MDI, Gurgaon has never had it so good. It is having the privilege of hosting three Sams and that too for a period of one full year. However, MDI should thank primarily Business Today, which ranked MDI among the top ten business schools of the country and the Railways which have been generous patrons of this course (by sponsoring nearly 5-8) candidates every year) for this opportunity. As a result of this ranking an MBA degree from MDI has become an acceptable alternatives to the IIMs.

The reasons for these three musketeers joining MDI, however vary considerably. Amit Gupta'86 from Eastern Railway has joined the National Management Programme for reasons clouded in Philosophical mist. P.Ananth'86 from S E Railway has joined the course apparently to get the MBA degree, but the end motive is use this degree to get married. (He has been desperately trying to get married for the past three years, but the Jamalpur degree is apparently not cutting any ice with the Aiyengar girls down south.). Finally, Ramneesh Mohan'90 from Northern Railway has joined in search of greener pastures. While the former two have joined the National Management Programme (Executive MBA) and are being sponsored by The Railways, Ramneesh is doing the regular two-year MBA course on self-sponsorship basis.

Though we knew it, it was a pleasure to learn that Sams are a well-known community to the faculty at MDI. Past graduates of the NMP include A KKhosla'75, Sanjeev Kishore'81, Atulya Sinha'83, and Deepak Mathur'83. MDI has an excellent infrastructure, what with classes being held in Air-conditioned rooms and air-cooled rooms for staying. We also have a four hole mini golf course for those so inclined. And the best of all we have unlimited access to the World Wide Web. This has been the first exposure to the Net for most of us and so Net-surfing is the most common pastime.

Amit is here with his better half Anju, who has taken up the onerous tasks of getting Ananth married and trying to improve the grub at MDI. And, yes, another advantage that MDI is having is in getting free services of our experience in improving the management of the Institute. In fact one of the projects we plan to do is "MDI, Gurgaon, a study in mismanagement". Our interaction with other Sams in IIMs indicates that this is also the case there. So let's see who teaches whom and what.

Finally, we of the 86 batch would like to thank Mr.Rajiv Misra'74 for the solid grounding he gave us in the condensed MBA he had for us at Jamalpur during our school days. It is standing us in good stead. So till the club day issue, goodbye.