Earlier Words on COJAC
(Central Organisation of Jesuit Alumni Congress)
A Report on the Jesuit Alumni Eastern Region Conference
on 14th Feb 98 at Loyola School, Jamshedpur
Mr. Justice B.P. Singh, a Xaverian, inaugurated
the Conference. He emphasized
that in the midst of degradation of values all
around, Jesuit education still stands apart. Fr. Bob Slattery s.j. Secretary
JEA, delivered the keynote address. He recalled the four major decisions
taken at the first National Jesuit Alumni
Congress in Chennai in October
1995, namely of forming a national federation, publishing a newspaper,
holding a second congress in Calcutta after three years and bidding for
the world congress for 2003 AD. All these are now a reality. Outlining
the major events of the alumni associations, Fr. Slattery expressed the
hope that the conference will be an occasion of joy and will strengthen
existing associations to start newer ones. He stressed the need for projects
for the poor and for the community and expected the conference to condemn
the brutal murder of Jesuit priests.
The first plenary session was on “The Influence of
Jesuit Education in Public Life.” The speaker was Mr. A. Palta, IPS who
stressed the need to form
associations in remote areas to take up projects in
education to eradicate social
malpractices. He further suggested career counseling
of students by the alumni
and a web page for Jesuit alumni to attract world
attention.
In the second plenary session, Dr. Jitendra Singh spoke
on "The Influence of
Jesuit Education in Business Life.” Moral stamina
was needed to survive in this
world of competition and winning and killer instinct
should be mellowed with a sense of fair play. He preferred moral drive
rather than inert intelligence.
The third plenary session dealt with “The Influence
of Jesuit Education on
Motivating the Alumni to Assist the Marginalized,”
those unable to compete. The
speakers were Mr. V. Athaide and Mr. B. Bodhanwalla.
They recommended care,
compassion, concern and dignity in treating them and
also spoke of the need to
train teachers to Jesuit values.
The fourth plenary session dealt with the chapter wise
presentation of alumni
activities. After this members were briefed on the
National Conference in
Calcutta in January 1999. The conference concluded
with a vote of thanks by Mr. R. D’Costa. The conference was attended
by Biswabandhu Chatterjee, Asit Ray, Arindam Rana, Subir Ganguly,
Fr. Wavreil and the undersigned from SLOBA.
Submitted by : Subhabrata Sen (1939-1998)
COJAC MILESTONES
The 1st conference of Jesuit Alumni Associations (North
Eastern India)
The 1st conference of Jesuit Alumni Associations (North
Eastern India) was
hosted and organised by the St. Xavier’s College,
Ranchi Alumni Association
(AROX) in Ranchi on February 01 and 02 this year.
All the members of COJAC
travelled together, a journey made doubly pleasant
by the jokes cracked by Prof.
Suman Mukherjee all the way. Fr. Bob Slattery delivered
the keynote address, Fr.
G. D’Souza, Mr. Arun J. Prabal and Mr. S.S. Akhtar
were the leading speakers. The conference was a grand success, the arrangements
made by AROX were
fantastic.
On Saturday March 08, 1997 an all India meet of Jesuit
Alumni/ae Province
Co-ordinators was held at the St. Xavier’s College
Calcutta in preparation of the
World Union Congress in Sydney in July 1997. ALSOC,
SLOBA and SXCAA were the organisers and 15 delegates from the different
provinces and 120 from Calcutta participated in the day long panel discussions
on the theme of the
Sydney World Congress : What values can Jesuit
alumni/ae bring to people in the next century in : Family life :
addressed by Mrs. Uma Ahmed, Corporate world : Mr. Deepak Khaitan,
Education : Prof. Sukanta Chowdhury, Working for the marginalised : Mr.
Meghnad Bhattacharyya, Government : Mr. Pradip Bhattacharyya, Prayer
Journeys : Fr. R. Slattery S.J.
The business session agreed on the following points
: 1. There will be one National delegation to Sydney under the leadership
of Mr. Kalyan Chowdhury (ALSOC). 2. India is to be proposed
as the next venue for the World Congress in 2002/3. 3. Calcutta
will be the projected venue of the world congress.
The day ended with a cultural programme in the
evening in which children of
Kurseong gave a brilliant recital of western
classical as well as local folk music
on
strings. This was followed by a dinner at the SXC grounds.
Submitted By : Dr. ARINDAM RANA
