St John's High School - Class of 1986 - The Joy of Reunion !...

There was a sudden spring and bounce in our feet as we rushed through those never ending stairs that promised to lead us back into past. Going past a small hallway surrounded by the food counters at Grand Blossoms hall in Mumbai, we entered a large hall exclusively reserved for the occasion. Suddenly the eyes glazed over and the mind went into perma frost. Little did we realize that we would be creating history and we did, by being part of the St John’s High School, The Class of 1986 Reunion.

The hall had good illumination and was elegantly decorated. The photographs of four houses were prominently displayed on either side of the wall. The red and white coloured balloons with printed name of our School and our batch year looked alluring. A small stage was built in the center and next to it was a large masked screen. The banners located strategically at the gates and hanging over the stage looked beautiful. On the left side of the stage was a long table that displayed the various gifts and flower bouquets while on the other side, the DJ with his consol was already in his rhythm.

The atmosphere was abuzz with communication. The lip smacking starters accompanied with mocktails were served non stop. The dinner counter had delectable food with a live pasta counter and seasonal desserts.

It’s been 25 long years since we had left our school. The threads of discussion to have a reunion started on school Google group created by Alwyn and later it got cascaded to various chat sites online. Thanks to Alwyn who came up with the idea of having a school reunion to celebrate this occasion. The ubiquity of social media helped to reconstitute a faithful remnant of organizing team and we were under way.

With Samir, Adeline, Amit, Suresh, Renuka, Mamta and Sunil Nair, we had a formidable team that met religiously, sacrificing their weekends, often sneaking from office to meet and plan the entire event. The organizing team also garnered help from Madhavi Patel, Rajeev Madhavan, Vinod Halkarni, Ganesh Pandit, Vinod Kamath, Santosh Shetty, Shilpa Bhise, Sajid Sheikh and Naresh who blossomed in the end (The pun unintended – the Natural Flower! – Contact Sunil Nair for more details)

The first debates were about the dates and the venue, given that our school is now altogether a different institute managed by different organisation. But the deciding factor in organizing a event of this magnitude were the budgets and most importantly the attendance. Thankfully the response generated by NRI buddies comprising of Asma, Alwyn, Rajesh, Prasad, Sathya, Sajeev and Atul just to name a few spurred all of us into action and we were able to freeze the date.

If it wasn’t for Amit Mehrotra who allowed us to meet at his Arihant Classes, we would have struggled to plan the event peacefully. Samir Mullaji helped us with a beautiful venue.

The most difficult part of reunion was to establish contacts with long lost friends. With many changing their residence and girls happily married with new names, it was one of the onerous tasks to trace everyone. Then are those who have their email i.d.’s but rarely access mails… and there are many who do not still return phone calls….or even SMS. The other challenge was tracing Teachers and staff.

Well thanks to our batchmates like Suresh Balan, Madhavi Patel, Vinod Halkarni, Adeline Pires, Renuka Acharya, and few others….who painstakingly managed to contact some of our long lost friends and boy weren’t we glad to see many of them at the reunion.

The other challenge we encountered was pertaining to collection. Despite the rising interest rates, inflation and salary increments becoming an illusion, we were delighted to receive contribution from many. A magnanimous contribution from Samir Shah helped us a lot. Thank you so much Samir….

There is something intriguing about school unions. It makes some people get so excited that they jump on a plane, fly across the continents, and in case of Sathya even changed three flights only to be here whilst at the same time there are people who live within walking distance and still wouldn’t come if you paid them!

For some of us it is a look to the past and regression into all the feelings of childhood. For others it is a look into the future and a realization that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually the oncoming train of Mid Life Crisis bearing down upon them. If at all you had any of those feelings on the night of reunion, don’t worry, you were not alone.

One cannot rule out the possibility of experiencing some feelings of trepidation or otherwise while attending a reunion. Meeting an old buddy, or to come across those that have done well in life, or even coming across that classmate who must tried to bully you in class or seeing that the teacher or the girl whom you had first crush on and who isn't quite as you remembered can sometimes be very unnerving.

There were few who desperately tried their best to attend, but due to some last minute exigencies had to miss it. Whilst the attendance was noteworthy, we also missed several batchmates whom we are yet to trace.

Thanks to Rajesh Mishra and his Google hangouts, we managed to rope in the baldies - Alwyn, Sajeev, Atul & Swaroop. Kamlesh & Paul also joined the hangout. We did miss them and their patience was indeed admirable. Seating patiently glued to a computer and watching the past re-appear in various forms can be an exhilarating experience. It was nice to hear Swaroop’s voice after 25 years on my mobile.

After a brief introduction of the agenda by Nishant, it was time to get nostalgic. The film “Back to School” brought back memories and captured few textures of school life. It had music that lifted the mood, and was accompanied with a short commentary from Nishant and his office colleague Ekta. The film cleverly portrayed life at school and paid tribute to teachers. In short, the film was almost like a dot on the exclamation mark.

Suresh and Naresh managed to meet Dr (Mrs.) Mabel Aranha, our School Principal. Even at the age of 77, Mrs. Aranha was punctual and eagerly waiting for both of them. It was indeed overwhelming and ecstatic to talk with Mrs. Aranha over the phone. Mrs. Aranha instantly agreed for the video recording but slightly hesitated for she wasn’t dressed for the occasion. Somehow Suresh convinced her and using mobile phones, they successfully recorded her speech which was later incorporated in the film.

Mrs. Aranha in her speech thanked Suresh and Naresh for inviting her for the reunion event. She also mentioned that our school emphasized personality development and not just intellectual development of students. She graciously thanked all teachers and staff and gave her blessings to all students.

A two minute silence was observed to pay tribute to some of our deceased teachers, friends and family members of everyone assembled.

Mamta Jain’s welcome speech was indeed splendid just like her long dangling earrings …with her sonorous voice, coupled with few anecdotes and immaculate oration she managed to thrill the crowd.
Sometimes age brings a certain realization and reunion presents a perfect opportunity for confession and acknowledgment that people CAN and sometimes DO change. Perhaps even take a shot at REDEMPTION!…

Through his extempore, Sudhir Hegde induced humour which is characteristic of him but also confessed to few things. I don’t know whether he was taking a shot at redemption or just playing to the gallery since he called me to edit his speech in the video. There is no way that his speech will get edited. His speech took everyone with surprise and few of them were even shocked. During his speech, the teachers appeared to be in a state of bewilderment.

As kids many of us must have been involved in playing pranks and have occasionally misbehaved. To my mind, Sudhir’s speech was one of the best and honest speeches, I have heard in a long time. At least there was someone trying to live our school's core values - ‘Brave and Truth’. During his rendition, I was impressed to observe Sudhir’s confidence and courage, and even learnt lessons in public speaking.

It was great to meet everyone from different classes. Many of us were meeting for the first time in 25 years. It was nice to see Asma, Prasad flying from Singapore and Rajesh, Sathya arriving from US. While Bharti arrived from Delhi, Vanashree Sathe and Anand Poudwal drove down from Pune. Aftab Alam came with his family from Goa and there may be many others who travelled from distant places for this reunion.

We did miss the tedious predictable sequence of student speeches filled with nostalgia and new experiences common during most reunions. However the main highlight of the event was the felicitation ceremony followed with some evocative speeches by Teachers.

Naresh Singh in his speech profoundly thanked all teachers, for they are the ones who selflessly shaped our life, inculcated values and made us into fine citizens.

As a token of our gratitude, admiration and respect, all the assembled teachers were felicitated with a memento and bouquet. The teacher’s speeches were evocative and inspiring. Mrs. Pinto, Mrs. Mahima Karekar and Mr. Nair Sir waxed eloquent on the charms of school life, the importance of values and learning. They shared their unique experiences and were visibly happy to be part of this momentous occasion.

Mrs. Nagarkar’s speech in Marathi was redolent of her craft lessons and those bright afternoons in primarary school. Speaking with passion, her speech moved the entire audience. It was also nice to see the other teachers Mr. Acharya, Mrs. Arora, Mrs. Sethi, Mrs. Vijaya Menon and Mrs. Devi Manohari at the reunion and all of them spoke with equaly aplomb. Along with the teachers our staff members Kishore, Jayaprakash, Joshi and Ganpat were equally delighted to be part of this event.

The evening was wonderful with good music, some novel games where we also had teachers participating with the same enthusiasm. It was marvellous to see everyone participating in the team games and cheering their respective divisions. The team games added variety. The C division won the finals while the A division managed to scrape past the B division in the final round. History seemed to have got repeated when in the final GK round the three contenders Ganesh Pandit – C division, Asma Siddiqui – B division and Prasad Menon – A division - were fighting tooth and nail.

Despite thinning at the top or widenining down low, everyone looked stunningly gorgeous and handsome. And it’s always a good sight to see such figures and shapes dancing with abandon to the music of Kolavari. Finally don’t they say life begins at 40?

A quick vote of thanks proposed by Nishant and Amit was followed with group photos. This is where we missed our friends who were glued virtually. After dinner we had Rajesh Mishra along with Samir Shah urging everyone to share their experiences and even made our friends from virtual world interact with the real world.

Like an old autograph book, the memory book kept circulating around, urging everyone to record their sentiments and contact details. A beautiful ‘Cup of Joy’ with the school emblem and a small ‘Key Chain’ to lock Happiness and Memories were diligently presented as return gifts to everyone.

Towards the end, The Class of 86 Reunion provided us with PERSPECTIVE about ourselves and others, and the opportunity of RE-CONNECTION. As life progresses the amount of people who have KNOWN you for a LONG time or have known you at KEY MOMENTS of your life is obviously less. That makes reunions valuable, perhaps in ways we haven’t yet realized. There were lots of laughs, and it is important that we value and cherish- what we all shared and the possibilities of this occasion.

The 25th Reunion celebration helped us to rejoice, relive and reminisce those wonderful times we spent at St John’s High School, Goregaon― a time when we were together almost every day ― played together, studied together, danced together ― went through puberty together ― when we formed many of the values we now hold dear, and many of the most intimate, precious and lasting friendships of our lives.

Although I am an eternal optimist, I doubt if we would be able to organize a reunion again… of such magnitude …and I pray and hope to be proved wrong. Perhaps we could think of having another bigger reunion five years from now. But for that to happen, many smaller meetings must frequently take place.

Until then, Class of ’86, lets all stay connected, trace our lost friends and plan to meet up again but hopefully in a little less that 25 years. Remember we were blessed to meet each other on Friday the night of 23rd Dec 2011...

Hoped everyone had a great night!