CA Alumni - The Joy of Homecoming !

Many of us must have felt a sudden spring and bounce in our feet as we rushed through those never ending stairs that promised to lead us back into past. Going past the small crowd of regular patrons at the Bowling Company in Mumbai, we entered a large hall exclusively reserved for the occasion. Suddenly the eyes glazed over and the mind went into perma frost. Little did we realize that we would be creating history and we did, by being part of the inaugural CA India Alumni meeting.

The mood in the city is still somber and clarion calls for solidarity and reunion are prominently heard from all quarters of life. Amidst this background, an invitation of an alumni gathering seemed appropriate and perhaps the best possible way to reunite. The reunion gave us another opportunity to pay homage to those innocent people and brave martyrs who lost their lives due to terrorism in Mumbai. More importantly it helped us to reach out to touch and connect with people, to empathize, inspire, encourage and in the process also have some fun.

Often events organized out of instincts rather than reason turn out to be better. This was evident when Ninad and Chintan along with the current staff of CA took the initiative to organize a family meeting of CA Alumni. By all accounts, the maiden CA India alumni reunion was a total success. A lot of former colleagues were able to come, and the atmosphere was abuzz with communication. The evening was wonderful with good music and few alumni had their family in attendance.

We had to literally coerce Rufina to hit the dance floor and thankfully she didn’t disappoint. It’s always a delight to watch Rufina and the effervescent Sheela on the dance floor. Satish, Sujay and Mahesh have considerably improved but found the music changing too often. Several former employees Ram Sambasivan, Ashish Arora, Rupinder Sandhu Anand, Rishi Gaind, Sanjay Hasija, Milind Kharkar, Anjali Joneja Amar, Sudesh Prabhu, Chirag Pathak, Prashant Shetty, Prajit Nair took the opportunity to relive their experiences. Manas spoke and for a change he didn’t snipe, picked and teased.

We had a terrific evening. The organization was on the spot, the dinner was amazing and the power point slides featuring old photos of alumni and current staff were absolutely brilliant. I doubt how many really got a chance to see all the photos. Everyone was busy with individual networking over fantastic cocktails. It was nice to come across people who became alumni when CA was known as Computer Associates. The alumni meet must have provided them with a wonderful opportunity to make new acquaintances and enjoy a few in-depth conversations with current staff. Learning about what former colleagues are doing in their careers and personal lives surely made everyone happy and proud.

The homecoming drew participants from as far away as Delhi and Lucknow. Yes Sanjay and Rajendra Pandey made it and we terribly missed folks from other regions within India and even our global colleagues. Undoubtedly getting together will be extremely fruitful in terms of networking and sharing business experience. Certainly the most important thing of all was rekindling friendships and reliving the camaraderie that we once shared at CA.

Earlier in his short welcome speech, Ninad Karpe Managing Director narrated the last lines of the immortal Eagles song - Hotel California, “You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!” Well indeed, physically we may not be part of CA but in spirit we are!

On behalf of our fellow alumni, we would like to thank CA staff for the efforts they put into making this event a great experience for all. So when you get the invitation for the next alumni meeting, don’t hesitate; just sign up – it's definitely worth it!