It
was all that was promised, and more. Much more. Much much more. Fun, frolic,
singing, spirited reminiscing, hearty back slapping, colourful discussions, catching
up, soaking in the climate of the Sahyadris, basking in the hospitality of the
beautiful TMI and that redoubtable couple, Mrs and Dr BK Saxena. That, in a
very very small nutshell, was the two day event of your very own Alumni
Association, Ladies and Gentlemen, organised at the renowned TMI, on 25 &
26 January 2014. If you missed it, tough
luck !! Just too bad. Make it a point to be there next year, 24 & 25
January 2015.
A
total of 49 DMET MERI alumni, including two cadets of 7th semester
MERI Kolkata, attended the event, apart from members of DRACEA (Dufferin
Rajendra Chanakya Ex-Cadets Association). The maximum participation was, of
course, from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune. But we also had the odd alumni
flying in from Delhi (Ashish Sharma (ponytail and all !!!) and Ritesh Kaushik
(who has this lovely way of getting his point across) especially for the
event. Their enthusiasm was infectious,
to say the least. And not diminished even a tad, as an organisational glitch
resulted in their not getting their memorabilia bag. Guys, your precious DMET
MERI memorabilia is safe with me. Have it collected or let me know how to send
it to you.
Aldius
Pais, for the second time, justa happened to be in Mumbai for refresher courses,
and so made it for the event. For the uninitiated, Aldius is a 1970 pass out,
still sailing. A brand ambassador,
indeed.
The
scene outside the Executive Hostel of the TMI, at around 1700 hrs, was chaotic,
to say the least. The trickle of cars had turned into a flood, and soon there
were cars of all shapes, sizes and types lined up outside the Executive Hostel.
Rooms were allotted, exchanged, invaded and occupied; old friends hugged, back
slapped and abused each other in joy, while the wives rolled their eyes at this
display of juvenile behaviour. The nostalgia was so profound that the scheduled
Executive Committee meeting of the DMECA (where all DMET MERI alumni present
that day in TMI were invited) was delayed again and again. Finally, the ever
efficient Naresh Kumar Mishra, an alumni and senior faculty at TMI, managed to
herd all the over-enthusiastic alumni to the library in the Main Block for the
meeting.
The
enthusiasm of the alumni did not abate one bit at the meeting, and there was
animated discussion in the meeting regarding the ways and means of increasing
the membership of the alumni association, and collecting funds for the Soft
Skills Development Programmes (SSDP). In
short, some of the issues decided were : Each alumni member should bring in one
member by 31 March 2014; Each batch should collect and contribute only only
only only Rs 60,000/- each, for the SSDP by 30 June 2014; Batches should
institute prizes at Mumbai and / or Kolkata; No subsidy for alumni events as
this reflected adversely in our account books. Naresh Kumar Mishra was elected
as Joint Treasurer and Amit Singh as Treasurer.
Mr
Arvind Kumar, of MANET Pune, and Mr Srinivas Nagrao, of Great Eastern, pledged
Rs 20,000/- for the SSDP, on the spot. Gentlemen, hats off to you. Mr Rahul
Nagpaul, of TMI, handed over a cheque of Rs 6,000/- for a prize for Environment
at MERI Kolkata, in the memory of his late father. By sheer coincidence, after
I reached home the next evening and checked my mail, there was a bank transfer
of Rs 60,000/- by Gajendra Singh Verma (of Chevron?) instituting a prize for 10
years in the memory of his late grandparents, who always encouraged him to
excel while at DMET. Others who pledged support on the spot for the SSDP were Sunayan
Sanatani, Shirish (not Shrish) Kumar (by phone), Naresh Mishra, Rajesh Sharma,
APB Pais and Chandan Sinha. A windfall, indeed.
Even
after the meeting was declared over, the alumni refused to budge and continued
their animated discussions regarding membership, fund collection, the SSDP and
the Alma Mater. They were able to be lured out of the library only with the
temptation of the evening festivities on the immaculate lawn of the Main
Building.
The
weather was true to type; not warm, not cold. Just right for an evening
outdoors. As I have said last year, the warmth of the hosts complemented the
coolness of the Sahyadris. The evening was enlivened by Ravi Kapoor strumming his
guitar and Naresh Mishra enthralling the guests with beautiful renditions of
Hindi songs.
It
was great to see alumni of all ages, early twenties to late seventies, chatting
animatedly about the DMET MERI of their days; Engineers and Master Mariners
discussing training, the state of the shipping industry, and it’s hopefully
imminent revival. The dinner continued till quite late, as once again, people
just refused to break up. It was only when it was announced that PT fall-in
would be at 0600 hrs sharp, that people moved off hurriedly.
Early
morning found alumni all over the campus, in groups, couples and in singles.
Capt Yankee Sharma was taken for a run by his dog. Ajit Kumar KT took full
advantage of the locale and did his meditation by the lake. A group of us were
taken by Naresh Mishra to see the Tukaram Wadi close by, a pilgrimage spot of
some repute. Some went to see the Ship-on-Campus and the other training
facilities, built up so assiduously. Others strolled all over the well
maintained campus, taking in the pure air of the Sahyadris in lungfuls, and
promising to keep back, year after year after year.
After
a wholesome breakfast, some people attended the flag hoisting. For the cricket
match, the TMI staff, led by the redoubtable Capt N Razdan, Cdr Kuldip Singh
and Mr Ved Prakash, had pitched a large shamiana at the Club end of the sports
field. Soon the scene resembled a fete with colourfully dressed ladies and
children all over the place. The DMECA banners were put up, tables set up for
the memorabilia, Tupperware and Registration desks.
The DMECA Registration
Desk was set up by Mrs Radha Ramrakhiani and Mrs Mugdha Chandakkar. They
handled it like total professionals, which they are, in their own right. Mrs
Radha Ramrakhiani is a LIC big boss while Mrs Mugdha Chandakkar runs Japanese
teaching classes.
The colourful
Tupperware removed from the large bags and displayed on tables. All ladies were
given a gift coupon to redeem at the Tupperware stall.
The gents were given
memorabilia bags consisting of a mixture of DMECA T-shirts, DMET MERI calendars
(designed by Amit Suri), DMECA mugs, key rings, car stickers, badges and fridge
magnets. Our range of memorabilia is growing at a steady pace, though we have
still not managed to start selling through our web-site.
All children were also
given gifts, which were quickly put to the correct use of being filled with mud
!!!!! Mrs Saxena was felicitated by Mrs Kanta Jain with a small token of our
gratitude.
The prizes and thank
you gifts were given away by senior members, Mr PC Jain, Capt VK Agarwal and
Capt Subhash Kumar.
The enjoyment continued
at the drinks session in Dr BK Saxena’s house. The younger ones made themselves
comfortable in the rear lawns and sat down to enjoy the beautiful afternoon. Lunch was at Hostel No. 3, where we
were treated to fabulous biryani and puri chana. By the time we reached the ice
cream and jalebis, we were absolutely bursting at the seams, such was the
hospitality of the staff. That really set the stage for the nap I had on the
way back to Mumbai. Pity the guys and gals who had to drive.
Somewhere down the
line, a cricket match was played. An exciting DMECA v/s DRACEA match, which
went into the very last ball. DRACEA scored 190 runs (our bowlers and fielders are
still doing push-ups in atonement) and DMECA reached 185, helped by a fantastic
half century by Amit Singh (Best All Rounder). Some lovely hitting by Capt Anjan
Sinha (Best Batsman) enabled the DRACEA team to reach their high score, despite
some scintillating bowling by Chandan Sinha (Best Bowler). On popular demand, Captain
Iyer of TMI, accepted the winning trophy on behalf of DRACEA. But, as I said
last time also, I think the winning /
losing did not matter at all. It was the spirit of and bonhomie between both
the teams that mattered most. Indeed, Jointmanship won the day at Tolani.
(Please do excuse me if
there are inaccuracies in the above para. These are entirely my
responsibility).
There was discussion
about having a quarterly event at TMI, instead of an annual event. As a
compromise, a biennial programme was also suggested. But it was decided to
stick to an annual programme and not stretch a good thing too far.
Every event like this
brings in new members. Here at TMI, we had brothers Subhram Jena and Bikram
Jena, Om Gupta, Anand Kumar Singh, Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Arvind Kumar, Dr
Rajendra Prasad, Tapan Sahu, VG Shenoi, Manoj Kumar Pandey and Lovedeep Gaur
sign up. Welcome to your Alumni Association, folks.
DMET MERI was
represented by 49 ex-cadets and cadets, right from 1951 (entry) to 2014 (pass
out). A broad broad band width, indeed. And all due to that strange, virtual,
intangible but very very real thing called the DMET MERI Bond. May it flourish
forever.
We
missed Mrs and Mr Anil Vohra, who could not make it due to Mrs Vohra’s ill
health. It was her suggestion last year that the event at TMI be held on an
annual basis. Ma’am, we took your idea forward, but missed you (OK, and Sir
also !!) there this time. Please get well soon.
Thank you……
Dr
BK Saxena, Thank you Mrs Sheela Saxena, Thank you TMI, for the wonderful stay, for
being such good and gracious hosts. It was an outing to remember for all of us,
especially families. Of course, the salubrious climes of the Sahyadris added to
the flavour of the event. But the icing on the cake was the attitude of the
hosts – Team TMI. Three cheers for them.
(Due
to an initial rush in bookings, the Executive Hostel was fully booked. To cater
for the spill over, TMI renovated two empty houses. That is the spirit and
attitude of Team TMI).
Nand (Capt Nand Sah),
who arranged everything and then, unfortunately, could not make it.
Raghav (Capt Raghav)
for the full and complete co-operation, and taking over the arrangements at
such short notice. You rock, boss.
Capts Achuthan, Yankee
Sharma, Subhash Kumar and Mohanty for making to the event.
Ladies, for dragging
your lazy husbands for the event. Keep pushing your husbands to attend these
events and we promise you fond memories of each event.
Mr Arvind Kumar and Mr
Srinivas Nagrao for pledging 20k for the SSDP. You guys rock.
Gulf Oil (Amit Singh) for
sponsoring 25k for the SSDP.
Rahul Nagpaul, for the
lovely gesture of instituting a prize for Environment at MERI Kolkata, in the
memory of your dear departed father. A very good way to perpetuate the memory
of a loved one.
Radha Ramrakhiani and
Mugdha Chandakkar for all the help and assistance at the Registration Desk.
Your eagle eyes ensured that all people registered. We owe you one. Should have
thanked you there itself, but clean forgot. Time to retire, it seems !!!
Naresh Mishra, Prem Ramrakhiani,
Vijendra Jain, Sunayan Sanatani, Ajit Kumar KT and Amit Singh for your timely
help at each stage.
For the record, the batches
of 96-00 (6 attendees), 81-85 (6 attendees), 84-88 (5 attendees) and 94-98 (4
attendees) and 62-66 (3 attendees) chalked up the maximum attendance for the
event. Good show guys.
Till
next year, at the VERY best maritime training institute of our country. Now why
is it that there was this very painful tug at my heart as I typed that sentence.
Cheers, thanks and
regards
Gaurav
Agarwal
3049,
81-85
Secretary
DMECA
9969366401
