XLRI Visit

It was a sunny morning on Thursday, 13^th June’ 13. Greenish blue waves of ‘Bay of Bengal’ were looking beautiful below white clouds from plane’s window. View changed to lush green paddy fields extending welcome to ‘West Bengal’. We were on the way to Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) XLRI for our son’s admission.

Journey from perfect GMR style ‘Dum Dum’ Airport  to railway station took us from highway surrounded by skyscrapers and bit of marshy land reminding us of Mumbai. There was lot of greenery too. On the way we enjoyed great hospitality at cousin’s place with Bengali delicacies like Kachori-Sabzi and Sandesh.

View of ‘Eden Gardens’ was very exciting. The engineering marvel - Howrah Bridge reminded of movie ‘Yuva’. Dalhousie area and Howrah station sported exact British Colonial Structure. Kolkatta still maintains unique mode of transport ‘Tram’.Howrah station impressed us with its size when we reached on 19^th platform using road parallel to platform – no hassles of staircase or coolie.Train journey was over while tasting Jhal Moodi (Mumbai Bhel variation) and appreciating lotus varieties in ponds/canals along with fields.

Jamshedpur Junction also called as Tatanagar welcomed us to its clam and cozy culture. Many XLRIians were approaching the campus with us in autos those were little bigger than usual. Roads were good with lot of greenery, gardens and lakes around. One cannot miss to pay respects to Jamshedji’s statue on the way.

The campus was so well designed and well organized! Student hostel allotment list and section was already displayed. Neat, clean room was handed over to him. All the students started interacting. Everyone represented premium under graduation institute and great work experience. There was a lot to share with old BITSians friends :) and new acquaintances. New long lasting bonds of friendship and network were blossoming. BITSians had moved from G.D. Birla's birthplace Pilani to JSR - city founded by Jamshedji Tata. 

Friday morning was fresh post shower. All students in their formal outfits were energetically approaching towards auditorium to begin new phase of their life. Everyone sported pleasant personality and spread the charm.

The Inaugural function started sharp at 9 am. The atmosphere was built with live prayers, bhajans and lighting of lamp. XLRI gives highest professional education with high moral values. The journey was initiated with recitals of extracts from Holy Quran, Gita and Bible. Director’s speech was very motivating and prepared students for forthcoming two years of hectic schedule to improve their professionalism. Seasoning of funny stories with meaningful punch lines added extra value to the speech. He also emphasized fulfilling social responsibilities in spare time. This was followed by key speaker’s speech that reached to heart of audience. He explained Gandhiji’s ‘Seven Sins’ to avoid.  The function concluded with melodious prayers. We were very happy to see all world class facilities at campus for curricular (library, WI-Fi connection, modern lecture halls), extracurricular activities (foot ball ground, tennis court, basket ball court, indoor badminton court, gym etc.).

The well groomed garden occupying whole campus had lot of well classified flowering and fruit bearing plants. The continuous chirping of birds and view of animals like busy squirrel helped to connect to nature instantly. It surely boosts energy to withstand hectic schedule.

Everywhere great motivational quotes were displayed i.e ‘Laughter has no foreign accent’, ‘Words have a life of their own, think before you speak’,  ‘Positive people don’t put others down’.

There were funny quotes too :) ‘When I feel like studying, I lie down till the feeling goes away’.

There were many temporary allied businesses in surrounding area like bank selling loans or small vendors selling day to day required items. It was amusing to hear the vendors effortlessly using the XLRI terminology like, ‘Mam, do you belong to GMP course?’

It was now time for students to get involved in their activities. On their way back, parents carried wonderful dreams for future woven by XLRI for their children.