St Xavier’s College gears up for 150th year celebrations. (Pabitra Das)

This January is the busiest month for St Xavier’s College. The campus is abuzz with the 150th year celebrations of the institution that will see the external affairs minister and the Prime Minister visiting the Park Street landmark within a week of each other.

Setting the tone for the year-long celebrations will be the “inauguration and blessing” of a three-storey building near the playground and a high-tech library above the auditorium on January 16, the college foundation day, by Father Provincial George Pattery.

“The new building will serve three purposes. It will provide accommodation for the non-teaching staff of the college, serve as a hostel for 40 poor students, and also be used for educational purposes,” said Father P.C. Mathew, the principal of the college.

On January 17, valedictorians of the college will be felicitated at the convocation ceremony to be presided over by Pranab Mukherjee. The reunion dinner of the St Xavier’s College (Calcutta) Alumni Association the same evening will be a gala event for old boys and girls of the college with the body celebrating its silver jubilee year. The Yesterday Once More evening will be held in association with The Telegraph.

All this will be a build-up to the big day — January 21, when Manmohan Singh will flag-off the post-centenary golden jubilee celebration of the institute in the presence of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Eighty-five school and college students will perform a symphonic version of the Tagore song “Sheemar majhe asheem tumi”, that embodies the motto of the institute Nihil Ultra (nothing beyond).

Rounding off what is not just another January at Xaviers will be the annual college fest Xavotsav from January 23 to 25, culminating in the Beyond Barriers evening on January 26 organised by students past and present, in association with The Telegraph.

Then begins the college’s biggest challenge in its 150th year — graduating into a university.