I first came in contact with ISABS through Deepankar who introduced me to Somnath at Management Development Institute, (MDI) Delhi . I remember some of us like Deepankar,Akhtar (presently in Hong Kong), and I used to meet Somnath often. I did not know much about ISABS then. ISABS was hardly functioning then : there were no programs, no activity, no money . Akhtar on behalf of us, the young ones at that time, proposed to Somnath the idea of floating a new parallel organization . Somnath vehemently opposed the idea and declared that he was a true ISASBSian , remained an ISABSian where ever he was and he thought that it was time we built ISABS again from the scratch. That was the turning point in the tiny discussion room at EIL , Parliament Street, New Delhi we-- Deepankar, Akhtar and myself agreed with Somnath and all four of us committed ourselves to rebuild it.

Prayag Mehta, M.M.P. Akhouri, Deepankar, Akhtar,Mahaveer, a few others and I met a National Labour Institute (NLI), New Delhi to broaden our base, to move forward with the decision we took. During that meeting we were assured especially by Somnath, that ISABS will be activated provided we mobilize our energy in a planned way and handle routine work. We all agreed and gave our word.

That was the beginning for me. My organization sponsored me to the first two-week lab held at Hotel Deccan Continental, Hyderabad in 1980. C.N. Kumar, Purnima Sinha, Alan Batchelor were my facilitators. I had thought it would perhaps be an one time experience and had never dreamt that I will continue my journey with ISABS, much less that I would occupy the position of the President. I really feel proud of myself and of ISABS.

During the second two-week lab which I attended, Uma Jain was my facilitator. Dharni P. Sinha used to be some kind of part-time facilitator. Parth Sarathi, Mahaveer, Chandermohan, Anil Khandelwal were with me. For me the first week's experience was just so so. But one thing significant I learnt was that I would have to take my own initiative to make the best use of the opportunity available for learning.

In between, I had started taking a lot of interest in the organization of the Events, such as fixing up the hotel/venue, looking after the bank account as also the accounts of ISABS. I used to assist C.N.Kumar who then was the Treasurer and Somnath Chattopadhyay was the President. I finished my internship with Somnath and Dilip Lahiri in 1987. I was admitted as a Professional Member of ISABS in 1987 and was offered the Treasurership of ISABS. Perhaps I was then the youngest of Board Members.

After taking up this position, my main aim was to set the accounts right and obtain Income Tax Exemption. I knew this was not an easy task. We had to go up to the Income Tax Tribunal to get the necessary exemption. Meanwhile, we had deposited the Income Tax Amount demanded by the ITOs on the advise of my then President, T.V. Rao. After we got the Exemption, it was for Mahaveer , the then Secretary and the Treasurer , to get refund of the Income Tax already paid, together with the interest. I had worked with various Presidents of ISABS, Somnath Chattopadhyay,T.V.Rao,M.M.P.Akhouri, Udai Pareek and Uma Jain, before I took over as President in 1966.

I have learnt many things from the Presidents, as persons, and from their roles as Presidents. I am happy that our present team is an excellent one and is delivering the goods.

Looking backover the period I spent with ISABS from the very first day till now I must say it has been a very exhilarating and most rewarding experience. Every year I come back from the Summer or Winter Events duly re-charged it helps me do my work more effectively round the year.

ISABS of my dream is an institution and not an organization which works throughout the year having programs in many places all over India, even abroad. What I wish to see and hope is that all those professional members who are at present living abroad, would work hard to establish ISABS abroad and get it well known abroad.

ISABS has grown today. We have a regular office. We have a computer, a fax machine and two telephones. We have also installed facilities for e-mail. Financially, also it has performed reasonably well. We hope to buy our own office space or buy a piece of land and build our own campus. I have known ISABS from the days when we never thought of writing to our participants asking for a response. But we have travelled a long way together, we have fought together and we lived together during the last 25 years and we are sure to live together for the years to come with some useful purpose.

---- Kirpal Singh