Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The oxford school 1995-96 batch reunion

It really happened… and I was there when it happened WOW !!

A lot of mails flowed to and fro and then the place and time were decided …. Pai Viceroy at 7.30 pm on July 30th….

Initially I wanted to drive down from my office near itpl…. But then decided against it .....it was too long a drive .... and then if I take my car, I would be forced to drive back home in the night...So decided on piggybacking with my dad till jp nagar, and then asking hubby to pick me up on the way back…

So was in jp nagar by 6.30… left my son at my mom’s house to be baby-sat ... the poor fellow must be wondering why mom came home a little early ... and now, where is she going to, leaving him??!! But he dint make a fuss about it.... as his grandpa took him to the terrace for his favorite pastime: crow-watching !!

I decided to start a bit early as it had started to drizzle ... and I had to catch an auto to pai-viceroy ... Luckily, I got a non-fussy auto ... now that is a little difficult given the typical ‘meter-mele ippath rupaayi kodi’ autos in my area… so reached pai-viceroy by 7.15….

I was the first one at the venue ... The dinner buffet was being laid out… and the servers and waiters were running around the buffet table making the last minute arrangements…....

I headed to the far end of the hall ... found the farthest table ... and sat facing further away ... pretending to be busy with my mobile ... Checked with supreetha… she was 5-10 mins away ... tried reaching Asha ... this madam was not picking up ... I again got back to ‘pretending to be busy with mobile’ ...

15 mins into this pretending thing ... Arundhati showed up, with daughter Vitasha on tow ... it was sheer delight to meet her, after, I guess around 6 years !!!!!!!!!!! given that we were travelling to school together ... every school day for 3 years ... and then been in the 2nd puc tuitions together for another year ...
and then Supreetha arrived ... Supreetha and I have stayed in touch since a couple of years now ... and so we kind of knew how we looked now!!

now, there’s a reason for mentioning this… coz there were so many people whose recent versions we did not recognize at all… we were still stuck at their school time versions… so we had quite a fun time updating the versions !!

hmm.. it was around time now ... and people started coming in, and it was a real testing session of introductions !!!

The expressions that people showed ... in trying to figure out who was who ... was really worth capturing ... but we were having so much fun live, we never bothered ... there was so much excitement in the air, people were trying to figure out who the other was ... and were fighting a losing battle to cause as little embarrassment as possible ... to both the recognizer and the recognizee !! ...

In all these ... the servers and the banquet managers were trying to enforce the welcome drink on us ... fine ... we took it in the stride ... the welcome drinks and the starters were downed, or should I say drowned, in the laughter and hootery going on…

In a little while, home-birds like me had to steer the crowd towards the buffet table ...

During dinner, we joined a string of tables to create one big long table around which we had a kind of ‘mehfil’ ...
junta came up with all the naughty incidents that happened in school ... or rather which they caused to happen !!

Guys owned up to things like calling up Chandu's folks with a fictitious 'Chandus absconding from school' story, the fire-crackers-in-the-classroom episode, the big ‘om’ wave that arose from the last benches in the Sanskrit classes, and so on… it was one noisy and laughter filled ride through the memory lane…

And suddenly someone mentioned that we would all be turning 30 very soon… actually some of us already had ... And so we were all swept by a big wave of ‘oh, we are all getting old’…. And then came another wave ‘what the heck…. Just enjoy !!’ …. ...

But time being the spoiler as it always is, I had to leave soon….
Reluctantly, and with a very very heavy heart, I had to bid goodbye to such a great evening…. But not before getting all promises of staying in touch ….
Hope to have such a wonderful and nostalgic evening again soon….

Vijaya.