Returning to campus after ten years: PGPX 13 Reunion

By Nitin Khanna, Birendra David PGPX-13

Returning to your alma mater transcends you to a time of intense learning, and most of all fostering friendships. The days of 17th and 18th December 2023, are now permanently etched in our minds with many beautiful memories. We spent two days full of nostalgia– reliving old memories, while creating new memories.

It seemed that nothing much had changed in 10 years. Stepping onto the campus, the familiar Louis Kahn Plaza, MSH, canteen, Frisbee ground, CR-1 and our Syndicate room took us back in time.

We are thankful to the PGPX office, Alumni office, Dean Alumni, VP Alumni relations and everyone from our batch who made it to Ahmedabad. The planning was perfect, the facilities and arrangements– excellent. The best part of reunions is that one gets time and an opportunity to reflect back. When we left the campus 10 years back, we all had dreams and determination. We learnt the coursework but more and most importantly we learnt to be responsible and ethical leaders.

Meeting everyone after a long time, we realised that in some form or fashion everyone from the class has evolved, and matured. Some had over-achieved, some drastically changed their paths, some were still figuring it out but everyone had progressed for sure.

We started our two days of fun with a deep and thoughtful conversation with the Dean-Alumni and External Relations, Prof Sunil Maheshwari. He spoke about things the institute is doing to strengthen the PGPX brand but said that the onus is on us, the alums, to make sure we do whatever is possible in our capacity to keep strengthening the PGPX brand. The class size is much bigger than our time and with an MBA degree, the program is getting the right recognition which it deserves.

We spent time remembering our batchmate “Mannu sir” a.k.a Srikanth Mannem, who left us for his heavenly abode in March 2021. We were touched that his wife Sangita had come to the reunion with their daughters. With misty eyes and hearts full of love, we remembered Mannu sir and pledged that we will do whatever we can for his family.

Apart from all other activities another notable feature of the reunion was Prof Saral Da’s case study session, which was an icing-on-the-cake. We discussed a very interesting data monetisation case. The environment was like it used to be with plenty of class participation. Our reunion whatsapp group was buzzing with all the new jargons we learnt from Saral Da– free text vs shadow text, sleeping beauty to robbers and many more.

If this wasn’t enough we had many other fun-filled activities– dance and dinner night, city tour and our favourite frisbee, Poker and Rasna night. Ahmedabad weather was just perfect over these two days. It was slightly cold with bright sun which really helped everyone get outdoors. Our interaction with the CIIE, IIMA endowment fund team as well as the current batch brought everyone up to speed on what’s buzzing on campus.

Many of us left the city on Sunday night with golden memories and the confidence that IIMA gave them to venture into the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world of today and the future. This is one of the greatest gifts we carry forever along with the warmth of friendship.

We would like to thank IIMA and the PGPX 12-13 colleagues for arranging such a wonderful reunion. We hope to be back in another 10 years or who knows much earlier!