Yesterday, four of us decided to meet for lunch at Flamingo restaurant,Besant Nagar,Chennai. Nalini,Vani,Jayashree and myself. I was eagerly expecting to see Fathima too- the last I met her was in 1990. She called up and said she was busy at office and hence couldn't join us.
(Sitting in front: L to R:Jayashree,her daughter Pragya,Vani.
Sitting at the back: Nalini on the right and myself on the left.)
Thanks to Jayashree for co-ordinating and arranging this small get-together..
We are hoping to meet a lot of our other classmates too whenever it is possible and also try and have occasions for all of us to meet our teachers too..
The irony is that Jayashree, Vani and I live just fifteen minutes away from each other in Chennai,but get to meet only when one of our friends from the US or London lands up here in Chennai :-). Life has become hectic for each one of us and such occasions help us re-living those wonderful memories of school life, college life etc..
It felt nice to share our experiences, how each of our careers has progressed over the years in different areas..Nalini is a software professional at Atlanta, Vani practises Pediatric Neurology, Jayashree is into Counselling and Clinical psychology and I am into a totally different profession :-)
When I thought of posting the photo taken yesterday, it struck me that it would be nice to recollect how we looked in our schooldays :-)
Hence here comes a photo of us taken in Class 5:-). ( I have labelled Jayashree,Nalini,Fathima and myself in this photo. Srihari joined KVIIT in Class 7 and Vani joined only in Class 11.)
(Sitting on bench, from L to R: 6th student in the row is Nalini (with a badge) and to her left is Fathima.)
(Sitting on ground,from L to R: myself, to my left is Jayashree.)
Through Jayashree, I got to talk to another classmate of mine,Srihari,who is based in Bangalore. When I told him that I was planning to post our class group photo here, he asked me to try and identify our classmates in the photo and mention their names ! I shall try as much as I can. A memory test of a different kind for me ! My apologies to those friends whose names I have not been able to recollect readily..
(Following photo was taken in Class 8 with Mrs.Shyamala as our class teacher.)
(Standing: Top Row: L to R: Raghuram,Kirubainathan,Peter(?),----,Srihari,Ramaiah,----,Amit Shukla,Charles,Vivek,Sanjay.
Standing: Second Row from Top: L to R:Venkateswara Rao,Deepak,Jaiganesh,Suresh,----,----,----,Vinoo,----,Sriram,Azeemuddin.
Standing: Third Row from Top: L to R:Priya,Jayashree,Sumitra,myself,----,Rosary,Yuvarani,Subhaja,Jayapradha,Jayalakshmi and Sonali.
Sitting on bench:From L to R: Sangamaheshwari,Sujatha,Srivani,Nalini,Mrs.Shyamala,----,Fathima,Jacqueline,Suchitra,Devi.)
Here is a photo taken in Class 11 in which Vani is present:
(Sitting on ground: 2nd from L is Vani and Jayashree is on the extreme right.
Standing: Second row from Top:6th from L to R is Fathima,8th from L to R is Nalini.
Srihari and I were shifted to the other section in Classes 11 and 12, away from our buddies of 10 years :-(,hence we are absent in this photo.)
Well, this is pretty much what I could gather together and post now..
Any friends who happen to see this post and can fill in the gaps in the names are most welcome:-)
Looking forward to more and more such occasions to meet up with old friends.
12 comments:
Indeed very nostalgic! :-) Memories seldom fail to move something within. Have been intending to write a series of posts myself on college et al soon..sigh..will be completing soon :( wonderful to recollect thoughts such as these. We once had to write an essay in a Literature course in our fourth semester - a commentary on 'Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of emotions recollected in tranquility'(a quote by Wordsworth, I guess). Somehow reminded of it now. During one's younger days (the age of innocence), there are lots of wonderful emotions, however, one sits back and recollects them long after - long after, in one's life amidst tranquility. And there is a strange peace one feels whilst doing it.
Sathej
Wow!! Wonderful pictures there, it is fun to see how each one of us looked as kids, Gayathri, you have managed to name more people than I could possibly have, so your memory is much sharper than mine I guess :).
It was a pleasure talking to you guys after a gap of 20 years, it did not seem like we had not chatted for so long, it felt like we just picked off from the previous day at school.
Jayashree, kudos to you for initiating a reunion, we will certainly add to the numbers the next time.
Regards and love to all you guys,
Hari.
Gayathri, very nice to see your pics while u were in school. Wonderful memories of school and college linger in our minds for long. Also please do share your memories of your college and also your first carnatic music lessons and your interaction with the maestro Sri TNS.
Gayathri, having seen Vishruthi in class 6 now, she is indeed a carbon copy of you!
But glad to know that you are in touch with your classmates (albeit 20 years hence!).
Great sitting posture even way back in the 5th std.!
We heard your AIR concert today on the theme Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar"s Siva Ashtotram.Except the "Kathanakutukalam" kriti "Gangadharam" we have never heard other kritis before. It may be the same case with average rasikas like us. I therefore thought it may be a good idea to sing and popularise some of these kritis in the upcoming music season. Great effort.
Chandra and L.V.Mahadevan
Nice to let your hair down and chew old memories. Good collection and display
Standing: Top Row: L to R: Raghuram,Kirubainathan,Peter(?),----,
Answer: Vijaykumar (?), said he is into Sales/Marketing some years ago, owns a flat in Vel. And I have seen Izrael, whose father was a school staff. Also find out about an artist (clue=Rao). Many great students we had but I haven't met them. I am in Bangalore.
Regards
Suresh
Accidentally stumblled on this gem. I can't tell which one is me in the Class XI pic.
SR Kumar
Nice pic. Which batch is it? I accidently stumbled into this blog. My name is jayashree too. I am from 1987 commerce batch. We are in touch with 8 of us from the same class (XII C). Unfortunately, none of us are in chennai. Just loved to see the school pic with red ribbons and hands on lap. AWESOME. Miss my school. Looking forward to stumbling into many of our classmates, please revert back if you happen to know someone.....
What a nostalgic moment. Gayathri you seem to have kept the photos almost dating back to more than 20 years. This is Azeem. I am working as a Manager in PayPal and EBay company here in chennai. my number is 8939123786. Any one from my batch can contact me. We can organize a get together.
The names of the people in the last photo
First Row -> Binoy choudhary, Vinoo Sanjay, Shobit Sinha, Manoj Kumar, __, Guru, CVR Kiran, Sumit, Vivek, Prashanth, Chandy, Bharath, Vinod, Thomas
Second Row -> __, Meera,S Priya, __, __, Fathima, Simranjit(think so), Nalini, __, Deepa Ganesan, Srivani, __
Third Row -> Shalini, Jayalakshmi, G Priya, Ganga, Primula, Krishna Kumar, ___, Azeem, Sudheer, Jaya Ganesh
Last Row -> __, Vaani, __, Vatsala, Jayashree
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