In 10 years, the building has moved, the profs (quite a few)
have left, the hairlines have receded, and the beer bellies have flourished,
but the camaraderie has remained intact and so has the joy of exchanging tons
of those memorable stories.
What started as a casual conversation on a WhatsApp group
culminated in the 10 year reunion for the batch of 2003-05, obviously none of
this would have been possible without some very industrious batch mates and the
alumni office at GIM. Around 30 of us made it to Goa from all over the globe
with some of us coming from the US, Europe, and the Middle East to make this
reunion a grand success and help us relive those wonder years.
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| Just one of the breathtaking views from the new campus |
The reunion kick started with an informal get-together the
night before the main event at GIM, which followed the next day. Given the late night, it was amazing to see
that everyone was up and ready in the morning to take the longish ride from
Candolim to the new campus together. When the talk of moving to a new campus
was initiated a few years back we all thought that it would be really difficult
to find a location that can come close to the Ribandar campus, but the new
campus is not only located in one of the most scenic places in Goa but also
boasts of ultra modern facilities like centrally air-conditioned classrooms,
well-maintained hostel accommodation, in-campus faculty housing, a huge
auditorium, tennis and (indoor) badminton courts, a well equipped gymnasium,
and (my favorite) a huge swimming pool.
Prof. Parulekar also ran us through the other things that
have changed since we left campus. The batch size is now 240 as opposed to 110
in our days, we also have more than 50 full-time faculty to support this
growth. GIM is also involving itself more actively in the industry and picking
up consulting projects to supplement the brand. Probably the most impressive
initiative is the outreach into the local community through various touch
points and with an overall objective of sensitizing students to the lives of
the vast populace that is underprivileged. We all left from campus with the
overwhelming confidence that the institute is poised to take itself to greater
heights in the near future.
The reunion rounded-off with a grand party in the evening
where we all got down and boogied like the clock had never moved. If your batch
is next in line for a re-union then, don’t think, just do it! I promise it will
be worth it!
And again, a BIG THANK YOU to Divye Goel, Ajay Chopra, & Mohit Golcha for pulling us all together and to the folks at the GIM Alumni office for all their leg work. This wouldn't have been possible without you!
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| View of the faculty housing & beyond at the new campus |
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| The one's who made it! |
