Respected faculty members and distinguished alumni,

I feel overawed by the sense of occasion that envelops me. As I stand before this august gathering, I am apprehensive about what I am about to speak. However, I will try to bring out some aspects of life here that have mattered to me as a person.

For me, IIM Calcutta has always been a rollercoaster ride. It has breezed past deadlines, exams and through submissions. I suppose the minutiae of academic rigour are at parity with the other schools. But whilst life at IIM Calcutta, might I add, would be the kind of ride that would breeze past the alleyway of asperity, it would give the incumbent the freedom to smell the roses by the wayside.

….

When I look at my time here, I see that sort of marked change that any institution of repute would have brought about. But more pertinently, I am beginning to realize the importance of what I will inherit from here. The network of contacts, people who will become the leaders of the future, that I will inherit is invaluable. But more importantly it is the relationships that I make here that I will cherish and treasure forever. While I have take for granted the hallowed halls that a privileged few in the nation are privy to, I now know the immensity of the brand that I will be inextricably attached with.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I will become an alumnus in the coming few months. I will pass into another phase of life and the blithe buoyancy of boyhood will give way to more paved prudence of a professional. But there will be that instance, when in solitude I will look back at the small things which made my days here so special. There are people who implore us not to dwell in the past, to let go and walk on. But when I leave IIM Calcutta, I’d, as the adage goes – take only memories and leave behind footprints. When I leave IIM Calcutta, I will not say goodbye, because to Joka I will belong, forever.

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Whew. Transcribed verbatim from memory, this was supposed to be delivered to a faculty-alumni conclave in the recently concluded Golden Jubilee Celebrations held on campus. Since this was supposed to be a leisurely walk down the rosy past, I decided to wax lyrical about how IIM Calcutta had fundamentally changed me and all that. But when Prof. Purushottam Sen (who joined the institute in ’78), in his opening line, said “I think with just 32 years here, I feel woefully immature to comment on the legacy that IIM Calcutta has, especially when so many of you have spent your entire life here”, I realized how superficial my words would seem.

50 years is a long, long time. There was something about the way the evening went that made my speech’s first line seem abysmally understated and my last one seem unnecessarily over the top. In 50 years, an entire generation’s aspirations and dreams have been linked to IIM Calcutta. To some IIM Calcutta is the brand that has given them their way of life; to others it is life itself.

Will we, as we welcome the life that beckons us after, ever understand the power of the legacy we have inherited? Even if cursorily so, will we strive to be worthy of that claim?

If yes, congratulations; the journey is long and weary but is completely worth the effort.

-Greg