Well into the eighth year after graduation and a few grey hair above my forehead (not to mention the ones behind my ear), I have realized that it is too ambitious to hope that the ghosts (spelled fairies!) of your past will leave you. I believe the four years of “myLBS” has sown enough to last for the next eight years and most likely the rest of my life. My observations range from gatherings with an LBS lineage and otherwise, I’ve been surprised and quite often confused at the consistency with which any of these meetings fail to end without a mention of it. And if you have a larger gathering of the former kind, all sorts of ghosts come back haunting.
You land up at your friend’s place and the four of you huddle around a bottle of single malt, the discussions and memories apparently shoot back to the Meghraj days (the only bar in ksd then) when the same eternally cash starved friends used to sink bottles of AJ rum (Rs twenty a quarter), mind you, without water or soda (the secret is to block your nose when you pour the liquid down)!.....when you pull out a couple of hundred rupee notes for the ticket to that mal movie in PVR, you glance back and smile at your friend standing next to you who is also thinking of queing up in the sun at Roopesh, Mehboob, (I am painfully refraining from mentioning “Kanyaka”) with a ten rupee note lining your pocket ….When you pull out a hundred bucks for a pack of “Goldflake Kings” and wait for the change, in the back of your mind you are solving, “how much do I still owe Hameecha for all the beedis I have borrowed and left without a trace?”….You are rushing into a meeting when you are suddenly consumed by this urge to call your ol’ pal whom you are still in touch with and remind him of the party meeting just about to start in room # 203, first floor, men’s hostel “dei, oru kettu beediyum edutho, just in case”…and you don’t need no occasion to remember the story of your good friend who is seeing the computer lab for the first time for his university exam, typing in “Pleasecome-onC” to open the Borland editor!...and for a very few lucky fellas who are getting married know they will have an explanation to make about the memento sitting pretty in their living room – the best “couple” in college – indeed a sinking feeling…driving a spanking new car out of your parking to your grocery store just a turn away, you think of the umpteenth time you have walked back thirteen kms to your hostel after the late-night film!....
In internet terminology “LBSCE” is among the top 5 “keywords” of our lives, and in google terminology, it has gathered a pretty impressive “page rank”!
In the end I have given up, I tried but there is no way I am getting over the intoxicating four years of my life. But can I pass it on?
For current students: Traditionally at LBS, there has been more to life being in the back benches that the front ones and more to life being outside the buildings than the back benches!
For the alumni: As you read this, in your current capacity, what is it that can make you a great ambassador? And what is it that the college can gain from it?
Institute a cash award for the top 3 academic projects done inhouse? Sponsor a domain and hosting the college website? Help students spin projects around it? personally conduct sessions on tech trends, industry trends, job opportunities within and outside IT? Arent building impressive resumes, presentation skills, communication skills etc trainable and key to a graduate’s prospects? Help students network, reach out and present to the HRs of different companies that we work for? Or even more ambitiously, help find funding and market the ideas to be taken beyond the campus? Arent a lot of us making money from the internet doing a lot of unconventional things? and so on ...
Take a little time to pool in your ideas…and of course your memories :)
Cheers,
Anoop
You land up at your friend’s place and the four of you huddle around a bottle of single malt, the discussions and memories apparently shoot back to the Meghraj days (the only bar in ksd then) when the same eternally cash starved friends used to sink bottles of AJ rum (Rs twenty a quarter), mind you, without water or soda (the secret is to block your nose when you pour the liquid down)!.....when you pull out a couple of hundred rupee notes for the ticket to that mal movie in PVR, you glance back and smile at your friend standing next to you who is also thinking of queing up in the sun at Roopesh, Mehboob, (I am painfully refraining from mentioning “Kanyaka”) with a ten rupee note lining your pocket ….When you pull out a hundred bucks for a pack of “Goldflake Kings” and wait for the change, in the back of your mind you are solving, “how much do I still owe Hameecha for all the beedis I have borrowed and left without a trace?”….You are rushing into a meeting when you are suddenly consumed by this urge to call your ol’ pal whom you are still in touch with and remind him of the party meeting just about to start in room # 203, first floor, men’s hostel “dei, oru kettu beediyum edutho, just in case”…and you don’t need no occasion to remember the story of your good friend who is seeing the computer lab for the first time for his university exam, typing in “Pleasecome-onC” to open the Borland editor!...and for a very few lucky fellas who are getting married know they will have an explanation to make about the memento sitting pretty in their living room – the best “couple” in college – indeed a sinking feeling…driving a spanking new car out of your parking to your grocery store just a turn away, you think of the umpteenth time you have walked back thirteen kms to your hostel after the late-night film!....
In internet terminology “LBSCE” is among the top 5 “keywords” of our lives, and in google terminology, it has gathered a pretty impressive “page rank”!
In the end I have given up, I tried but there is no way I am getting over the intoxicating four years of my life. But can I pass it on?
For current students: Traditionally at LBS, there has been more to life being in the back benches that the front ones and more to life being outside the buildings than the back benches!
For the alumni: As you read this, in your current capacity, what is it that can make you a great ambassador? And what is it that the college can gain from it?
Institute a cash award for the top 3 academic projects done inhouse? Sponsor a domain and hosting the college website? Help students spin projects around it? personally conduct sessions on tech trends, industry trends, job opportunities within and outside IT? Arent building impressive resumes, presentation skills, communication skills etc trainable and key to a graduate’s prospects? Help students network, reach out and present to the HRs of different companies that we work for? Or even more ambitiously, help find funding and market the ideas to be taken beyond the campus? Arent a lot of us making money from the internet doing a lot of unconventional things? and so on ...
Take a little time to pool in your ideas…and of course your memories :)
Cheers,
Anoop
4 comments:
great thinking..........
I agree with the idea of doing something for the college back. I think we have the infrastrure and resources already in place. We have people in Industry and some of our friends are teachers in our college itself. The point is where to begin? May be arranging a meeting of our batch in bangalore can be the first step for initiating something
Excellent Karun. I was a teacher there for 7 years.
The best thing the passed out students can do is to come back to the college and share your experiences.
Why can't the alumni's arrange a monthly lecture series for the final and Pre-final students?
somehow stumbled upon this post after 6 months and found it even more awesome and has just forced me to post this on my blog.........
I hope its not copyrighted !! ;-)
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