— by Rajesh Anand
Our get-together at Hill view Heights function hall on Saturday 24June06 got off to a flying start at about 6 p.m. with the timely arrival of quite a few enthusiastic XJBEIans with families in tow. The entire program was meant to be impromptu and that is why we scrambled through arranging the hall and packing the prizes etc.
Everyone was given a label and two teams viz. red and blue were formed. At about 7 pm we were ready to start the function with an introduction by all. It was fun listening to the variety of experiences everyone had to share. Time really flies. It has been more than 10 years since JBEI came into existence. I myself had so much to say having spent about more than 5 years there.
The cricket matches, the magazine club, the trips to the suburbs and the simple joi–de–vivre of being a part of a brand new organization were absolutely heady to say the least. On a personal front, I really enjoyed being at John Brown, Bangalore and the best was to have met some amazing personalities capable of leaving some great impressions. I also recall the day when my son was born while I was there. In all, John Brown we salute you.
As expected the introductions took quite a while. We also invited the wives of XJBEIans to say a few words and it was great to hear the encomiums they showered for the fast emerging XJBEI families all over the world. All of them looked forward to attending may such gatherings in the future.
We were very pleased to have in our midst some of the earliest JBEI personnel such as Shri Shanker Banerjee, Thomas Kurian, Nagaraju who fondly remembered their days spent at JBEI.
Later we set up a quiz competition after selecting the captains and the vice captains. We also had a child captain from both the teams. The quiz consisted of questions about Singapore, India and above all John Brown. In between there were fun quizzes and tongue twisters - the one with “Kharak Singh ke kharkane se khirakti hai khirkiyan, khirkiyon ke kaharakne se kharkata hai kharak singh hai” had the whole house in splits.
Some quiz samples: Question: What was the most notable event in the history of JBEI Bangalore Answer: Visit of John Major, the British PM in 1997.
Question: The closest distance between India and Indonesia. Answer: Varied from 70 kms to 200 kms ( though Murali Krishna Rao appeared very sure about his answer)
Question: What is the national flower of Singapore. Answer: Vanda miss joaqim (an orchid)
The quizzing was followed by dinner which most I spoke to appeared to like. I was particularly impressed by the chapati masala and the carrot halwa. That speaks good about Raj restaurant who catered with great care and who we would love to recommend to our friends visiting Singapore. They have two outlets one near Mustafa and one close to Buona Vista MRT (Biopolis park).
After dinner we had about 45 minutes and as planned earlier we invited the teams to show their singing skills. To our pleasant surprise, there were quite a few good singers who whole-heartedly participated in the antakshari. In the fitness of the occasion, we sang “E mere watan ke logon” and “Made in india”.
And then there was the prize distribution. Both winning team and runners up got a box of barfis which they promptly shared with everyone.
When the program ended, it was gratifying to note many exchanging telephone numbers and if this get-together brought families closer, we the organizers would feel elated.
Our one regret, we could not have more time and could not arrange for the dances which the kids had come prepared for. Our special thanks to the volunteers who managed the reception, the money, the cleaning.. in fact all of you because everyone chipped in with something or the other.
Special thanks to the child captains Aishwarya and Gautam who did a slpendid job. Hope you all enjoyed the prizes.
(More photos of the meet here, courtesy Rajesh Anand)
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