Back To School After 45 Years

Back To School After 45 Years

Through this blog I would like to share the nostalgic  moments  experienced  by all  ,who assembled  at Hotel New Woodlands , Mylapore  ,in the first week of January , by an invitation to all of us over phone ,from  a classmate  , for a re-union of school final ( class XI ) classmates of 1966-’67 batch, of P.S.Secondary School , Mylapore ( later re-named as P.S.High School –North ) . We were the third batch of  our school.

I need to mention the initiator’s name here. His name is Jayachandran , who was my classmate since class 1 in Senthamarai  Vidyalayam,  Mylapore and continued to be my classmate in P.S.Secondary school. . Along with him Hariramabadran , a retired Manager from Indian Bank , took keen interest in getting the link of many of us . Last year itself  Hari  spoke to me over phone by introducing himself as my classmate , but I missed to meet him in person. This was an opportunity to meet him. He could easily recognize all the 12 of us.

The highlight of this re-union is , we all met after a gap of 45 years !

Indeed this is a great even for all of us. We left the school in 1967. In those days our school uniform was khaki half shorts and white shirt and the age group was 15 or 16. This meet happened after  more than four decades and all of us are 60 plus by age and everyone is retired from services , except few who continue business and our outlook has been changed a lot due to aging.  Many could not even recognize faces because of the long years but some could catch up the voice and excited  to recollect their names.

All the fun happened for three long hours by sharing each one’s past life, family , children and grand children , leisure activities, social services and so on and on….

We become school boys in those memorable time and talked about our teachers , friends whom we miss , friends living abroad or at distance places ,  classmates who left the mother earth and reached the abode of God . The nick names of few masters and friends like “ Kuthirai “ , “ Poochi “  and few other names.

The present group of us  belongs to different professions like teacher , charter accountant , bank managers , sound engineer , magistrate ,  managers of private firms ,  businessmen  , journalist , shop owners , manufacturers  and other professionals.

In the first meet we have not decided on any agenda for the next meet except to invite more of our classmates in this group and later we shall make a constructive action plan for our group. So we dispersed after a formal lunch at New Woodlands and a photo session.

We all carried  pleasant memories with us and enjoyed the meeting  and eagerly waiting to meet many more of our classmates in the next meet.

Jayachandran  has planned to have our next  “ Back To School “  on 26^th January 2013 , being our Republic Day and a holiday for all of us to meet again. Many  old boys , now senior citizens , who missed the first meet ,  have consented to join . So it was another opportunity  for  us to get connected with the new  members.

Many of us attended the Republic Day function of our school , though our meeting was called for at 10 AM only. Dr.Ganesan, Ex.Principal of Vivekananda College , now the Secretary of the present school , was on the stage during the celebration and after that he interacted with all of us. It was a nice meet with him. 

Our  old Head Master Mr.A.Ramachandran  , at 93  passed away few days before the Republic Day and the sad news has been shared among us.

This time seven new faces  of missing classmates came and  we all wished to sit in one of the class room of ours in the olden time. We made a request to the HM and he has obliged to accommodate us in a class room.

In our class room

He shared his views  on how to increase the strength and the bottle neck in running the show.

Sankaranarayanan and Jayachandran with present school Head master in the centre

After that we all gave our introduction , individually on personal and past life . The sharing was great as everyone spoke very truly  and some made open confession. No one felt and hard feeling while sharing , as we were a family once , 45 years before.



Jayachandran





Hariramabadran



Ramachandran has taken lot of photos , individual and groups and posted in the social network on the same night. Thanks to him. Since all are above 60 , each one wish to do social service in their own fashion.  Jayachandran wants to start an old age home.  Kalyanaraman  , Ramachandran and Ramachandran are already in social activities. Krishnan writes a lot for youngsters and awaiting his latest article “ Naan Vanangum deivangal “ ( The deities I worship ) in  the next issue of a Tamil magazine called Kalaimagal. Ravindran still works with Vasanth TV  as Sound Engineer and spoke on how he took that profession in his younger days.  It was a news for us that he accompanied our Late Prime Minister , Smt. Indira Gandhi , to Tashkant , when Doordharshan was the only TV channel available at that time.



Thangamani



Rajagopalan



Jayachandran & Ramachandran



Jayachandran’s new pain killer hany machine “ TENS “ got introduced to us. Lakshminarayanan  made us to look  hand reading in a different perspective. He continues reading and acquiring  many degrees and diplomas in  the subject of his  interest.  He is an expert in thumb reading and solve unsolvable issues. Many classmate’s children are in US , new Zealand , London, Bangalore  and other places. Many have grandchildren and making trips to far and near. Thangamani  is a freelance  advisor for share market . Kasi , a retired English teacher , ready to serve the needy kids of our school.  Some are working the ways and means on how they can contribute their services to the society.  Prathapchand shared  a personal experience  with a good natured classmate and   explained ,  when a person is good all good things will happen to him. I spoke about my association with Gandhi Forum and off late ISKCON by the influence of my daughter. When I referred my first employment with richardsan & Cruiddas ,I said my starting salary was Rs.150 in 1971. Mr.Kuppan joined  and spoke about Gandhiji’s visit to the British parliament  and Churchill’s remark.  Ravindran said that his schooldays in Ashoka Scout Group  shaped his character and values. I told him that my agreement to his statement is expressed in my recent blog on Scouting. 

All is well at the end with a big group photo and  individual photos were also taken by ramachandran.

Photography is his hobby and if you visit his Facebook site , you can see his interest in nature. A personal data sheet made ready by Jayachandran was filled by all  and he requested to join each and everyone in  yahoo group   by means of their Yahoo mail id .

Nine of us had lunch in Hotel Sukhanivas , Mylapore and rest left . though I am a diabetic patient , I never felt  hungry till 2 PM , because of the happy time spent with my old schoolmates. Awaiting for next meet and more old boys with new faces due to aging.

 Long Live Our  45 Years Friendship and with few it is 66 years old !!!