Dear Fellow Xaverians,

December is well upon us and at ALSOC it means that it’s reunion time. Our reunion conveners Anand Agarwal (1993) and Amish Raja (1990) are busy at work putting together Xavulous 2019. We will have great and lively music, sumptuous food and lots of reminiscing and fellowship. The focus this year will be on “Remember those days”. We will have some classrooms open so that you can sit at the desks and chat with your friends – without fear of punishment!

On behalf of ALSOC, I heartily invite all of you to join us on Saturday, the 21^st of December, 7 p.m. onward. Call the ALSOC office at +913322875735 or email us at alscocmail@gmail.com for information on how to get your invitation passes.

We have had a busy month since I last wrote to you. On Friday, the 8^th of November we celebrated ALSOC Day at the school with the Societas addressing the school assembly. Dr. Biswaroop Mukherjee (1986) was the chief guest and spoke about how Fr. Bouche, the Jesuit Fathers, the teachers and the ethos of St. Xaviers have shaped his life. After the speech, ALSOC member Arpan Paul (1995) arranged for cupcakes for the school boys and ALSOC provided breakfast for the teachers. Over 70 ALSOC members attended the function. That same evening we gathered for the monthly fellowship meeting where we also had 30+ members joining together in fellowship. On the 10^th, the birth anniversary of Fr. Bouche, despite the after effects of cyclone Bulbul, a group of about 15 members went to Dhyanashram to pay our respects to the Jesuit Fathers laid to rest there. Dr. Ananda Chanda (1978) and Anindya Tarafder (1980) organized the floral and musical tribute at Dhyanashram.

The next week, on November 15^th ALSOC established its Singapore Chapter with a gala dinner at Pasta Fresca in Boat Quay. We had a superb turnout of over 50 people and were able to connect several Singapore-based alumni across different batches with each other. Aditya Lodha (1981) will be the chapter head and will in due course be working with the other alumni in Singapore to coordinate chapter activities and events moving forward. The next day, Rev. Fr. Thamacin, ALSOC President, and I visited the Jesuit-run Parish of St. Ignatius and were able to connect with Rev. Fr. Colins, parish head and Rev. Fr. Adrian Danker who is the principal of St. Joseph’s Institution (SJI), which is one of the oldest secondary school for boys in Singapore. Our school will be working towards establishing a student exchange program with SJI and we at ALSOC will be there to provide support whenever it’s needed.

On November 18^th ALSOC addressed the outgoing Class XII batch and gave them a presentation about the societas. The members who addressed the students were Adarsh Kanoria (1983), Shankar Singhal (1991) and Utpal Singh Roy (1962). Thanks to their efforts and the tireless efforts of the ALSOC office staff and membership committee we have had a record 120+ new members from the outgoing batch and we expect to get a highest ever 75-80% of them inducted into ALSOC before the year ends.

On Sunday the 24^th, a unique ALSOC Family Series event was organized with Yash Nathany (1988) as the convener. ALSOC booked a heritage tram and members along with their families enjoyed a ride in the lovely air-conditioned heritage tramcar through north Kolkata, while engaging in conversation, fun family quizzes and competitions, as well as some incredibly tasty old-world snacks. Around 90 people attended this event.

On December 4^th, we had the 12^th edition of the ALSOC Interactive Series where Mr. Ashok Dhar, author of a book on Kashmir – “Kashmir as I see it – From Near and Afar” spent around an hour and half in conversation with members. Mr. Dhar went into great depth on the history of Kashmir, starting from ancient times and and explained in detail the issues that have arisen in the recent past. With objective analysis, he also put forward his prescriptions on what we should do to try and bring peace to the region. We had a strong showing of 50+ members for this interaction. Adarsh Kanoria was the Programme Convener.

On Saturday 14^th December, the school had its annual Sports Day function. The Principal and Vice Principal warmly invited ALSOC members to participate in this year’s event. Sharat Singh (1990) took the initiative to organize a special alumni relay race: Relay Rampage. Four teams took part and in the vigorous and fun race that followed, the Hitmen with Ratan Postwalla (1993), Denzil D’Silva (2014), Mihir Toolsidass (1987), Saurav Roy (2001) and Shatadru Dutt (2010) were victorious. About 50 ALSOC members were at the school to participate and cheer.

Photos and comments on all the above are available on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds as well as on our website – https://ALSOC.in. Please do follow us on social media – we have a Facebook Group: Alumnorum Societas; our instagram handle is alsocapp; our twitter feed is @alsoc6

You may also download the ALSOC Mobile App from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store using the link http://onelink.to/alsoc.

On behalf of ALSOC I wish all of you a merry Christmas and happy New Year! I hope I get a chance to meet many of you on the reunion on the 21^st.

NIHIL ULTRA

Shiv Siddhant Kaul (1994)
Honorary Secretary