, most regular alumni was the man of the day without any doubt (awarded for his josh and the pune event).

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I must say that Anusree did a good job, when I say Anusree I mean the whole team represented by her. Keep up the good work; I will put my suggestions through alumni mail group.

(Anusree)

Some more pics

Some known faces, a sardar, a HR with god

Official photographer from Delhi via Pune

The talented crew and future alumni

I will upload more pics later some time.