Author: Suparna

Folks,
We seem to share the same fate as the world market. We did spend a bad 2009, but the unflagging spirit of the alumni kept the whole show afloat. And the Sunday that falls on 7 March, 2010 will again see us frolicking to the tune of the latest lilting music at Bohoogly’s Yamuna Bhavan — the same old place but with a new spirit.
We will also have our AGM on the same day. Therefore, do make it convenient to be there in full strength on the 7th.
We now have a new office — talk about a turnaround — courtesy Gopeswar da of 66 batch. At 10, Satchasi Para Lane, Kolkata 700036, adjacent to the Mother Dairy booth. In a week’s time, we hope to have it cleaned up and start operating from there. Once it is done, every Sunday, in the evening, whoever is in the mood can walk in, have a cup of tea, pay the membership et al. That will also be our mailing address. So let us raise a toast to Gopeswar da.
That is all from the Secretary’s desk for now. See you on the 7th.

Subject to the availability of the venue, we will have our AGM and reunion on 14 February, 2010.

Let me start this blog by wishing all of you a very Happy Puja.
I had not visited this page for quite some time now. Neither have I posted any reflections also for quite some time. But as one of the founding members of the alumni association and as the current secretary, I thought it was time that I went on record with an attempt to provide a semblance of sense to the aspirations zipping across the electronic space and the dejection at the Baranagar addas. 
The positives first: We must realize that this association started with the school calling its alumni in to celebrate its 50 years. And on that fateful day a few from across the batches came together and decided to form this association. Since that day to the present we do not even have a permanent office. (With Gopeswar da offering a room, this problem may just become a part of history though). So the meetings were held at Surojit da’s office at the ESI Hospital, with Debansu and I brainstorming and setting tasks over mails and Debansu, Binoy and Pradip with Dibakar delivering the goods at the ground level. And Indranil Sen providing his academic inputs and holding us together with his strict stance over issues. Subsequently, with Surojit da’s transfer, Binoy’s house has catered to our needs.
Folks, we must understand that if the alma mater shows constant reluctance to accept its alumni, it becomes difficult for the association to generate a source for its sustenance. In no enlightened institution would one find such an attitude. E.g. St Xavier’s, South Point, IITs, IIms. You name it and they have it.
Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said about our alma mater. It is a shame. But then if the institution concerned refuses to leverage the skill of its alumni to move forward, it cannot be helped.
But irrespective of the constraint we have moved on. Gathering funds to honour our past teachers, and current successes. A reunion every year and finding new glories from the alumni and to bring them into our network has been our sustenance. But it has not been easy.
But what next? That is a point that bothers me. It is not good for any organisation/association to depend on one single source for a specific activity. It infuses boredom. It forces a recurrence of of same ideas. But as of now, there seems to be no one willing to take up the cudgel of carrying the activities forward.
As for Amit’s appreciation of Debansu’s effort I have an agreement and a disagreement. Folks, for any organisation raising funds is a major issue. Though there are people in the association itself whose generosity would definitely see us through these tough times, we have yet to get any positive response from them.
Amit and rest of the folks should know that barring a few there has not been any substantive response to funds regeneration. So much for the philanthropy.
However, reading this least one gets a negative impression I must hasten to add that I am writing this to give you an idea about the ground level constraints that we work with.
An association of this nature can only survive and prosper, if all of us put our efforts in. Everywhere else, there are people to push others into action. But there has to be actions. There are unfinished agenda. Like funding a few students, standing by our gurus in their times of need. These agenda have to be operationalised by institutionalising them. It is a big ask because there are a few willing souls. It would have been nothing had the soul been willing. But let us not despair. I am sure we would succeed through dispassionate introspection and incremental growth as we have witnessed since the birth of this association. A faster growth would have pleased us all. And that really is the issue.
Regards.
Suparna Pathak  

দেবাংশু যে এই কাজটা করে ফেলতে পারবে এবং তা এত তাড়াতাড়ি তা ভাবতেই পারেনি। এটা বেশ ভাল হয়েছে। কিন্তু আমাদের বন্ধুদের সবাইকে এটা জানাতে হবে, তাই না? ফলে কাউকে একটা manual লিখে ফেলতে হবে। How to do it – এই লাইনে। এবং এটাও দেবাংশু তোকেই করতে হবে।
সুপর্ণদা

After a very short burst of activities, the site is now suffering a very strange bout of silence. I guess the events within the state and outside in India and then ofcourse the global disaster may have contributed to the prevailing pall. How I wish that we could all sit down on a Puja day in the school and turn nostalgic while renewing bonds with the friends. But then we cannot realise all our wishes. Can we?
Enjoy your Puja and come back to share your experience with us. A very happy Puja to all of you.
Suparna Pathak

The Sundays aren’t really that good these days. You have the kid’s issues to settle. Then she wants you to vaccuum the books that you keep buying with the hope that you would get to read them some day. And instead of reading them, you end up ruining your holidays by cursing your ill-found aspirations! And one Sunday in a year you curse more because you have the reunion to go to. Or was it my eagerness to reach Jamuna Bhavan that made everything else so redundant!
Perhaps. But the point is I did everything required of a good husband, good father and a good son. So everybody was happy. The next clever thing I did was to ring up Surojitda and ganged up with him for the 25 km drive from home to Jamuna Bhavan — the venue for the reunion.
September 14, 2008, would go down the history of the association for many firsts. Let us start with the first first. In 1965, Hiren Sinharay stood first in HS from our school. He was the first first. Till the 12th of this month he was just a statistics that I had promised my elders I would get in touch with.
Gopeswar da was after me. “Find him.” My entire journalistic skill was on the verge of being questioned. So I said,”Enough. If this guy is someone that everyone is claiming to be, the net would throw something up about him.” But the search drew a blank. Little did I realise that it was my lack of application. I was not spelling his name right!
It was August. I was talking to my kid sister in Germany. She is a big time potential and an engineer manager. We were on skype. I asked her whether she had heard about someone called Hiren Singha Roy in the banking cirle. She asked me to look him up in Linkedin. I said,”Hey, he ought to be there, if he is what the others are claiming him to be.” And he was there. Hiren Sinharay! Ooops! So I wrote a mail to the effect that “if you are the one, please get back.” Every single minute from then on was straight out of the pages of a suspense thriller.
And then the blackberry groaned. The inbox had a star. Hussh! Here he was. Hiren babu. Within 3 days he was Hirenda. He was coming to Cal on 7th. Yeeeeeeeees. 14th our reunion. Sadly, sadly he would be leaving on the 14th. Can we meet? Oh, please can we meet? Yes. Shall we decide on the date later?
I heard his voice about 9th. Untinted by any strain of living away from home for such a long time, his clear crisp yet affectionately firm tone took me by surprise. And then a few days later we met him at a city club. Handsome by any definintion. Straight and emotional. And still very much an alumnus of the school.
I will leave Hirenda here and get back to the second ‘first’. Our original intention of felicitating our teachers, who made us what we are today, could at long last be implemented. We started with Ramadi and Kesto babu. Ramadi came with her grandson who clicked away as a member of the audience while his grandma sat on the dais absorbing an emotionally surcharged environment.
When Indranil gave her the mike, she just could not speak. And us? We did have a big catch in our throats. Kestobabu could not come. Jogajibanda went to his place the next day and gave him the mementoes. Folks, we will have to wait for the pictures from Jogajibanda.
We have also enlarged the spectrum of prizes to felicitate the students who have done well in the HS and madhyamik. And at long last we have been able to progress towards funding the cost of study of a few deserving students of our school. The modalities are being worked out by a committee consisting of ex-teachers and executive committee members who in their professional life are also teachers. They would first draw up the norm for selection. Their recommendation in this regard would be binding on us. Unless ofcourse the executive committee in conjunction with the empowered committee wish to elaborate or improve on the body of recos.
Well as the curtain came down on the formal programme and the entire group dispersed to the lawn for the revelry, Narayan da came over. He wanted to have his friend Hiren’s address and contact nos. So I rang up Hirenda and caught him on his way back home from the airport in London! Well, folks, reunion is about emotions and there was no dearth of it at Jamuna Bhavan. But then I have no way of showing you the pictures, as I had, like I said, left home in a hurry and the price was the forgotten camera!
Suparna Pathak

The reunion date has been fixed. It is on the 14th of September, 2008. Watch this space for more details.
Suparna Pathak

They were our neighbours. And he, my batchmate.
Sumit Bagchi used to stay just a few blocks away. His mother, having lost her husband, was worried about her youngest. I was in college then. And she had this idea that somehow I might be the one to help her out. I became private tutor to Sumit’s kid brother.
Time flew. Life’s demands started turning tougher. And a short span of time later I had to quit my responsibility of tutoring him. The pressure of life’s demands started mounting. We left the locality and moved to South Calcutta. Old memories have this habit of giving way to the more recent ones. And Baranagar, my incubator of what I am today, became a distinct blur.
And then a couple of days ago the alert flashed. There was a scrapbook entry on my Orkut space. One Subroto Bagchi wanted to know whether I could recognise him. NO. So he jogged my memory. And how! He was Sumit’s kid brother! The little kid who was my student travelled three decades to stare at me with a beard from the screen! He told me how I happened to have been the first in his life to have gifted him a book! A HaJa Ba Ra La! Trust me I had forgotten all of it! And now he holds a Ph.D.! The guy says that the degree was just a natural culmination of a process!
Folks, if you ask me what present would I expect on Saraswati Puja? I would say more and more of him from our school!
He has already searched our site. He wants it to be simpler. But then that is a different though a relevant issue.
Suparna Pathak