The Golden Reunion of PGP 70: 15-16 February 2023, Bengaluru

The Golden Reunion of PGP 70: 15-16 February 2023, Bengaluru

By Krishna Chidambi

The Reunion of the PGP 1970 batch of IIMA was held in Bengaluru in February 2023 after our Golden Jubilee reunion in Ahmedabad in 2020 was struck down due to COVID.

About 40 classmates out of a possible 92 registered, most of them with their spouses. Due to sickness, deaths and other exigencies, our participation was reduced to 68 from an anticipated 80. They came from all over India and, indeed from countries as far away as Canada, USA, Nigeria and the UAE. Singapore narrowly missed out on being represented.

The Reunion began with an homage to departed classmates and spouses.

We have lost four classmates and three spouses since the originally planned reunion in 2020. Besides mentioning them by name, our way of paying homage was to leave a table and empty chairs for them throughout the reunion meetings.

On the forenoon of the Day I, participants collected their welcome kits and met informally over tea and coffee in the two banquet halls of Hotel Lalit Ashok, which was the site for the reunion. Participants requiring accommodation were housed in the same hotel.

Seating for the reunion was arranged in clusters. The formal reunion meetings began with a fun quiz conducted by Sushila Rao (only PGP70 were smart enough to know the answers) with the scores being ably tallied by Rita Vasan. Chandru’s (N. Chandrashekaran) cluster won the first prize while Kiran’s (Bala Chakravarthy’s wife) cluster came a close second.

Short talks by eminent Bengaluru-based speakers were organized around two themes:

Health and ageing: The inaugural talk in this segment was the future of the health sciences. Talks on the roles of yoga, mental health and good food on aging followed. The talk on food (by the spouse of a classmate) preceded a sumptuous lunch. The post-lunch speaker kept his audience wide awake with his talk on how to deal with midlife crises (that our sons and daughters or their spouses may now be going through).
Topics of current interest: There were two talks in this segment. The talk on technology covered the Indian auto industry including the futuristic autonomous vehicles. The talk on climate change was the valedictory talk with the title, ‘What India can do about climate change?’

With this talk, the working sessions came to an end. It was gupshup and partying time again.

Bala and his team of session coordinators ensured that the talks not only kept to the time allocated but kept interest from flagging.

On the evening of Day I, we enjoyed the performance of Sunaad which is an eclectic group of singers from Bangalore composed of men and women of all age groups and professions with a common passion for Hindustani classical music. They performed Keno Upanishad for us which was greatly appreciated. On the evening of Day II, we could dance our cares away with the help of a live and versatile jazz band, Music Masters.

The booze certainly helped in letting the (remaining) hair down and shaking a (rickety) leg.

About half a dozen classmates and two spouses of classmates contributed, most of them anonymously, to the kitty which was used to pay bills. What was left was given to charity.

Thirst quenched and appetite satisfied, a batch mate who was a Bangalore Golf Club (BGC) member, booked a suitable part of the Club for the dinner on 17^th where sponsors, donors and participants were appropriately thanked along with the BGC member – thus bringing a glorious Reunion to an end.

The next morning saw a small group of people going off on a pre-arranged visit to Hoysala temples which have since been named World Heritage sites by UNESCO. The evening and night were spent in Chikkamagaluru (coffee country).

These two short days made it possible for the group to fully conform to Bengaluru’s

5 R Reunion mantra: Regress, Relive, Reboot, Relax, Repeat.

Onward Ho! To the next reunion in 2024-25.