This blog is dedicated to the people that were in the Advertising Class of XIC oh so many many years ago.
The 1st photo is of Rohinton , Hema and Sanjeev on March 28th, 2008 at the Radisson in New Delhi. The 1nd photo is of us taking a class or a test in our classroom - where we spent only 10 months together. You see Christine in the picture. The photo below is near Rohinton's ancestral wadi in Udwada. In the 3rd picture you see Christine (now in Canada) , Rohinton (runs Cutting Edge Media in Mumbai) , Malcom (trying to be retired but not, in Canada) and Hema (Stormville, San Diego, LA, New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune - who knows, who bothers to track, and does it really matter ?)
It all started with IBM piloting Beehive - a social networking program inside IBM. One of the SVPs has taken it upon himself to test it out as a tool for collaboration. Hema got invited into the hive and show what she could do with it. Social networking sites - especially if they are closed to a specific group of people - can be really fun. And Hema had a great time sharing photographs, participating in events and writing Hive 5s - not to mention looking up old colleagues and friends and catching up with what they are doing today. It was also a great place to meet and communicate with absolute strangers.
Hema thought she liked social networking a lot. So she decided to go see what was happening on Facebook - another site that was frequently referred to by the people on Beehive.
And lo and behold - who did she find there - but her good old friend Christine from XIC. Now, Hema and Christine have been in touch with each other over the last few years, but here Hema found photographs and parepharnalia that allowed her to get a view of what Christine had been upto in the last couple of years. It was awesome.
And so Hema said - Why not create a Facebook group for all my old friends. People she grew up with, went to college with, hung out with in Bandra..... she set up a group on Facebook and sent a message to everyone in her address book.
Some were quick to respond - Facebook - is for teeny boppers! I have no time for Facebook. Facebook - get real!!! There were a couple of Facebook - ok let me try it out. In general the Facebook thing fizzled out very quickly.
However, in the middle of it all - Christine connected with Malcolm Gomes. Who was in touch with Rohinton Maloo and Denzil Sequeira. Who knew where to find Karl Fernandes and Pushkar Sinha and Sanjiv Sharma. Puskhar knew where to find Billy Kashyap or Billikash as he now likes to be called. Sanjiv knew where to find Sanjeev Mehta.
There have been reunions in Mumbai , Delhi and online this past week. And it has been energizing and uplifting. Amazing - we only spent 10 months together and yet there is this intense connection . We seem to be picking up where we left off..... Yeah we all seem to have put on some weight... some of us have put on quite a lot of weight. And what is that streak of silver peeking out from under our hair ? We all seemed so invincible back them.. and compared to what we now know - so very naive!!
Well - more people have to be found. Rohinton says he knows where to find Yogesh Shetty and Chitra Bamroo. Who might know what happened to Noshir and to Leila. Last we heard Peyton was in Australia and Manoj Mathew in Dubai or Bahrain. And Rohinton and Sanjiv both know the make and model of Bishu's car - I think Bisham is again taking us for a ride (like he did when we rode to Lonavala - we all thought we would stay at his family's Biji's Inn. We ended up in the gardener's cottage instead !) Rohinton also knows where to find Uneza . Uneza ??
The question is will we ever find the whole class ? Most likely not - as you mention a name - the image seems to emerge from some long hidden recess of the brain....... and many times it does not. Will we ever even get a list of all the names - I doubt it. Will the ones that find each other - emerge better off from this reunion ? Or should we have let bygones be bygones ? Will we regret having opened this Pandora's box ? Who knows ? Only time will tell. But I do know that having started down the path we could not NOT keep looking, finding, searching for whatever it is that lies ahead.
Meanwhile there are all these poor guys out on Facebook - wondering what happened to the party Hema promised. Sigh!!! So much buzzing so little time!!!
It is less than a year since our reunion. And we have lost the first of our classmates. Rohinton, who was at a business meeting at the Trident, was taken hostage and eventually killed on the roof of the Oberoi. His bullet ridden body, was the last body to be taken out of the Trident. I understand his 14-year old son Irshaan, who had also lost his best friend, the son of the GM of the Taj earlier in the evening, waited outside the Oberoi for 48 hours. His body was identified by the ring on his finger.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the obituaries written by scores of his colleagues around the world, I realize that Rohinton made everyone feel unique and special.
Just as I think I've heard or recalled every single story and memory, another new one emerges.
And as we mourn this senseless loss, I cannot help but think that we came together earlier this year for a reason. Rohinton and I had thought it was because he and I would write a book together - he would supply the humor and content, I would provide grammar and spelling.
But perhaps there was another reason - to remind us to live life to its fullest, to remind us that life is a precious gift that can be taken at anytime, without opportunity to argue or reason.
Beautiful! Now understand your thoughts on which way the ACHS group will be a year from now.
ReplyDeleteIf others experience the new energy as much as I have, I think it can only pick up momentum. Lets reveiw a year from now.
Heard the other day that we lost Bishu to a heart attack. May your soul rest in peace.
ReplyDelete