It was a lovely Christmas evening and on behalf of the alumni committee, I'd really like to thank few people for making the show happen.



The settings of the Century Club in Cubbon Park was apt for the XLersand their families who turned up to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season.



Top honours go to Nelson and his beautiful family of Anindita & Celine for the generous sponsorship that made this possible. (iPeopleIndia, Executive Search & Selection - Mob:+91-93428-55611,nelson@ipeopleindia.com). He also did a great job as our Santa.



Thomas & Sarah brought cheer to all the children by buying all the gifts, thanks much.

Anuja Singh rallied all the kids to decorate the tree.

Zo sponsored the tree, which he claims is 5' though the pot's 2' high.

Our host for the evening was Venkatesh and his cool son, Amrith, who signed us in.

Many thanks to both of them for the lovely venue.

Nimmi sent across the cake because she couldn't make it because of a sprained neck. The causes for the sprain are shrouded in mystery.

Lastly I'd like to thank our musicians, David, Jabez, & Zo for playing/singing in the Christmas spirit.

Thanks also to Xlers who came out of the woodwork to attend the programme, like Satish Karunakaran, Ravi Rego and a few others.

Of course, grax was exchanged by all and sundry...and some snatches ofconversation that Scooperizer was able to catch were:

"So this XLer after making his HR consulting firm one of the biggestin India has chucked it all up and is starting it all over again inSingapore !"

"Seen some great tech startups recently? We'd like to invest some seedcapital.."

"Being a freelance consultant has its ups and downs , but I am enjoying it...."

"I'm thinking of buying a Toyota Camry, the Accent feels small these days.."

"The politics after the merger caused the partners to leave...pure culture clash , y'know"

"How come my competitor gets to be in the top employers of the country with 32% attrition and my organization doesn't make it , with half that rate"...

"I tell you, I joined this organization just to move to Bangalore, andthey have a horrid work/life balance...I can't even go to Styx to chill out on Saturday night!"

"Guess what, slowly and surely our batch has 10 IRs inBangalore...maybe we can have a small batch meet!"

Ahem! I'll stop here before I spill any dangerous beans , but I hope you get the general idea ;-)



Of course, the drinks were flowing (since they were free till 7.30 pm,we had quite a few early birds there !), with yummy snacks like Chicken Tikka, masala peanuts and pineapple, cheese sticks!

The food took the cake (no pun intended!) with some great Mangalorean fish, Chicken Chettinad, Pulav, Rotis, Palak Paneer, Bhindi and Salad!

Yum !



The kids discovered the adjacent park to the party venue and so quitea few XLers had to move there to keep an eye over them as they went berserk on the swings and slides there !