A GG report from xlbang

It was time for the XLers in Bangalore to party on the 28th of May, and party they did !!
All the 270 of them and the 50 family and friends who turned up ! They burned up the dance floor and relived old memories as the drizzling Bangalore summer shower and cool breeze was the time for XLers from the 70s to the 2000s to reach out across 4 decades.

The chief guest for the meet was the XL Director Fr. Casimir Raj, SJ who spoke about the "alumni homecoming" at Jampot every year and invited the alumni to participate in this year's homecoming!

Other guests from Jampot were XLer of the 77 batch and current IR Prof Pranabesh Ray (aka "Pray"!) and the current head of the Jampot Alumni Association, Mr. Rana Sinha!

Our thanks go to the current batch of 2006 XLers doing their summers for their unbridled enthu and fight to make this meet a resounding success! The XLBang Alumni Committee would specially like to acknowlege the efforts that Desmond, Dhananjay, Surya S, and Vijay put in - three cheers to them! From the alumni side awesome effort was put in by Titto, S Suryanarayan and Kuru (but, of course!). XL kids, Nikhil, Nisha, Krishna, Lester, Rahul, & Rhea helped us out with the registrations. And a big thanks to Angira for the pics (we're waaaaitinggg...)

The XL Alumni Comm also gave Rs.13,001 to Satish Venkatachaliah's Round Table as our annual contribution to a worthy cause.

Cheers to Panna & Nash (of BM 96)for winning the "much coveted" hamper for the first couple to dance.

And we would like to thank our sponsors who made the drinks, entry and dinner all economical for all of us! They are:

National Sponsors
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Naukri.com
Cognizant Technology Solutions

Principal Sponsors
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Allegro Capital Advisors
Titan

Diamond Sponsors
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Adecco People One
ITC

Gold Sponsors
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Eicher Consultancy Services(ECS)
SAP Labs
3M
Fortuna Consultants

Liquor & Beverages Sponsors
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Seagram
SAB
Pepsi

Batter Fried Prawns Sponsor (and were they yummy!!)
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Pure Waterhouse (David D'Costa from the 1976 batch)

Gift Sponsors
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Metro Cash & Carry
Indus League
3M
Fortuna Consultants (Harinarayan of the '74 batch)

Media sponsors
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Businessworld
Business Standard

The pens from Fortuna were much sought after as were Indus-League's T Shirts for the event (designed by Zameer!) which were a big hit and were sold out by midnight (if you have an extra t shirt pleeeze pass it on to me !)

Thanks are also due to Bob Punch who came down to MC for the meet all the way from Kolkata ! (sorry Kolkata, your loss!) and Anuja Singh who conducted the "make the mummy" game for the kids (no, not what you are thinking about !)

Lots of people turned up and some prominent XLers were N Krishnkumar (KK), Bijou Kurien (also the president/COO of the XLBang Alumni), Bharti & Jacob Kurian, John Idicula (Treasurer of the XLBang Alumni), Mervyn Raphael, Prateik Kumar, Saji Zacharia, Ravi Parmeshwar, NS Muthu, Azfar Hussain, Satish Venkatachaliah, Vishy Shenoy (the Biryani Merchant!) amongst others.

Some conversation pieces that were picked up by our undercover journalists:

"Do you really think I should invest in commodities....what should I do with my shares in the tech sector...?"
"Oh my god, how she's changed, she was such a nerd in XL, and just look at her now...! wow !"
"Since when have you been in Bangalore?? Seven months? And you haven't bothered to contact me??"
"Hmpfh, my batchmates never turn up for the alumi meet....idiots !!"
"So are you really looking out for Branding people for your company....wellll...I've got 3 years experience in sales and one year in Industrial marketing...could we meet sometime next week...? What's your cell number ?"
..."yaar, mujhe koi naukri dila de re...xljobs mein mere liye kuch nahin aata"
"I'm looking for guest lecturers to address my students...can you spare 1 hour in a month..?"

....till next year folks !

Ciao,
Gautam Ghosh
http://gauteg.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com/gautamghosh

(P.S. This was my last report for the XLBang alumni ...Hyderabad, here I come !)