Suvojit's Impression of the 1st Kolkata Chapter Meet

It was Sunday 29th May, 2011 I entered St. Xaviers Kolkata when I truly felt re-juvinated seeing the huge play ground , instantly the words of Shanti Sir ran once again through my blood " Ball ta soja goal e mar ".

Precisely this was the reason I was there with my football ( read my son's football who now is a student of Xaviers, Kolkata class - 8 ) to relive my past .

For the past 8 years I have entered so many times at Kol Xaviers but this one was special. This one was for my alma mater and no words of appreciation for our xaviers Dgp alumni Asso. is enough to thank them for such a commendable effort for giving us an oppurtunity to run down our memory lanes of SXS Dgp.The first gathering was impressive. Our good luck to have Fr K K Devasy at Kol SXS who has been a part and parcel of this effort along with the present prefect.

It was just a core committee formed but I believe we are all an integral core part of our school by default being an ex- student. After all it is all for our ALMA MATER, whichever way we be there and whoever be there , the final conclusion we are all there.

Time ran out so fast that even when we came out we were still dazzled with the euphoria and we talked about everything till night within our family and had called up another 30 odd friends informing all the majic.

Whatever decided shall be done in due course of time by our Alumni Assoc. and we look forward again to meet probably on 11 June , 11 same place same time to carry onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Till we meet again .

Suvojit Rai Choudhury - 87 batch

FIRST KOLKATA CHAPTER MEET

MINUTES OF THE KOLKATA CHAPTER MEET AT SXC KOLKATA STAFF ROOM 29.05.2011

The inaugural meet of the Kolkata Chapter of the Durgapur St.Xavier’s School Alumni Association was held at 3.30 p.m. at the Staff Room of St.Xavier’s College Kolkata with about 35 ex-students of the school attending. Dignitaries present included among others Rev.Fr. K.K.Devasy, Rev.Fr.M.S.Arockiasamy, Mr.Naresh Gupta, Mr.Snehasis Sur, Mr. Santosh Agarwal, Mr.Firdausul Hassan, Mr.G.P.Gupta, and Mr.Ravin Roy. There were ex-teachers Ms Snigdha Ghosh, Ms.Haimanty Duttagupta and Ms.Chobi Bose along with teacher Mr.Santimoy Biswas who graced the occasion.

The delegation from Durgapur included Mr.Sandip Guha Roy, Mr.Subir Dubey, Mr.Suranjan Kar, Dr.Arindam Mitra, Dr.Kalyan Chakraborty, Mr.Basudev Bhattacharjee, Mr.Suman Kumar and Mr.Pratap Sarkar.

The welcome address was delivered by Mr.Suranjan Kar. Mr.Sandip Guha Roy introduced the relevance and theme of the gathering and presented a brief history of the association thanking the help and support of the ex- headmaster and President Fr.Devasy towards giving the Alumni Association its present shape.

Fr.M.S.Arockiasamy then spoke on the need of the Kolkata Chapter and the efforts of the Alumni Association to get set on an even keel. He reiterated the need of a tie-up between the Alumni Association of Durgapur and the ones in Kolkata towards fulfilling objectives more meaningfully. Father brought out the great importance of the Alumni and the Chapters keeping in mind the oncoming Golden Jubilee Celebrations of St.Xavier’s School Durgapur starting in May 2012.

Fr.K.K.Devasy  warmly welcomed all present and also welcomed the idea of setting up a Kolkata Chapter of the Association.

The President of JAAI Mr.Naresh Gupta supported the need of opening chapters at different places for the benefit of all ex-students and to elicit a more meaningful contribution of ex-students towards their alma mater. He advised on points like systematic maintenance of accounts, timely submission of I.T.Returns, and a very meticulous paper work for the smooth running of the Association.

 Mr.Snehasis Sur, the Secretary of SXCCAA , was indebted to Rev.Fr.Felix Raj in absentia for his support in organizing the meet. He welcomed all fraternal alumni associations together to share multifarious advantages offered by the individual associations. He stressed on the need for a consolidated effort and sharing of ideas. He suggested regular meetings of the newly formed

Kolkata chapter members offering all possible help and suggestion towards space requirement and infrastructural development. Mr.Sur felt the need to organize philanthropic projects and orientation programmes, and to broaden the ambit of activities.

Ms.Haimanty Duttagupta and Ms.Chobi Bose, ex-teachers based in Kolkata present, spoke on their nostalgia and were happy with the formation of the Chapter which would give them an opportunity to keep in touch with the spirit of the School and feel the pulse of St.Xavier’s in Kolkata.

Mr.Sandip Guha Roy then asked the ex-students present to voice their opinion to clarify why they felt a Kolkata Chapter should be established. Different interesting ideas came up. All agreed that it would provide the old boys in Kolkata an urge to meet more often and systematically. They felt that it would provide a better opportunity to generate funds and to reach out to more people. A chapter would undoubtedly help in coordinating activities better keeping in mind the Golden Jubilee. The Chapter, some felt, would be missing link between the Mother body in Durgapur and the Old boys in Kolkata.

For the administration and efficient running of the Kolkata Chapter, a core body was formed. The members include:  Mr.Suman Bhowmik[1978 batch]—Convener, Mr.Subhojit Roychoudhury{1987 batch], Mr.Partha Basu[1988 batch], Mr.Kallol Mitra[1980 batch], Mr.Sourav Ghose[1982 batch],Mr.Arnab Guha[1980 batch], and Mr.Shaon Majumdar[2000 batch].

Mr.Suman Bhowmik was unanimously chosen as the Convener by all members of the Core committee. It was also decided that Mr.Suman Bhowmik ,the Convener, would coordinate all activities and would communicate with Durgapur based Mr.Suranjan Kar.

Mr.Subir Dubey played the tune of the School Anthem on the Harmonica much to the delight of all. He also played a number from the hindi Classic film Sholay ---“ye dosti hum nahi torenge…….” to honour the solidarity amongst the Alumni of different Jesuit institutions present.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by the Secretary of the Durgapur St.Xavier’s School Alumni Association Mr.Subir Dubey followed by complimentary snacks offered by the hosts SXCCAA.

*****************

Kolkata Meet - as Ujjayan saw it

Ujjayan Sengupta, an alumnus of the 2000 batch, shares his experience of the Kolkata Alumni Chapter Meet held on 29th May, 2011.

As the clock struck 3.30 in the afternoon on Sunday, the 29^th of May 2011, the faithful flocked to the gates of St.Xaviers Calcutta to celebrate a wonderful chapter of their past - St.Xaviers Durgapur. We came from far and wide across the length and breadth of the great city, some of us from as far as Durgapur braving the sweltering heat and humidity of Bengal in summer. What spurred us were the memories of the beautiful years spent in our dear school, our alma mater - the place where it all started for us. It was the first reunion for the old boys of ST.XAVIER'S Durgapur in Kolkata and marked the formal start of the Kolkata Chapter of ST.XAVIER'S-Durgapur Alumni. This is surely a very helpful and forthcoming move by the ST.XAVIER'S Durgapur Alumni especially for people like us whose families have shifted from Durgapur and for whom travelling to Durgapur regularly to keep in touch with the school is becoming increasingly difficult for professional and personal reasons.

The chapter meet started with some words of appreciation for ST.XAVIER'S Alumni from the present principal Father Arockyaswamy and Father Devasi who had preceded him. Sandip-da (Sandip Sir) as usual the man for all seasons for ST.XAVIER'S Alumni the person who has painstakingly tried to develop an alumni body for ST.XAVIER'S for quite some time presided over the meeting making the initial introductions and outlining the agenda for the meeting. Many of us spoke about the importance of a Kolkata chapter and how it would be more convenient for a vast majority of our alumni now settled in Kolkata and how the Kolkata chapter could be used to reach out to many more of our alumni spread across the globe who still have their roots in Kolkata / Durgapur. The Kolkata chapter meet was also attended by members of the Xaviers Kolkata Alumni and the Jesuit Associations who declared their wholehearted support for Durgapur alumni body and offered to guide the Durgapur alumni during the initial years. Proposals were also discussed on how to make the Durgapur Xaviers Alumni grow and how to generate funds for the alumni and possible future activities the alumni could take up. A core committee was also nominated for the Kolkata chapter who would meet regularly hereon to discuss future activities.

However the pick of the evening as is the case with any alumni meet was obviously the chance to meet up with old friends and make new ones and also meet up with the old teachers. One of the disadvantages of the Kolkata meet will always probably be that most of the old teachers still stay in Durgapur and one may not get the opportunity to meet as many of our old teachers as we wish in Kolkata. But the first signs were surely encouraging as some of our teachers did take the pains to visit the alumni meet braving the harsh weather conditions reinforcing our respect for the teachers of ST.XAVIER'S Durgapur. There were some very senior teachers who were cheered on by the seniors of the 1980’s and then there was Snigdha Miss our Hindi (3^rd language) teacher, Sandip da and of course the indomitable Shanti (PT) Sir. There were also some provisions for snacks and soft drinks and as the evening came to a close Subir-da played the school anthem on his mouth organ followed by some popular Hindi numbers.  Personally I can say the melodious tunes on the mouth organ succeeded in transporting me to a different time and place where hundreds of us would gather in our greys and whites in a huge gymnasium on green benches and mats in order of our age, or the huge open spaces - the football fields where we could run about like the wind without a care in the world or the classes which would start every morning with “in the name of the father and of the son…” 

Alas time and tide waits for nobody and as the alumni meet came to a close the Kolkata chapter core committee resolved to keep in touch regularly and set a date and place for the next meeting. My best wishes for these folks and all the other alumni of ST.XAVIER'S – Durgapur, may they keep on the good work that was initialized many years ago by our respected and tireless teachers in our dear school our dear ST.XAVIER'S DURGAPUR.

Thank you very much Ujjayan for sharing your experiences with us. For others who attended the meet and would wish to share your experiences, please send an email to xavalum@gmail.com.