A trip down the memory lane

I am just back from what I can describe as a hypnotical 2 day experience where all the past students of 1980 KV Hubli batch went through the same experience as Brad Pitt in the movie “Benjamin Button”. In that movie, Brad Pitt goes through reverse aging where he keeps getting younger and younger. We all completely forgot the 30 yrs that had passed since we had last met, forgot that we were in our mid 40s and suddenly were behaving like the 16 yr olds still in X std. I haven’t blogged lately but felt this was too big an opportunity for me to pass up. And so, here it is, for the benefit of everyone who was part of this experience so that they can relive it and for those who missed out so that they can do it vicariously.


For me in particular, this whole experience (spread over 3 months) has been like listening to a symphony with every note building up the expectation of the next until it reached its crescendo on Dec 13. It was back in Aug and I had gone to Hubli to visit my mom and I received a phone call from an unknown number and the guy on the other end introduced himself as Vijay and my knee jerk response was ‘Which Vijay?” He tried jogging my memory but it turned up blank until Suresh Shah who was with him gave me a clue about Vijay’s mom (a teacher in Kannanda School next to our KV) which instantly brought back his face and all the things I remembered of him. Funny how, the brain recall works. That was like a huge surprise for me and it followed, with me getting calls from Maqsood and getting up to speed on Jayant, Chandrashekhar and most of the guys who were in Hubli. At that time, the plan was for me to come back to Hubli within couple of months and get together for a drink with these guys. However, things changed in Oct when this whole alumni meet got mooted and things took a whole different turn.

The alumni meet started a flurry of phone calls and emails and in a very short period of time we discovered so many of our past friends. Yashwant should be majorly credited for this accomplishment. Soon we were at both receiving end and giving end when it came calling and surprising our past friends for the first time in 30 yrs. You could see the excitement building up in everyone and we couldn’t wait till Dec 13 and started arranging meetings in Bangalore. Raghu, Shivanand, Yashwant and I met at Hotel Atria and caught up on so many things. Shivanand hadn’t changed a bit even after all these years and still looked young to go to school. After that it was a meeting of Yashwant, Shivanand, Raghu, Pratibha, Roopa, Suryaprakash and I in Jayanagar along with some of the family. Surya definitely surprised all of us with his Telly Savalas look. Pratibha looked exactly the same as I remember since I had last seen her. On the same evening, I ended up speaking to Sridhar and that was another huge surprise and it was Archana who had hunted him down. More phone calls followed and the phone call with Archana lasted almost 45 min and I don’t remember of us having talked to each other so much when were in school! I guess it was her infectious enthusiasm that she used to have in school that she till carries today. Apparently by Dec 13 she had spoken to everyone for about the same length of time. Her enthusiasm was apparent in the way she was going about collecting and publishing all our contact details and keeping the thread of discussion alive. Our journey tickets were booked and all that was needed to happen now was for the sand in the hour glass to run down.

On Dec 11 when I was packing my bags to leave home for Rly station, my kids were joking around with me looking at how I excited I was. Shivanand, Raghu and I were supposed to travel together but Shivanand ended up missing the train. Raghu and I caught up on lot of things on the train. Dec 12, local newspaper carried an article about the alumni meet and there in it, was published a photograph of our standard (B section) and it was simply amazing to look at it and identify our friends. Needless to say the orchestra was beginning to peak and all I could think of was meeting the folks. The first person I end up meeting is Jayant Raichur aka Lux and just couldn’t identify him but then it all flashed back. After that it was Vijay, Chandrashekhar and Maqsood in Suresh Shah’s optical shop in Hosur. Maqsood was another surprise with his clean shaven head. Suresh was the same old guy with a thousand watt smile and spontaneous and unpretentious talk that immediately puts you in a comfort zone. We then went to Girls English School and met Sujata Joshi who clearly was so surprised that she just couldn’t hide her excitement. It was then time for some lunch and planning for the boy’s night out for Dec 12 where more were expected to join. Jayant and Vijay took care of all the logistics and we ended up at Jayant’s guest house on Dec 12th evening. This is when things really took off. Manmohan Badiger, Shashikiran, Rangangouda, Vivek, Jayant Bommanhalli and Ravindra joined the crowd.

One can imagine what a party that was with 13/14 guys meeting after a long pause with lot of booze and food. With few drinks down the throat, all the interesting colorful stories and jokes from the past started coming out. We came to know the interesting stores behind some of the love marriages of guys who were assembled there. Also, came to know which guy had crush on which girl back in school. Some of these were real surprises! Of course, there were few girls who were lucky enough to have had multiple boys fallen head over heels for them (all names withheld). One particular girl who was good at everything from beauty, academics, sports, extra curricular turned to be with no guy having had a crush on her. The reason turned out to be a real complement to her. She was so good, everyone considered her way out of their league and did not fancy their chances even remotely in their private thoughts. Its what happens in American high schools where the most beautiful one is often not approached for the Prom dance for the fear of rejection. By the way, no brownie points for guessing the person.

It was 13th morning and the excitement was clearly in the air. Everyone was neatly dressed in formals and we all drove down to the school. I saw a familiar face but wasn’t sure because the person looked shorter than I pictured her. It was Meera Katuria and no, she hadn’t grown any shorter, but I had grown taller since the school days, and she was the same jovial self and looked very gracious. Archana was the next one I ran into and she was dressed and looked pretty as she always has been. Next I bumped into Pratibha and Roopa (with 4 out of 4 hit ratio) and that was when I started wondering, "boy did we really have some good looking gals in our batch or what?". It turned out not only did the girls from our batch were pretty back then but even on this day after 30 yrs compared to all the other batches.

As I started to look at the old faces, some of the teachers were recognizable like Shiroor teacher, Manjula teacher, drawing teacher but some were not like Kertal teacher. But I was amazed to know that Kertal teacher who was my 1st std class teacher still remembered me and Raghu as some real mischievous characters. I then went and introduced myself to Mr. Deshpande sir and told him about my classmate and his son Manohar. He was gracious enough to then walk me to Manohar’s mom and introduced me. Allepanavar sir has changed a lot (with the paunch gone) and looks like I am going to be his neighbor shortly here in Bangalore. Madhukar sir although did not recognize me but remembered me and Pratibha once I jogged his memory. It was a huge ego ride for me to know that some of the teachers still remembered me (even if it is for the wrong reasons). Some of the other teachers who showed up were Anjaneyalu, Prasad, Shyamsundar (Maths), Satyamurthy (physics), Suryanarayan( Chemistry), Trivedi (English aka Kir), Drawing teacher, Music teacher.

The function itself was not that long and I was really glad to see that the alumni committee not only honored all the past teachers but also the lab assistants (Patil and Wally), cleaner Oblamma, peon Kulkarni (the guy who used to ring the bell) and the office clerk Hippargi. A lot of faces showed up at the function and the memorable ones are Karuna Pavaskar and her sister (who still looks exactly like the way she was in school), Sunita Gudi, Jabeen. Karuna is the same old self, charging from the front and with an endless energy to chat. She gave a very charged speech and I was speechless. Our 1980 batch had the highest representation with close to 30 people and probably made up 20% of the alumni who showed up. Some of the other names to run into were Mohan Badni, Sadanand H, Mahesh Saunshi, Mustaf mulla. After the felicitation, our entire batch of students went on the stage and sang some prayers and songs from the past for nostalgia. We finished it with “Chalte Chalte, mere ye geet yad rakhana” and that capped it off well. Kudos to Vivek for suggesting that song and Pratibha, Archana and Roopa for singing it so well. The function was followed by lunch with north Karnataka food (bhakri, brinjanl playa, zhunaka etc). Our Yashwant Sirdeshpande and his drama troupe enacted “All the best” for audience enjoyment and have to give it to Yashwant and his talent.

It was 3:30 pm by the time the play ended and the next item on the agenda was to drive down to the old school in Hosur and spend some time for old times sake. The look of the old campus has changed for worse with apartments having come up close to the school and the playground size being reduced by some additional school building construction. The labs were in a dilapidated state and overall it was disappointing to look at what was once a vibrant campus. However, we did enjoy spending time there walking the corridors and taking lots of pictures. Our classmate Monica Das sang the song "my heart is beating, keeps on repeating" just like she once did in the CCA period and she still has that lovely voice. We left the campus by 5:30 to go freshen up so that we (only the 1980 batch) can reconvene for an evening dinner and drinks.

The evening rendezvous was at Hotel Athithi. We all spent some real quality time with each other talking about family and sharing our journey from after we left school till date. Life stories are always very interesting and it reinforces the diversity of almost everything that is in the nature. We all promised to make an effort to meet once every yr (sometime in May) and sincerely hope that all of us can keep that promise. After dinner and drinks we bid goodbye although I did not want to and wanted the evening to continue. I kept wondering as to how many folks are there in this world that get to relive the past with their school mates after 30+ yrs and with such affection and love where everything was 100% genuine. I could not wonder that we all must be special in the eyes of our creator who brought us together once in our childhood and rejoined us again. WOW, this was some real heady stuff and all I can say is, one must have been there to have felt it and experienced it all.

Pratibha, Roopa, Suryaprakash and I took the bus back to Bangalore. We kept chatting in the bus until other passengers asked us to shut up and go to bed. In the morning Pratibha and Roopa got down first at Yashwantpur and Surya and I got down at Lalbagh. After I bid goodbye to Surya and headed down home in an Autorickshaw, I started having this feeling of void that I haven’t experienced in a really long time. The last time I felt like this was when I left US for good leaving behind all my friends. I dragged myself out of the auto and hauled my luggage inside the house and looking at the familiar face of my wife, the smile returned to my face.

All my life, I have been very fortunate in that God has given me more than what I deserved and this is especially true when it came to friends. With this gathering I can confidently say that I am in touch with all my friends since class I till my BE. All I can say is "God thank you and keep it coming".