Under the tamarind tree

This photograph was taken more than three decades ago when I was in class 10 at Rajajinagar Parents’ Association School and we had gone to Bannerghatta National Park.

The trip was organised by our Hindi teacher ‘Begum Ma’am’.

I cannot recollect much of the trip but I remember thoroughly enjoying the sight of the majestic tigers and lions in the park.

Of course, many of our classmates are missing in this photo as ‘Begum Ma’am’ took only our section for this trip.

After seeing this photo recently, many of the other batchmates felt jealous. We teased them saying we were indeed special.

This photograph is special to me as I don’t have any other school or college photos of mine.

After this trip, I think, the whole batch of class 10 went to Belur, Halebidu and Shravanabelagola which was our last school trip.

Everyone in our class was competitive, especially when it came to studies. I used to be a very shy person.

My close friends in school were A R Sanjay, L S Sanjay, H P Satish, Rajeev and Prasanna Shenoy.

Sanjay, Satish and I were the front benchers. We were also sports enthusiasts. Whenever we were given a chance, we used to run to the school ground and play cricket, in all its forms, with bat and ball, leg cricket etc.

We also represented the school in the marchpast. Every Independence Day, we used to go to Kanteerava Stadium and participate in the marchpast.

Prasanna’s and my residence were close to each other and we always used to walk together to school and back along with his sister.

On our way back from school, we used to pass by a temple which had a tamarind tree. We used to collect those raw tamarinds and have it as we walked back home. Those were such golden days.

Years later, I branched out on my own after spending about close to two-and- half-decades in the corporate world.

Uday Singh, Shankar Shetty are into their own business.

TR Shankar is a lecturer. Sanjay AR, Sanjay LS, Rajeev SN, Ravi Kumar are engineers working in India and abroad .

Naveen is with the Karnataka Police. HP Satish is a doctor and settled abroad.
Prasanna Shenoy is settled in Dubai with family.

Nothing is known about DV Srinivas Babu.

Also, not much is known about the girls though guys are curious to know.

Many of us are in touch with each other through a WhatsApp group which one of the friends had rightfully and thankfully created.

Through this, we were able to meet each other after a really long time. The joy it brought was unsurmountable.

I definitely cherish those moments. Of course, it had its awkward moments too, of not being able to identify certain classmates.

The first time we met, we were just catching up on our lives.

We also remembered our teachers – ‘Begum Ma’am’, ‘Girijamba Ma’am’, ‘Rudrani Ma’am’, ‘Hegde Sir’ and many others. It was an overwhelming experience.

Hopefully, we will able to get in touch with more of our classmates in future.

(The author can be contacted at [e-mail])