The proceedings on the first day began with an hour long presentation by Sandipan Baksi, the Programme Coordinator. He reported on the work of the Foundation in 2017-18 and made suggestions for the work programme for 2018-19. This was followed by a presentation by Arindam Das, head of PARI, who discussed the work done by his team. Deepak Johnson made a presentation on the online presence of FAS, followed by a report from Pushpita Dhar on the reach of the Review of Agrarian Studies. Pinki Ghosh, the Accounts Coordinator, and Divya S. Devadiga, the Administrative Assistant, presented the work under their respective departments.

The SWOT session — now a trademark of FAS retreats — was conducted by Noopur Verma in the evening. It was an engaging discussion and Noopur ensured the participation and contribution of all team members.

A cultural programme – a first for an FAS retreat – followed dinner. The programme was curated by Pushpita. It began with a tabla performance by Ritam Dutta, followed by Arindam Das, who played the guitar and sang. Awanish Kumar sang a song from the movie Mere Apne, and followed that up with a recital of some of his poems. There was a group dance based on a popular Malayalam song performed by Divya, Pushpita, Sanjukta, Tapas and Abhinav. The programme ended with a keenly-contested game of dumb charades.

The next day began with a game of football. In the morning session, each employee made a presentation on her work over the past year as well as plans for the forthcoming year. The final session was reserved for a discussion on the long term vision for FAS.

Special thanks are due to Noopur for conceptualising the event, and the organising team – Divya, Pushpita, Ritam, Tapas, and Vijay – for making it a success.

Some photographs from the retreat at given below.