By Nitin Beohar (PGPX’08)
People by nature are social animals thus fifth, tenth and fifteenth etc. are marked as landmark years after people depart from one another. These years give us a reason to meet again, rejuvenate memories and to relive some of the messy fun.
Though we chat every day, though we see each other every day on various social platforms, though we often meet in various cities, we found a good solid reason to meet again – within the closed boundaries of reddish bricks! It was our 10th anniversary post the graduation day. We are all spread across the globe. Some are leading big businesses, some are building their own businesses, some have quit corporate life to live their passion, but a single phone call was enough to convince us to go back to the bricks. Forty of the batchmates agreed to spend 2 days on campus and to noisily slip into the new year.
PGPX reunions are always different. The family members are the inseparable part of PGPX reunions. And it their presence that makes the event extra joyous, extra colorful and extra cheerful. Through our greying hair-what a joy it was to see the now grownups, who were once toddlers on the campus.
We reached the campus in the morning of 30th Dec’17. T-Shirts and shorts replaced the usual formal office attire and in no time from corporate czars we became the same old stupid friends. The carefree shouts, the louder laughs and the childlike enthusiasm spread like a fire in the campus.
While we recreated the convocation ceremony to start the reunion, the convocation hat became the most sought-after prop! As we enter the classroom-millions of memories – started flashing around the sparkling eyes. The chain of memories was broken when two of the kids took over the control and played a nostalgic clip capturing the enchanting moments of our stay – 10 years ago. We realized our appearances have changed-some have grown horizontally while some have shrunk horizontally, some are preserving hair while some are coloring hair-but what remains the same is the strong bond we created 10 years ago. We believe, we are one big giant joint family.
The day progressed with interactions with professors and simulation of a classroom environment. Good to see that the inquisitiveness (often termed as CP) was at peak and we really admire the patience and dedication professors have, to address the queries. Professor S. Manikutty hypnotized us with his strong story telling ability and again gave us some deep insights about life. Prof. Jayant Varma picked the nerve and started discussing about Blockchain/Bitcoin and suddenly, all were so engrossed, engaged and enlightened that it appeared all will become a billionaire just after the session!
After we came out of trance, we headed towards the ‘Memory Wall” where the memories were recreated. Boys were in dressed in Blue, Ladies in Pink and Kids were in Red. We captured the togetherness in camera… probably to use it on memory wall in the 15th year reunion.
In the evening, after a lavish dinner, we gathered in the amphitheater. It was a cultural event back in 2007, that brought us together and in the amphitheater, this time, was waiting one more such event to take our association even further. Dressed in traditional attire, among the serenity of music, we sang and we danced. At the end of day one, the last thing we wanted to do was to lay asleep.
Next morning, the PGPX 0708 flags were raised and we started the campus march. There was no discipline at all in this march. Children were shouting, ladies were screaming and boys were howling. In our march, entropy reigns supreme.
We continued the same zeal till got back to amphitheater in the evening to usher in new year. The arrangements were done, DJ was on, but in reality, it was the exuberance, buoyancy and verve – purely driven by the fact we were together subdued the louder music coming out of those 4 tall speakers.
In the morning of Jan 1st, while packing the bags to back to our respective places, we all were grateful to the Institute. It is this place which helped us in shaping our goals, It is this place where we met extraordinary 72 people, It is this place where we build a thought process that may define the success of country. Ten years ago – we were a part of it. Today, IT is a part of us!
