People at Work & Play

A new interest has been re-kindled within me. Short story writing. Haven’t done it for years.

My second short story called “Ask If You Will ” has been posted at http://prem-rao.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/10/ask-if-you-will.htm

I hope it will bring back fond memories of Enright Hall to XLers as it did to me.

Delighted to know that an XL alumnus has gone where no lady had -till she did. Leena Nair of the ‘92 batch has been for some months now, Executive Director -HR of Hindustan Unilever Limited.

Leena has been nominated to Hindustan Unilever’s Managing Committee - the first lady to reach such a position in the long and illustrious history of HLL.

In an age where moving around from job to job seems to be the order of the day, Leena has stayed - and grown- in one organisation. She joined HLL in 1992 as a Management Trainee and today - 15 years later is part of the top management team of India’s largest FMCG marketer.

Well done, Leena. You have, I am sure, become a role model for many young HR professionals.

We had a pleasant re-union on Sunday, Feb 4. The occasion -the release of a book by Prof. Joe Philip, President & Founder of XIME. Was invited as XL alumnus since Joe is probably the senior most XLer in Bangalore having passed out way back in 1960. He served as faculty and Dean in XLRI in subsequent years.

The reason why most XLers of my vintage turned up was obvious. No, it wasn’t the beer alone. It was a chance to meet Fr. McGrath, going very strong at 84. He hasn’t lost one bit of his charm and wit. I asked him to autograph my copy of Joe’s book. I offered to hold his beer while he wrote a few words. “Don’t drink it!” was his quick reply.

As Joe Philip said Fr. McGrath has over the years become an institution having first come to XLRI in 1949 ! I couldn’t agree with him more when he said that for many batches of XLers, XLRI was Fr. McGrath and Fr. McGrath was XLRI.

Got the chance to meet old friends: amongst others, Aubrey Millet, Tito John Idiculla, George Olapally,David D’Costa and Bijou Kurien. My batchmates there were Harinarayana and Ravi Krishnaswamy.

My not having dyed my hair and growing old gracefully fooled Hari whom I had not met for many years. ” Which batch are you from, Sir?” he asked very politely. “Yours” I said.

Attended the 10 th Annual Conference of the National HRD Network at New Delhi last week. Was delighted to find a corner kept for XL Alumni: those of us who have had the pleasure of studying at XLRI, Jamshedpur.

There were so many people there that I don’t obviously remember all the names. Some that I do remember are:

1. My seniors: Aquil Busrai of IBM, Anand Nayak of ITC, Hari Jha of ITC
2. My batchmate: Shyam “Shotgun” Rau of DCM
3. My juniors: As I passed out of XL 32 years ago, almost every one seems to be in this category! There were many but I do remember Emmanuel David, Sujatha Patel, Kumar Krishnaswamy,”Raja”Varadarajan,Prashant Sankaran, Gauri Sarin etc etc.
4. Profs: The inimitable Madhukar Shukla

Cards and quick stories were exchanged. It was fun to be there.