I read somewhere "friendship is not a big thing....it is a million small things". I understood the meaning of that only last Sunday, when we friends of Std X A 1982 batch gathered at the Pagoda Resorts at Alleppey.
When it rained early in the morning, my mother was murmuring something....sipping a cup of tea, I could barely hear her saying "what will happen to plans of these boys....". But by the time we went to the Church for the Holy Mass and returned home for breakfast, the Sun was out and smiling at us. I have collected some flowers, a flower vase and a white cloth from my mother to make the class-room-table look a bit better. On Saturday itself, Satheesh, Rolince and I have already collected the gifts for teachers and spouses which was in my boot. I reached LeoXIII slightly before 9.30 am. expecting rest of the group to reach between 9.30 and 10 am. Alas, I now understand I should have expected many to reach by 11 am only. Our plan was to reach pagoda resorts by 11 am after our meeting and photo-shoot at the school. But..who can grumble about the time that spent with excitement and fun...who cares whether we stuck to schedule, we have enjoyed every moment while waiting for the rest and also during the course of meeting.
It was already quarter past twelve, when we finished our meeting and started driving towards Pagoda....Sorry..it was not "we". I drove alone as Smitha had gone with the her friends and Manu & Roy with their's already.
It was already quarter past twelve, when we finished our meeting and started driving towards Pagoda....Sorry..it was not "we". I drove alone as Smitha had gone with the her friends and Manu & Roy with their's already.
As I was driving along the CCNB road(Contest : How many of you know the full form of CCNB road ? If you can answer this question, you will get a beautiful neck chain made of 22 carrots), I was watching the splendor and magnificence of our streets and canals - Really a marvel created by Raja Kesavadasan. I was thinking that we seldom appreciate the beauty of our cute small-town which was once known as the Venice of the East. I couldn't think too long....my phone rang, it was Satheesh....in a couple of more minutes, I have parked the car inside the hotel compound and walked into the party hall amidst frolic and fun.
On Saturday, Rolince, Satheesh and I have made an agenda for Sunday, which was already in shambles as the time was already 12.45. I knew that forcing this group to follow an agenda was anyway not going to work, but to accommodate some items in the agenda was essential. If we don't do at least some activities, I was worried that the event could be boring. In fact, the same concern was shared by Satheesh also on the previous day. But there were hardly any choice.....I said unto thin air....let the fun reel by itself. And that exactly what happened.....the fun gulped the fun and precipitated further more fun.
The party was in a L shaped hall. The inner leg of the L had a theatre style seating arrangement and a stage equiped with an audio system, mic and projector. The other leg of the L, was meant for buffet dinning and the bar counter. Buffet consisted of a fish molly, chicken roast, beef fry, 2 vegetable dishes, pulao, roti, salads, 2 deserts. I cannot comment on the quality of food as I didn't have the time to enjoy food due to time crunch and ate at around 3.30, that too within less than 5 minutes. We had Asif, Aknis and Mujeeb who were on Ramadan fasting and hence didn't eat or drink. Although on fasting, Aknis and Mujeeb came with their spouses, it is really encouraging. But as a contrast, absence of a few classmates who are in and around Alleppey was felt, especially those guys who have promised in the last few days. I think they try to make their presence felt with their absence.....I don't want to hide my disappointment about these buddies.
Our hired magician started with his tricks on the stage entertaining children and as we were close to the lunch time already, we let women and chilren to attack the buffet, while the rest has started the Mallu's state hobby, the favorite elbow exercise. The choice of drinks were nice, thanks to Satheesh's club membership, we didn't have to queue up at the Beverages Corp - retail shop to get the poison.
Like the popular saying, "change" is the only constant, there were changes visible in everything to do with us. Naturally, each one of us have changed in our physiological appearance..... the 1982 boys are now men with children and in various professions. There are a number of guys in government jobs, business and other professions such as doctors, and most of us are doing reasonably well, by the blessings of almighty. We have some interesting demographic data. We have at least 4 doctors from the batch to my Knowledge. Preshy Varghese, Rajesh KS, Gopal Krishnan and Mathew Thomas. There is a big family with 7 children..having 8th on the way. Guess who... it is Micky the rabbit. I guess he stayed in a boarding school and wanted to do re-creation of the boarding school. (Yes, I meant re-creation not recreation) He informed us on Sunday that his kids are having fever and thus not able to make it. Jomon is completely bald and looks very handsome, his elder son has done mechanical engineering and working as a QC engineer in Goa. Wow, at 45 he has a son who is working....you can guess when he became a father. More over, I understand that he is a Pentecostal Preacher. Jomon became preacher is a real transformation.
Sonnel has the same style....with his combination of kuttanadan innocence and non-stop lathi. He has undertaken some large scale production of ornamental fishes in Andhra Pradesh. He came only for this gathering, but came for the event alone...he couldn't give a satisfactory reason....may be gained some confidence to bring them next time !!
After lunch, each of us introduced our families and given an update of what we are doing now. Sonnel has gone into a long lecture about his feelings for the group....He said "ആരും എന്നെ എടാന്നു വിളിക്കത്തില്ല എല്ലാവരും എന്നെ ബഹുമാനിച്ചാണ് സംസാരിക്കുക. ഈ ഒരു സമൂഹം മാത്രമാണ് എന്നെ എടാ എന്ന് വിളിക്കുവാന് സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ഉള്ളത്". At that very moment we heard a loud shout "എടാ" from the audience. Who else....it was Rajesh George. When his turn came Rajesh came with his wife Tara and children John, Joshua and Anniemol. Instead of introducing his family and his whereabouts, he started talking about his relation with the school, about his father he become very emotional. He said that his father VS George Sir, who was also the additional HM of our school was lucky that he had the most decent nick name. His nick name was "Hercules" while many other teachers had nicknames which we can't say in public.
Sunil AR was the only member who attended the party who is not married. He works for the Karen group and still maintains his youth. He can pass off as a guy in his early thirties easily. He enjoys the company of our much younger groups and some of our friends were saying he would become friends with our children soon. Everyone passed a resolution that we will try to find him a bride to make this chronic bachelor a family man before our next gathering. I have no idea whether anyone would remember this when the spirit vanishes(yes, I meant spirit, Bacardi). Like the old saying, "out of sight - out of mind".
Our hired magician started with his tricks on the stage entertaining children and as we were close to the lunch time already, we let women and chilren to attack the buffet, while the rest has started the Mallu's state hobby, the favorite elbow exercise. The choice of drinks were nice, thanks to Satheesh's club membership, we didn't have to queue up at the Beverages Corp - retail shop to get the poison.
Like the popular saying, "change" is the only constant, there were changes visible in everything to do with us. Naturally, each one of us have changed in our physiological appearance..... the 1982 boys are now men with children and in various professions. There are a number of guys in government jobs, business and other professions such as doctors, and most of us are doing reasonably well, by the blessings of almighty. We have some interesting demographic data. We have at least 4 doctors from the batch to my Knowledge. Preshy Varghese, Rajesh KS, Gopal Krishnan and Mathew Thomas. There is a big family with 7 children..having 8th on the way. Guess who... it is Micky the rabbit. I guess he stayed in a boarding school and wanted to do re-creation of the boarding school. (Yes, I meant re-creation not recreation) He informed us on Sunday that his kids are having fever and thus not able to make it. Jomon is completely bald and looks very handsome, his elder son has done mechanical engineering and working as a QC engineer in Goa. Wow, at 45 he has a son who is working....you can guess when he became a father. More over, I understand that he is a Pentecostal Preacher. Jomon became preacher is a real transformation.
Sonnel has the same style....with his combination of kuttanadan innocence and non-stop lathi. He has undertaken some large scale production of ornamental fishes in Andhra Pradesh. He came only for this gathering, but came for the event alone...he couldn't give a satisfactory reason....may be gained some confidence to bring them next time !!
After lunch, each of us introduced our families and given an update of what we are doing now. Sonnel has gone into a long lecture about his feelings for the group....He said "ആരും എന്നെ എടാന്നു വിളിക്കത്തില്ല എല്ലാവരും എന്നെ ബഹുമാനിച്ചാണ് സംസാരിക്കുക. ഈ ഒരു സമൂഹം മാത്രമാണ് എന്നെ എടാ എന്ന് വിളിക്കുവാന് സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യം ഉള്ളത്". At that very moment we heard a loud shout "എടാ" from the audience. Who else....it was Rajesh George. When his turn came Rajesh came with his wife Tara and children John, Joshua and Anniemol. Instead of introducing his family and his whereabouts, he started talking about his relation with the school, about his father he become very emotional. He said that his father VS George Sir, who was also the additional HM of our school was lucky that he had the most decent nick name. His nick name was "Hercules" while many other teachers had nicknames which we can't say in public.
Sunil AR was the only member who attended the party who is not married. He works for the Karen group and still maintains his youth. He can pass off as a guy in his early thirties easily. He enjoys the company of our much younger groups and some of our friends were saying he would become friends with our children soon. Everyone passed a resolution that we will try to find him a bride to make this chronic bachelor a family man before our next gathering. I have no idea whether anyone would remember this when the spirit vanishes(yes, I meant spirit, Bacardi). Like the old saying, "out of sight - out of mind".
We wanted to encourage our families, especially the children to demonstrate their skills, which could be entertainment also during the party. Not many has taken it seriously except Justus' daughter. I am glad at least she performed keyboard on the stage. I have asked my elder son to sing during the event... reluctantly he had agreed earlier but on the day of the event I forgot to ask him and he found it convenient to skip.
In a way it was a very disorganized event and time flew like a rocket. Such programs are bound to have flaws but here the biggest flaw was shortage of time. The biggest disaster was the online presence of our friends from abroad. The plan was to get each one online, introduce family and give them a chance to interact with the group. The audio was a flop as the interface to the speaker system didn't work and the communication was not seamless. We barely managed a decent tele-presence with Preshy and his daughter from Australia. There after we got a glimpse of Luke Sajan from Ghana and his family from Dubai. Mohan Krishnan tried to come through from Australia also. In hindsight, I guess we should have planned it a bit better. But anyway, overall the event was full of excitement and happiness of the reunion, which has negated all sundry flaws.
In a way it was a very disorganized event and time flew like a rocket. Such programs are bound to have flaws but here the biggest flaw was shortage of time. The biggest disaster was the online presence of our friends from abroad. The plan was to get each one online, introduce family and give them a chance to interact with the group. The audio was a flop as the interface to the speaker system didn't work and the communication was not seamless. We barely managed a decent tele-presence with Preshy and his daughter from Australia. There after we got a glimpse of Luke Sajan from Ghana and his family from Dubai. Mohan Krishnan tried to come through from Australia also. In hindsight, I guess we should have planned it a bit better. But anyway, overall the event was full of excitement and happiness of the reunion, which has negated all sundry flaws.
When EO-Abraham sir and P-George Sir were planning to leave at around 3 pm, we realized that we have not presented the mementos to the teachers. It wasn't easy to get everyone's attention in that mood but before they left the mementos were handed over to our Gurujis. The best(read "worst") part was, yet we took another half an hour to remember that our event opening was supposed to be with a cake cutting and our 5 kg beautiful cake is somewhere kept unopened. 'Better late than never' was the only thing we could think.... brought the cake near the stage and requested the 3 teachers Francis Sir, Manual Sir and Wilkinson sir to cut the cake. So, we officially inaugurated the party by cake cutting a few minutes before the party was over.
We left the venue around 4.30 which was over an hour of over stay. My family and I had to rush back as we were going to Cochin and from there to take a day train next day to get back to Bangalore. Although my children could not attend the class on Monday, we were really glad that we went together for the event all the way down. Very rarely you would feel that "Kerala is God's own country"....this was one of those occasions that I felt so.
We left the venue around 4.30 which was over an hour of over stay. My family and I had to rush back as we were going to Cochin and from there to take a day train next day to get back to Bangalore. Although my children could not attend the class on Monday, we were really glad that we went together for the event all the way down. Very rarely you would feel that "Kerala is God's own country"....this was one of those occasions that I felt so.
