Though they all met after 45 long years, the spirit and the liveliness remained the same. Despite, not being in touch with each other for over four decades-after passing out from the college-the bonding they once shared did not vanish.
They spoke, they laughed, they played, they went down the memory lane and made sure they are all still young like during their college days.
The occasion, was the reunion of the 1967 B.Sc (Mathematics, Physics and Statistics) batch alumni of the erstwhile Government College (now University College, Mangalore), at one of the city hotels on Friday.
The reunion programme that lasted for seven hours, witnessed 17 of the 26 batch-mates coming together after 45 years, where they recollected the good old memories, shared their life stories, played interesting games, exhibited their hobbies and what not. Some of them also brought along with them their spouses and got introduced them to their friends.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Tilak Kalyanpur, a retired Naval officer now settled in Kochi said that he had a fantastic experience meeting his friends, who were not in touch for long time.
“Though we all had an instinct to meet for the last few years, we could finally fix the day and were able to meet today. I am so glad to see that my classmates who are all senior citizens now, have come all the way from Mumbai, Bangalore, Kochi, Hospet to attend the event,” he said.
Special batch
The batch of 1967 was well-recognised and was special in many ways, said Upendra Hosabettu, a retired employee of Union Carbide. At a time, when studying in government college meant low quality education and college for the poor, three of the batch-mates secured I, IV and X rank in the exam, creating a sort of history. Apart from academics, there was a university-level football player and also an athlete in the batch. “Today, we are well-settled and happily leading our lives,” he said.
Ask them whom did they miss the most during the alumni meet and they unanimously say they missed Cynthia Lobo, who expired four years ago. “Cynthia was the most friendly and active girl in the class. It would have been more fun if she was there with us today,” wished Vivek Rao.
For Meera Kamath, who holds the credit of being a part of ‘rank holders’ family, the reunion provided an opportunity to reconnect with her friends. Reiterating the same, she promises of maintaining the contacts with all of them in future. Kamath who has taken handicrafts as hobby, brought along with her the handicraft items she has prepared, to distribute them to her friends with love.
The occasion also marked the power point presentation on the college, the good-old memories etc. The coffee cups with the group photograph of the classmates captured 45 years ago, printed on it were distributed as mementos. With the successful reunion, Upendra Hosabettu said that they have plans to meet again, but with certainly more number of alumni.
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