It is more than 40 years since I parted with most of you and never seen again. The coming RR represents a great opportunity to meet all of us, with our spouses and families, and see the once lean guys grown to mostly chunky men in their 60s, balding and/or greying, hopefully wiser and let us hope none of us have lost our zest in life.

 

I was in D15 and then D5. My immediate neighbour was Dipti, and other gang members Soapy, Kittu, Jacob, Vinod Kalia and others. I was called by different names Ramu, Ramlal, Ramlal Iyengar, Iyengar, Vijayaraghavan. 

 

In later years, I have been using V.C.Vijayaraghavan, Vijay, Vijay Vanbakkam, Vij, Vanbakkam Vijayaraghavan, etc to sign in different informal groups on the internet. Vijay Vanbakkam is my CV name - business name so to say. I remember playing or trying to play carrom in D15 till late night and never got it right. In IIMA - till date- all our mates may remember me being interested in many things and passionately arguing many things. Some things never change.

 

After IIMA, I got into Dept of Atomic Energy in Bombay- with Somnath Das. Was there for more than 2 years. I resigned my job and became the Marketing manager for a small chemical company Chembond Chemicals in Lower Parel. In about 9 months, I resigned as the directors were looking for a different kind of person or the business itself did not need a marketing man. 

 

For a few months I did not have any job, went back to my family in Madras. Then got a job in Ennore Foundries. That executive job in the Accounts Department bored me to death. So, one fine morning I quit it much to the consternation of my parents. I went to Bombay just to spend time, just roamed around. Basically at that time I was not keen on any job and basically looking for a direction in life. 

 

In late 1980, I applied for and got an executive job in the Shipping Corporation of India. I was transferred to Calcutta. There I used to meet Ramani, Athu and others. That was 1982-85. There I used to go on trekking holidays to Nepal. Sikkim, Bhutan, etc during Puja Hols in Calcutta. I enjoyed my life in Calcutta. In early 86, I was transferred to the newly opened SCI Office in Madras. 

 

That was a strange time because the Madras Agent of SCI did not want to lose his agency business, so he was making life difficult for the small SCI office by sending goons to attack us. Afterwards the problem was sorted and the office became normal. During 1983 and 1983 first my mother and then my father died.

 

I had a penfriend in England Iva Mary Jane. She visited me in Madras in 1987 October and I took her to Ooty and other places. Early 1988, I went to England and stayed with her. We fell in love and decided to get married in July of that year. I am from an orthodox brahmin family and marrying a foreigner was a complete unknown thing to my family. 

 

So, I married Jane in the Kodambakkam Registry office in Madras. In 1989 we decided to move over to England. Jane enjoyed her stay in Madras although she developed typhoid (which she gave to me) and got cured of it. A strong reason for going to England was the fear of typhoid striking again. Anyhow in April 1989, we moved to England to her parents home in Purley in south east London.

 

After going over to England, I resigned from the SCI. I looked for job in the Shipping industry, and there was a recession. Shipping industry was hard hit. So, I decided to change career and go into IT. I did some IT courses and got a job in BT as System Analyst. After a year, the job came to an end, then I started a business buying and selling IT hardware, and software. I was selling to small businesses and individuals in and around London and used to drive extensively. 

 

By mid 1990s, the PC market was flooded with clones and prices started falling like stones. The selling of PCs in small quantities became unprofitable and in 1996 I closed the business. I started as Consultant focussing mainly on large scale system change i.e. for large corporations. I have stuck with that for the last 20 years. My work has taken me to may countries in Europe, where for a consultancy I stay anything from 3 months to 2 years at a single place. I don’t have immediate plans for retirement.

 

Jane and myself have gone on many holidays. Jane is the opposite of me in may ways. She is tidy, orderly, esthetically minded, used to paint, and generally she has an eye for beauty, likes nature and animals. Well, we have stuck with each other for 27 years !! We have been to many operas, symphonies, lots of countries. 

 

About 15 years back, we learnt to dance lot of ballroom and Latin, even though we have not practiced much after that. I keep doing Latin dances like Salsa, bachata, Merengue whenever I can. She likes Scandinavian crime TV. For the last 9 years, we shifted out residence to the Isle of Man, a small island between England and Ireland. We are planning to move back to England this year

 

In IIMA days I have not been worldly wise and still I don’t think I am worldly wise in spite of my deep interest in every aspect of culture. I am interested in international politics, linguistics, history.