SJBHS Bangalore, Batch of 1995 and their antics on Sports Day and OBA Day 2005
Guys,
An update on what a few of us were upto over the weekend( Sept. 3rd and 4th, 2005)...
Sports Day
We planned to meet in school around 2:30 PM. Biju and I wearing our batch T-shirts, arrived there by 3 PM. We were too late to view the inter-school relay nor the 1500m race. We were in time though to take part briefly along with Niju in our batch T-shirt along with Venky and Vishwas in mufti, in the OBA event item before we were chucked out based on a questionable decision.. in other words we lost the draw of lots to eliminate a group of us in the game... ;-) Seeing that all of us from the batch of '95 were all sticking together no matter what, we were all eliminated together.
We met Michael D'Souza, who it appeared had participated in the 1500m and was resting in the shade of the multi-purpose hall, hanging on **nickname erased**.. ahem.. our ex-maths teacher's every word.
We had rollicking fun meeting quite a few teachers.. *****nicknames erased by censor board*****... Vishwas was giving us his appraisal in detail of the fresh stock of female teachers .
Our batch T-shirt was admired by a lot of teachers and Old Boys, thanks goes out to all the guys who helped me get it ready, and especially Niju Thomas who accompanied me to the shop several times where we had to bargain on its cost and got it printed in double quick time. The drills seemed to lack the precise co-ordination which stalwarts like ***nickname erased*** Mr. Joseph Andrade (May his soul rest in peace) inculcated in us..They had a "TT Drill"!!!, an "Addago drill"??, figure running and a cycle drill( one round they did with a torch in one hand.. brought back memories of our more intense fire drill..)
Its a tremendous feeling guys.. You'll should have been there.... Ten years after.. we have returned to school to witness the flag lowering..
After the sports was over we also met Fr. Michael John, who as usual attempted to recall names.
Our OBA day
As I start on this short report on the happenings of OBA Day, a li'l guy with a big mouth is on air paying a tribute to the Josephite spirit!!
Seeing that a few guys who had paid for our batch T-shirts hadn't collected them as yet, I took them to school hoping that the guys if they turned up on that day could wear them...
With just Kartik and I reaching early, we wondered how many would actually make it. Wandering around school, our unique T-shirt was already turning heads. A school kid came up to me to 'ask the time' and had his eyes fixed on the image on the T-shirt front. My thanks to Leslie Roach of the Batch of '73 in Canada from whom I sourced pictures of our school crest and house flags for inclusion in our batch T-shirt design.
T-shirt front
Anyway we were soon joined by the mafia guy himself... Don Bosco. Followed closely by Senthil Kannan, who showed a penchant for filming from behind the crowd, the happenings such as the procession from the chapel to the war memorial in front of the school building.
Once the honouring of the dead was over, guys drifted over to the school grounds for the unfurling of the school flag and the singing of the school anthem. The rush to reach the breakfast tables then started. We were asked to occupy the head tables, which saw the four of us from our batch at a table adjacent to the revered fathers. Was it Fr. Hedwig D'Costa who enquired about our eye-catching T-shirts?
The phone calls started flowing from some of you guys. It was a busy time for me with the phone ringing continuously and I was nearly always talking to one guy on the phone and another guy on hold/waiting.
Finally we started seeing a few more familiar faces above our batch T-shirts.. Darius, Hakimuddin, Niju, Surender, Vinay.. and a surprise visitor... Saketh Marla in mufti... the guy is married and we all are invited for the reception the coming Sunday.
Breakfast over it was time to regroup on the field for the official OBA photograph. Nikhil quickly changed into his batch T-shirt and joined us. Our group forced our way onto the ramparts of the setup, to add some colour to the photograph. If only more of our guys who had bought our batch T-shirt or who were in our batch's specified dress code had come, we could have created a bigger impact. Following this photo the bunch of us from our batch had 'our official photograph' taken by volunteers using our digicams.
A few guys, Darius, Niju, Nikhil, Saketh and Vinay left once the sun shone even more brightly. The rest of us moved into the AGM which had already commenced.
The usual resolutions were passed, then a guy came forward and picking up the mike proudly announced how his batch had started an email group eight months back and were now consisting of 38 members.
How could we keep quiet for that?? With the guys Don, Hakimuddin, Kartik, Senthil and Surender urging me on, I went forward and picked up the mike on behalf of all you guys.. I announced to the gathering that just this April, exactly ten years after we left school we initiated an e-group, and that we are now a massive 135 or so strong.. Poor chap, the guy who spoke ahead of me must have nearly died out of shock, it practically put his announcement in the shade. :-) Tremendous clapping indicated our announcement was well received.
Fr. Michael John announced his imminent retirement from the post of school principal. It appears a replacement will come in early next year and will be under Fr. Michael John's tutelage for a year or two atleast.
The inauguration of the new school buildings is slated to happen in December this year. Hopefully the President of India will inaugurate it.
Oh by the way, I've been elected to the OBA managing committee as a 'youthful' volunteer thanks to the '95er plotters- Surender, Don, Kartik, Hakimuddin and Senthil... Thanks guys.. So our batch has a rep in the OBA committee.. ;-)
AGM over, we heard that Mark, V T Francis, Vishwas and Venky were already ensconed in the multi-purpose hall hitting the bottle. Hakimuddin, Don and I wandered through the corridors of the school. We discovered a door leading to the terrace open. Passing through it we found ourselves on the highest part of the school buildings. Don has a few photos taken from that viewpoint. Bijoy had also arrived to take part in the hockey match. We joined up with Leo and proceeded to the multi-purpose hall to join the rest of the brave guys from our batch who had arrived. We also met Siddharth Rao, who avoided us for the most part of the time we were in the multi-purpose hall.
It was now time for drinks and snacks. Time seemed to pass quickly with everyone at their craziest best. Vishwas seeing that its Old Boys Day decided to make some really 'Old Friends' who promised to have a drink next year on OBA Day with him. Hope its not their last drink. Vishwas is one hell of a guy who roped in free Red Bull drinks for our guys and nearly lassoed the fair lasses handing out the drinks... ;-) Lunch was pretty good and was catered by the guys from 'The Only Place'. We had mutton biryani.
Snaps should be on the way pretty soon, from all "our photographers", I hope.
Sorry guys, I started this writeup with the plan to keep it short and sweet. But it's turned out to be one long epic and yet still sweet.
To all the guys who made it today on OBA DAY and/ or on the previous day-Sports Day, a BIG THANK YOU goes out.
To all the guys who didn't make it, there are always excuses to find, but we require you guys to find exceptions to your general excuse rule and avoid making excuses and make it to all our meetings/ reunions.
Cheers,
Sunil
http://sunilpichamuthu.blogspot.com/
Guys,
An update on what a few of us were upto over the weekend( Sept. 3rd and 4th, 2005)...
Sports Day
We planned to meet in school around 2:30 PM. Biju and I wearing our batch T-shirts, arrived there by 3 PM. We were too late to view the inter-school relay nor the 1500m race. We were in time though to take part briefly along with Niju in our batch T-shirt along with Venky and Vishwas in mufti, in the OBA event item before we were chucked out based on a questionable decision.. in other words we lost the draw of lots to eliminate a group of us in the game... ;-) Seeing that all of us from the batch of '95 were all sticking together no matter what, we were all eliminated together.
We met Michael D'Souza, who it appeared had participated in the 1500m and was resting in the shade of the multi-purpose hall, hanging on **nickname erased**.. ahem.. our ex-maths teacher's every word.
We had rollicking fun meeting quite a few teachers.. *****nicknames erased by censor board*****... Vishwas was giving us his appraisal in detail of the fresh stock of female teachers .
Our batch T-shirt was admired by a lot of teachers and Old Boys, thanks goes out to all the guys who helped me get it ready, and especially Niju Thomas who accompanied me to the shop several times where we had to bargain on its cost and got it printed in double quick time. The drills seemed to lack the precise co-ordination which stalwarts like ***nickname erased*** Mr. Joseph Andrade (May his soul rest in peace) inculcated in us..They had a "TT Drill"!!!, an "Addago drill"??, figure running and a cycle drill( one round they did with a torch in one hand.. brought back memories of our more intense fire drill..)
Its a tremendous feeling guys.. You'll should have been there.... Ten years after.. we have returned to school to witness the flag lowering..
After the sports was over we also met Fr. Michael John, who as usual attempted to recall names.
Our OBA day
As I start on this short report on the happenings of OBA Day, a li'l guy with a big mouth is on air paying a tribute to the Josephite spirit!!
Seeing that a few guys who had paid for our batch T-shirts hadn't collected them as yet, I took them to school hoping that the guys if they turned up on that day could wear them...
With just Kartik and I reaching early, we wondered how many would actually make it. Wandering around school, our unique T-shirt was already turning heads. A school kid came up to me to 'ask the time' and had his eyes fixed on the image on the T-shirt front. My thanks to Leslie Roach of the Batch of '73 in Canada from whom I sourced pictures of our school crest and house flags for inclusion in our batch T-shirt design.
T-shirt front
T-shirt back
Anyway we were soon joined by the mafia guy himself... Don Bosco. Followed closely by Senthil Kannan, who showed a penchant for filming from behind the crowd, the happenings such as the procession from the chapel to the war memorial in front of the school building.
Once the honouring of the dead was over, guys drifted over to the school grounds for the unfurling of the school flag and the singing of the school anthem. The rush to reach the breakfast tables then started. We were asked to occupy the head tables, which saw the four of us from our batch at a table adjacent to the revered fathers. Was it Fr. Hedwig D'Costa who enquired about our eye-catching T-shirts?
The phone calls started flowing from some of you guys. It was a busy time for me with the phone ringing continuously and I was nearly always talking to one guy on the phone and another guy on hold/waiting.
Finally we started seeing a few more familiar faces above our batch T-shirts.. Darius, Hakimuddin, Niju, Surender, Vinay.. and a surprise visitor... Saketh Marla in mufti... the guy is married and we all are invited for the reception the coming Sunday.
Breakfast over it was time to regroup on the field for the official OBA photograph. Nikhil quickly changed into his batch T-shirt and joined us. Our group forced our way onto the ramparts of the setup, to add some colour to the photograph. If only more of our guys who had bought our batch T-shirt or who were in our batch's specified dress code had come, we could have created a bigger impact. Following this photo the bunch of us from our batch had 'our official photograph' taken by volunteers using our digicams.
A few guys, Darius, Niju, Nikhil, Saketh and Vinay left once the sun shone even more brightly. The rest of us moved into the AGM which had already commenced.
The usual resolutions were passed, then a guy came forward and picking up the mike proudly announced how his batch had started an email group eight months back and were now consisting of 38 members.
How could we keep quiet for that?? With the guys Don, Hakimuddin, Kartik, Senthil and Surender urging me on, I went forward and picked up the mike on behalf of all you guys.. I announced to the gathering that just this April, exactly ten years after we left school we initiated an e-group, and that we are now a massive 135 or so strong.. Poor chap, the guy who spoke ahead of me must have nearly died out of shock, it practically put his announcement in the shade. :-) Tremendous clapping indicated our announcement was well received.
Fr. Michael John announced his imminent retirement from the post of school principal. It appears a replacement will come in early next year and will be under Fr. Michael John's tutelage for a year or two atleast.
The inauguration of the new school buildings is slated to happen in December this year. Hopefully the President of India will inaugurate it.
Oh by the way, I've been elected to the OBA managing committee as a 'youthful' volunteer thanks to the '95er plotters- Surender, Don, Kartik, Hakimuddin and Senthil... Thanks guys.. So our batch has a rep in the OBA committee.. ;-)
AGM over, we heard that Mark, V T Francis, Vishwas and Venky were already ensconed in the multi-purpose hall hitting the bottle. Hakimuddin, Don and I wandered through the corridors of the school. We discovered a door leading to the terrace open. Passing through it we found ourselves on the highest part of the school buildings. Don has a few photos taken from that viewpoint. Bijoy had also arrived to take part in the hockey match. We joined up with Leo and proceeded to the multi-purpose hall to join the rest of the brave guys from our batch who had arrived. We also met Siddharth Rao, who avoided us for the most part of the time we were in the multi-purpose hall.
It was now time for drinks and snacks. Time seemed to pass quickly with everyone at their craziest best. Vishwas seeing that its Old Boys Day decided to make some really 'Old Friends' who promised to have a drink next year on OBA Day with him. Hope its not their last drink. Vishwas is one hell of a guy who roped in free Red Bull drinks for our guys and nearly lassoed the fair lasses handing out the drinks... ;-) Lunch was pretty good and was catered by the guys from 'The Only Place'. We had mutton biryani.
Snaps should be on the way pretty soon, from all "our photographers", I hope.
Sorry guys, I started this writeup with the plan to keep it short and sweet. But it's turned out to be one long epic and yet still sweet.
To all the guys who made it today on OBA DAY and/ or on the previous day-Sports Day, a BIG THANK YOU goes out.
To all the guys who didn't make it, there are always excuses to find, but we require you guys to find exceptions to your general excuse rule and avoid making excuses and make it to all our meetings/ reunions.
Cheers,
Sunil
http://sunilpichamuthu.blogspot.com/
posted by Sunil Pichamuthu| View Profile | View Main Page | View Photos | Go to Top | 9:18 PM
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