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Where dreams took shape

Alumni Meet
Last Updated 31 August 2014, 14:33 IST

The annual alumni meet of Mount Carmel College (MCC), which was held recently in the college premises, was an occasion to walk down the memory lane.

The meet saw Nirupama Rao Menon, the former Indian Ambassador to the US and an alumnus of MCC, as the chief guest.

The event started with the lighting of the traditional lamp. This was followed by a speech on the alumni activities of 2014. The highlight of the event was Nirupama Rao’s address. She talked about the ‘Role of Alumni in Nation-Building’. 

Terming her speech as ‘A Mount Carmelite’s Life’ , she recited a poem titled ‘A Weaponed Women’. It talked about a strong woman who has the ability to take on challenges and defend herself. Nirupama said, ‘‘MCC has shaped me, taught me the power of my dreams and has given me the opportunity to hope. I thank my teachers... They were my guardian angels throughout the journey that I began many years ago.”

Nirupama Rao joined Mount Carmel College in 1966 and her favourite subjects were History and Literature. “I came fresh from a small town called Coonoor. Bangalore seemed a huge city, where the girls dressed fashionably. My pre-university class had over 100 students, a complete contrast to my school which had about 11 students. This college was a truly cosmopolitan place and I know that it still is,” she said

Other alumni, who were present at the meet, also fondly recalled their memories. Amita, who graduated from MCC in 1987 said, “College days were a lot of fun. I was a hosteler. We used to do a lot of plays and sit on the ledge or drive and sip jaggery tea. We were on the campus post college and were lucky to have good wardens. We also used to play a lot of football.”  

Meenakshi Gupta, who is from the 1987 batch of Home Science, recalled, “The values that I have imbibed would be honesty and hard work. It has and will always help me.”  Sheela Bolar, who passed out of this college 52 years back, added, “Back then, things were very restrictive. I was in the NCC for three years and played football, volleyball and basketball. I was also into flying, gilding and aero-modeling. I got a lot of exposure from MCC which I would have never got otherwise.” 

The event culminated with Nirupama urging youngsters to consider foreign service as their career option. “We are underrepresented in the foreign service as in any other bureaucracy. We should be more involved in the future trajectory so that women can bring in their perspectives in issues that concerns foreign policies in India.

 I believe women can bring in their courage and resilience into the public sector, push institutions to be more open and responsible, re-examine the traditional goals that have been set since ages. Women can bring a different set of skills for conflicts and problem-solving and can provide solutions that are not formal, rigid and therefore are more acceptable to many stakeholders.”

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(Published 31 August 2014, 14:33 IST)

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