My Musings: July 2009

News of a re-union of the batch of 1999 of CVM, first reached me about a couple of months back, when I got a friend request from Babitha, on Orkut. I was pleasantly surprised since I had thought, my ties with Tumkur were snapped. Thanks Orkut, for shrinking the planet, and proving me wrong. Well, that`s how it started. The plan had to be postponed though, due to the tragic demise of our dear friend, Suvijith, whose presence would have meant so much to us. May his soul find eternal peace.

Coming back to the occasion itself, It`ll be dereliction of duties of the highest order, if I fail to acknowledge the efforts put in by certain people, who worked tirelessly to make this whole thing possible. So, thanks to Babitha, Anil SP, Abhishek, Ravikiran, Vasistha and Vidyashankar. You guys just rock. Please blame any omissions here, on my poor and dwindling memory powers.

Lots of places were discussed for the venue of the meet-up. Some of them were Namada Chilume(hope I got the name right), Innovative filmcity, Holiday village resort. Considering the fact that most of the folks were based in Bangalore, and the main prority was to catch up on
old times, the last option was chosen, and considering how well this whole thing was planned, it was hardly surprising that the choice of place was extremely suitable for the occasion. 25th of July was the date decided for the meet-up . The night before the D-day was a sleepless one for me, because of the excitement of meeting some of my old friends. "Old is gold" they say, and they are SO RIGHT.

Inspite of all the excitement, I was nervous as well. I had left Tumkur immediately after my 10th standard, and the rest of them had been together well until their PU, and some until their engineering days. I was unsure about how our first meeting in a long time would go. Would we be ultra-formal and make this like a board meeting? Would we form our own small group and ignore the rest? These were worries, which were gnawing at my brain. My fears were immediately laid to rest as soon as I met the group. It was as if we hadn`t left CVM at all. The camaraderie that the group displayed was awesome and set the tone for the rest of the day. Such was the general bonhomie around that even the shy ones came out of their shells and started talking after a while.

The highlight of the day for me, was the informal intro-cum-ragging session we had, in which all of us got our legs pulled, and asked some really crazy questions. I haven`t laughed so much in ages, and even as I type this, I am gently massaging my sides, which hurt BIG TIME.

One thing I realized after the meet-up was that all of the old students of CVM are doing well for themselves in life. What really gladdened my heart though,is the fact that most of them are doing some real good social work too, and this was revealed at the meet. Just goes to show that GEN-X has its heart in the right place. Great going, guys.

Coming to the attendees (I`ll rack my brains very hard to not miss anyone. In case, I do, please excuse and let me know), here goes the list with a brief description of each -

1)Abhishek(who`s just the same, quite and unassuming. Smiles a lot and makes everyone extremely comfortable).
2)Adithi(who, if my memory serves me right, used to talk non-stop in school, but prefers to listen and smile these days).
3)Babitha(the lady with the mission to plan the next re-union on a larger scale).
4)Deepthi(Who is a lecturer now, and behaves like one. God help the students who bunk her class).
5)Vasistha(Who is in Infy with me, which I realized just three days ago. Giggles at everything, and is a pleasure to be with).
6)Rahul Chadha(Who`s lost oodles of weight and is well on the way to a six-pack, which I will not get in this birth. Just love his Kannada accent.."shivne").
7)Karthik(who has a real sense of humour and kept us in splits, the whole time).
8)Anand(Karthik`s partner in making us cry with humour. Sang "chura liya hai tumne.." beautifully).
9)Hemant(Who says his "Anna is Adda", when it comes to his plans to get married).
10)Ravikiran(the man has a brain for planning. Nandan Nilekani,my hero,could do with your help, maga).
11)Pradeep(who`s in the merchant navy now, and has already circumnavigated the globe twice. How cool is that!Wow!).
12)Vidya(Whose cycle is still the craze amongst the boys).
13)Supritha(whose Teddy-bear bag was a topic of discussion, which she still has, but rarely is seen with, in public).
14)Sandhya(who has a heavenly voice, and according to me, should consider singing professionally. Her rendition of "Dasana.."mesmerised us).
15)Chaithra KR(Who as I remember, was shy around guys and matched my shyness around girls. She has changed Big-time, though and was a joy to talk to).
16)Lakshmi Bhat(my Konkani classmate, who has again changed from a quiet girl to a Tom-boy).
17)Manjith(who owns a swanky SLR camera. Talks less and clicks more).
18)Anil SP(who still blushes around girls and talks about plastic when asked to speak about developments on the personal front),
19)Chandan(who hasn`t changed much, except for a toothbrush moustache).
20)Narendra(a "sakkath bindaas huduga", who believes all the "daddrus" were in 'A' section. With a quick wit like that, I don`t believe a word of that, dude!).
21)Vishwas(Who was extremely reluctant to introduce himself, and was introduced by Narendra, with hilarious effects).
22)Vidyashankar(who makes you laugh, with a poker-straight face).
23)Chethan(who again, was the epitome of silence, preferring to be the silent listener to all our chatter).

There was the trio of doctors-
24)Dr.Rohith(The best boy in the class, and believe me, still is one. My parents forever compare me against him, and no surprise, I always lose).
25)Dr.Sanjay Raj(Most believe he is a "decent" boy, which he thinks is a "moodha-nambike". Quiet quite, which again most say, is because if he opens his mouth, his "decency" will be exposed).
26)Dr.Nabeel(Who again is a real cool Doc, and went out of his way to get everyone to talk).

and me, Ashok(who believes in boring people by writing Big blogs - like this ONE here. Still single(and happy), because I learnt to talk to girls in the second year of engineering, by which time, all of them had big, beefy boy-friends, who glared at you, if you just looked at
them,forget approaching them.)

after lunch, we played a quick game of cricket, which brought me to the sad realization that my cricket playing days were long behind me. Me, who used to pride himself on his fast bowling skills in school. So out-of-touch am I, that I couldn`t even catch a ball on the first bounce!
Sigh!. The athletic side of me, (if ever there was one), died in school.

When it was time to leave,none of us wanted to rise, since that was how much we enjoyed ourselves. But, all good things have to come to an end, and so did this one. But not before a decision was taken, on the next re-union, for which we expect a better response(come on! We can do better than 27). There were talks of having one on the 15th of August of every year(decision yet to be finalised). One thing that was discussed and pretty much finalised, was the creation of a group, which could be used as a common forum for all of us to interact. Details
could be out shortly, and I request all of you to join, and invite others of our batch to join.

The re-union was brought to a reluctant conclusion thereafter, with people delaying their departure till the last possible minute. Eventually, the group dispersed in ones and twos, but not before promising to meet again, in a larger gathering. That brough to an end, the
happiest day of my life, in a long, long time. Until, MORE OF US meet again, God bless! Ciao!

P.S : If you have faithfully reached the end of my blog here, your reward lies below. Memories caught on camera -