The Homecoming - 1

The best thing that can happen to you in this hectic world is living that life again which otherwise is never gonna come to you and which is the best part of your life. That part of life which you always are proud of. That life which you have lived in such a heavenly and grand manner and that has struck you so deeply that it has become a part of you! That part of life which you always would like to live over and over again. That part of life which I know as GIM. Home and much more!

After I got out early from GIM (thanks to HUL) and then immediately after the convocation, I left for MP wherein I was undergoing my training stint. There was a vacuum which I used to feel every day. This vacuum was so difficult to fill in. And I don’t think it still has been filled in yet. And I don’t think it could ever be filled.

What was done to overcome this GIM-sickness was the plan to go and attend the Grand Alumni meet scheduled during a long weekend. The planning started one month before in July when I and Chetan started shooting mails to the batch through our late pgp06-08@gim id. It is dead now. May its soul rest in Mukesh’s ass! But the sheer thought of Alumni meet in general and GIM in particular was so exciting that flight bookings from places like Delhi, Lucknow and Jaipur started at least 20 to 30 days in advance.

The Mumbai junta was particularly excited. Initially we were thinking of booking a bus. But despite the idea being so rocking, the budget didn’t seem so rocking. It simply didn’t fit our budget and vice-versa. Hence, we took the mass booking option. I and Batta got our leave approved from the 14th. This meant that we were landing in Goa a day earlier as compared to the rest of the junta who had their bookings done for the 15th. For the batch of 2008, it was a special occasion. This was primarily because all of us were feeling the same. Bas Goa jaana hai!!

32 people had come from Mumbai (some of whom had come from places like Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur and Rajkot). Around 20 ppl had come from Bangalore. And around 4 to 5 had come from Hyd, Chennai and Pune. These were the people who were visible to everyone. Everyone met each other. Frequent and irregular spanking sessions kept happening and this made the visibility even more apparent.

Then there were a set of people who preferred to be in invisible mode. PG and Andy, for example, belong to this set. What excitement they would have got in being invisible and unheard! People have really amazing styles to live their lives.

I, Rahul and Rubal landed on the 14th, 3 hours late and we were picked up by Nidhi who already was there since morning (Bade log, you see). We dropped Rubal at Mayfair. Seema was our other abode for the next 4 days. And Maruti Alto was our mode of transport. We were given room no. 109. After dumping our luggage somewhere near the bed, I spread the curtain open and opened the door of the verandah to expose ourselves to the serene Mandovi. Man!! I and Rahul just stood there and kept gazing at it probably for 10 min (didn’t really keep a track of that). Its sheer beauty bowled us. Yes!! We were back!! To live the same life!! To go down the memory lane and realign our souls from the hectic corporate world to the quite, serene and heavenly GOA!!

After getting ready, we found that Nidhi had gone to the car repair shop in Panaji to get the speakers done. Good!! Time for Casa de Cha!! But alas, there was no Manoj Uncle and hence with him, it seemed, he took away what we really longed for whenever we went to Casa. The calmness. The “tere ko Kya” personalized service. The “Shonkhu”, “Rampuri”, and so many rechristened names. We missed the Casa which we innumerably went to and left behind us. I didn’t find it when I had my breakfast there. Hence I never went there again to get disappointed again. It is not the same place!

After the huge disappointment and with a little sad mood, we entered GIM. Not through the Corporation Bank wala gate. But the main gate. The smile was back!! And then we kept on meeting so many people. Kailash to start with and then followed by Saby, Jaggu, Shambhavi, even Mukesh, Mirchi, Parulekar, Nagarajan, Golu, CMR, Steve, Jeni, and Ranjini in that order. The interaction with the Faculty was really great. It was a strange feeling because this time they were asking us and we were answering their queries (I and Rahul spoke about sales and marketing in HUL and Rubal spoke about Fin and Capital markets). Things do change in 6 months!! We also met Tony, Jaidas, Bhanudas and Mahesh. And then the huge crowd from our junior batch who were on their way to either G5 or G3, kept coming to meet us and kept hugging us. Man!!! This was big!! We were missed!! Answering “work is going great” to the same question “how’s work” asked by all over and over again didn’t bore us at all!

Getting back as an alumnus is a lot different and hence it is difficult to live the same life you lived as a student. You belonged here as a student. And then you visit this place as an alumnus. But then who cares!! Being from GIM (no matter what you are: a student or an alumnus) is like having the same blood group. You always belong to the same family.

Hence we proceeded towards Gene’s and greeted Joe and Mary. And then did what we all do at Gene’s!! Ordered a beer and food. Yes!! What a feeling that was! You have to live that experience when you are at Gene’s. I don’t think words have that kind of guts to bring about that feeling!

As alumni, we always pay our bills wherever and whenever we consume anything. At Jaggu’s, we paid immediately after we had parathas and chai. We paid Kailash immediately after we ordered Sweet lime juice or whatever we had. And hence, at Gene’s as well, we paid for whatever we had (sigh!).

In Goa, it always rains before and after the Alumni Meet. This is my observation in the last 3 years. It never rains during the 2 days of the meet. It never rained in 2006, nor did it rain in 2007. And since the Alumni meet was scheduled from the 15th to 17th and since we were here on the 14th, it rained that day. Cats and Dogs. Our plans for going to Chapora and other places got royally screwed. We were left with no other option than to move our ass to CCD, Miramar. We were joined by Nishi and PC there who had their best (to be read as worst) journey from B’lore. As PC had put it, even the cockroaches in the bus got bored of the rickety bus they (PC and Nishi) had boarded to come to Goa. 18 hours!! I was all prepared to promote my brands under oral, personal wash, skin and hair categories to the poor ladies. But then, they were not in that condition for such promotions. Hence, I somehow restrained myself and kept listening to their traumatic journey.

We had coffee and the ladies had food after which Rubal and PC proceeded towards Mayfair. Rest of us headed back to home. The causeway (from Panaji to GIM) got into us the same nostalgia. Throughout the distance of the causeway, none of us spoke. There were expressions like “wow”, “oh man”, etc. But no words. Sometimes I wonder how deeply a place can affect you. Big FM 92.7 played songs in the background. We got Nishi to GIM. And then we kept meeting our juniors every now and then.

It was in DK’s room that we were told that the much sought after Bucket Party has been banned by the new Director. Now, over here, we really felt that we were alumni. No SAC. No Alumni Committee. No chance of even taking one more chance. The message was disappointingly conveyed to all the “visitors”. Then Joe came to our rescue when he declared that there is no dry day at Gene’s!!! Wow!! With this excitement, we waited for the BIG gang who were supposed to land the next day as we proceeded to Zen for our dinner.