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.