From:  "Gyan Ranjan Patra" <Gyan@b...>
Date:  Tue Oct 26, 1999  4:00 am
Subject:  [oec98] Back!...after 2 weeks at Bhubaneswar

Hi friends,

I am back! Back after two whole weeks of fun at good old Bhubaneswar.

38 hours of journey really trying and when you are going after 8 months

the journey

becomes longer. I was  eager to jump out of the train.

Finally when I reached Bhubaneswar on 10th. I expected to see a cleaner

and

modern Bhubaneswar but was welcomed with unclean worn out roads & newly

arrived pollution. Somebody said our earlier Chief Minister -JBP made

good roads

so that he can run fast when charged with corruption. His absence was

felt!

But when I was going on the Janpath I could see a new breed of shops -

jewellery

shops, about 15 of them. I dunno why?

First day I went to XIM met all the new to-be-managers Tareni, Tapan,

Bunty,

Devasis Sahu ...all. Had a nice time with them, promised them a treat

but I never

showed up after that (Did I see fists moving!).

The first week was boring but when the Puja fever started Bhubaneswar

became full

of life. I could not see the worn out roads anymore. That was the

Bhubaneswar I

knew. The 2nd week was full blast. My lunch & dinners were all booked.

I went to our OEC khatti places - banish chhaka,gogia khatti & RD front

chaha

dokan. Sadly our juniors didnt keep up the tradition. They dont know how

great

ideas we got from those khattis?!

The Ravana podi at Sahid Nagar Durga Puja was good but the medha at IRC

village

was better. There was a Sahid sporting stall which was doing a Good Luck

signature

campaign for Debashis Mohanty!

Heard that the Saraf is no more the Principal & is replaced by a retired

IAS

officer.For strong administration, probably... they said?!

Rest of the time I spent with relatives.

Bhubaneswar looked depleted of 98 batch OECians.

While boarding the train I really missed Bhubaneswar.

You must be thinking I am behaving as if I made a trip US but I bet you

ask any of

those guys abroad they would love to have a trip to their hometown.

Is Usha still there at Bangalore or left for Sydney about which she was

talking about?

In the meantime my office venue has changed. I have lost all the email

ids so sending

this mail to the egroup.See how an egroup helps.So, please reply back &

keep mail ka silsila going!

Regards

Gyana