By R. Varadharajan (urf Cocu)
“Drinking the water of the well, you never forget those who dug it “- Chinese proverb
PGP 2002 batch remains a brick in WIMWI’s wall celebrating their crystal reunion
Possibly the most in-glorious batch of WIMWI (the only batch to have seen floods, earthquake and the 2002 Gujarat riots), the 2000-02 batch celebrated their crystal reunion with a lot of gusto. With lean frames and cherubic faces giving way to double chins and bulging waists, the ’02 batch tided over mid-life crisis with a few lovely days, with spouses and children, reliving old memories across LKP. As many as 70 batch mates and over 25 spouses had turned up from various parts of the world. It was wonderful to see so many folks who barely knew each other on campus talk to each other and learn from each other and appreciate each other for their perspectives and achievements. The first evening was spent welcoming everyone back, visiting various old haunts for dinner and just catching up.
The second day started off with a fun filled introductory session where people talked about their passions and their “tadaps”. It was wonderful. One couldn’t help but feel a sense of gratitude to the spouses and the children for having put up with the eccentric WIMWI-ians. Apparently, one even chose to correspond with his wife in the form of detailed, formal, numerically tagged memos over E-mail. While some people had matured as leaders in their chosen fields, a few led by yours truly had significantly regressed mentally and otherwise, and may need admission in an asylum ala” one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”. The second part of the day was spent in us listening to the life stories of some of the entrepreneurs of our batch – Sutta/Babitha and Nirma. It isn’t easy to create something and persist with it. We truly are inspired!
The second evening was capped with group photographs, some friendly banter and a dinner with professors. A few of the professors of yore – Prof. G.S. Gupta (“Gas” Gupta), Prof. Bibek Banerjee (who is setting up a new institute in Ahmedabad), Prof. Venkat Rao, Prof. Rakesh Basant – lightened up the evening. The dinner was capped with a “free-spirited” conversation at NR and TANSTAFL café (completely unrecognizable from our times).
If the second day was about having fun and reliving old memories, the third day was about self-reflection and giving. The morning started off with a session with Prof. Rakesh Basant and Prof. Errol D’Souza who updated us on the happenings in the institute over the last 15 years. It was amazing to see the institute grow in infrastructure, stature and in student population. It was also inspiring to listen to the ambitious vision of growth and world class stature that the Director and Dean laid out before us. However, with the Autonomy Bill close to approval, and IIMA having already completed 14 years without any Govt. funding, we realized there is a need for new sources of funds. That calls for all those plants which have been fertilized in WIMWI’s soil to give back. And give back, the batch certainly did. Thanks to the persistent efforts of people like Chaila, Shweta, Dhiraj, Ninja, Sandhya, Shruti and dozens of others, a bunch of folks set about setting a new benchmark for giving and inspired the rest of us to open our hearts. On last count, the batch has already raised more than INR 7 Crores, with more than 120 contributors, for the twin causes of an IIMA Endowment Fund and for our ever smiling sardar Guddi Singh, who is bravely fighting to recover from his medical condition. The batch’s prayers are with him and we sincerely hope and pray that you will be with us for our next reunion in full spirits, Guddi! We also miss our batch mate Preeti Agarwal who is no longer with us. RIP Preeti!
Special mention must be made of all the people in the Organizing Committee who made the event such a great one, including Shweta (IC) who was the spark who ignited the re-union fire, Shef without whose commitment nothing would have happened, Big Madhu (who baptized everyone with holy water) and Banjo (who was the Freud who found out our “Tadaps”), Tarki (our creative genius), Casio (who spent many days getting cross-eyes over reservations & cancellations), Pritish (who made it a delicious weekend), Puncture, Sutta and our very own Saccy! Special mention for Ritu (who organized all the activities for children and kept them engaged and busy). And a vote of heartfelt thanks to the Alumni cell, student volunteers and Himanshu-ji for making us feel welcome.
Lastly, we hope our “unencumbered” commitment to the institute in the form of an ongoing Endowment Fund will set new standards for other alumni to give-back. We earnestly hope that the most “in-glorious batch” will be able to trigger a massive movement of Alumni Giveback where every single batch from here on is able to raise not only 7 Crs. but much higher amounts, taking our great institution to even greater heights. As one of the people said on the batch whatsapp group “Never felt more proud of our batch”. If there’s one message that this reunion had, it was “There’s no greater joy than to give back”.
