Reunion | The classroom

The classroom

Not that we had just one classroom over our 8 semesters in college. But the corner room in Mother Teresa block has been special. Looking back we shifted between Anna block, Abdul Kalam(AK) block and Mother Teresa(MT) block during the course span. All these three will pull different strings from our guitar speaking metaphorically that is.

What follows is a recap that only a few could relate to:

Anna block bound all of us as one class. I knew Anandakumar, Ganesh, Jagadish and Babuji walking into that class. Babuji being from Royapuram and the rest from my class in the first year. I still remember the day I was set up as Student Representative for the class. Myself and Prasanna Prakash were put on that position. That year also saw the genesis of Super XI, introduction of L.Jegan, Lavanya and other Diploma students. TechnoTalk (News letter) brought all of us together and not to forget the infamous industrial  visit to Elnet technologies. Myself, Prasanna, Murugappan and Meera Tony had fun while organising those events. Amidst all this we switched various classes in Anna block and AK block is an entirely different story. Eating snacks during Indhra Gandhi ma'am class was a classic. The first seminar that I and Aishwarya had to take for the Digital systems paper. It also had my first arrear paper in Digital systems.

3,4 and 5th semesters where a period of bliss and all these class rooms had lots to do between them. The college culturals event, the symposium each forms a distinct period of transit in that era.Running into the 6th semester Super XI was an inseparable bunch and a known gang name to reckon with in the college. Lots of games, lots of paper bits passing, lots of poems, lots of phone calls, lots of SMS and just whole lots of fun. By this time Section A - B divide came into place. Hearing that debate between students and staffs alike was so kiddish. What started as a divide and conquer strategy blew up into a serious head ache. By this time Pranam came into place and it also had our trip to Kodaikanal, Munnar as part of our college trip.

To describe each will take a blog in itself and a ride down the memory lane. On that day 19th, December I just happen for a moment relive all these memories with the actors who played their original roles. We had a couple of photo shoots and videos. We were meandering around the classroom when it was time to leave. Atlast we had to leave and next stop was SkyWalk in Aminjikarai to have our lunch. The episode reached its climax when Jagadish arrived on the scene. Jaga despite his 36 hours journery was more alive than the rest of us on that special day. A few laughs and gags and time finally had its say. We bid adieu and cut short our programs and called it a day.

Dr MGR CSE 2005 | REunion 2010 @ Yahoo! Video

REUNION DAY - PART 1

19th December 2009.

About 20 of us were able to make it to the reunion, enough to create the magic that would roll us all back to our college times. It would be too much of an ask to have the entire 2005 pass out to reassemble on the day or is it?

I am not a nostalgic person, but understand what it means now. I could collect it frame by frame over the period of 2 hours. I also managed to have it captured in a video which should stand the test of time. The staffs including the HOD was rejoiced by the idea and set up the perfect treatment what we could have possibly asked. They were very helpful and made it an event to celebrate. You should have seen the faces and the voice decibels roaring. Its been some time since people started jumping around, some passive people at least had their heart rates jumping up a bit.

I nonchalantly humped up and down the speed arrest at the college entrance and parked my bike casually near the CANARA bank ATM which used to be the garage for the college buses once upon a time. I had a feeling of stealth for bypassing the security - at the gate . As I walked in towards the spiraling stairs the first thing I noticed are two blurry images, while my eyes were showing the real image, the brain was correcting them replacing 'em with images from the past. As I approached nearer, even that could not help either. Bala and Ramya were standing near the old college stage. Old Coffee day stall as some people might know it to be. Both appeared distinctly different from what they were, Bala appeared a bit jaded - seems she lost sleep the day before in lead to this event. Lakshmi Priya, Narmada were also in the mix with whom I've been in good contact with.

The next couple of people I meet are Thiagarajan, Prabu with Babuji by my side. Enquiring about others and glancing around I noticed the old college tree standing shadow to Alki, Raguvind, Lakshmanan and Devaraj. Handshakes all around. I've been in regular contact with Raguvind and Alki thanks GTalk but Devaraj, Lakshmanan and Prabu have been lost till that day. Asking whether they have met anybody at the department, the answer was NO. So I took it up to me and went to the department to find Mr Cyril in his usual busy self. He was on phone over an official matter, I made it known to him that I am about to pursue my masters and also slipped in the information that about 20 alumnis from 2005 have come to meet him. He looked puzzled but cheerfully asked the rest to come in.

When all of them walked in , he was more than just joyed. He was for a moment thrilled and over bound with joy. We greeted him with a bouquet and a flower vase as gift. He gladly took us all to the new Lab facility which used to be the electronics lab once upon a time. When we walked into the lab, we saw  hallucinated images of tables which were not there carrying breadboards and 8085 equipment. Dirty white coats amongst others buried in memories. He had a very light, lively chat with us in Tamil. The most fluent I've seen him in a very long time. He was sharing his alumni experiences and while we were discussing Jeyashree ma'am walked in with her usual swagger. Both our HOD and Jeyashree ma'am have not changed on bit. She anxiously walked in looking around at us and got stunned. Her expressions were priceless, when she held her mouth in awe at us.

Our HOD spent all the time that he could on his busy schedule while calls were coming in over and over. Reminding of our blackberrys at work. He was gracious on his part to invite us for lunch, but we had to politely refuse and invite him to our own lunch arrangement which was not yet planned by then. He soon left saying "The lab is all yours". Jeyashree ma'am was more than just eager to speak to each and everyone of us. By the time she was done, Dr. Cyril came back and said lets meet the Vice Chancellor. WOW. Sooner than later we finished our photo shoot with the VC. One pending item from the list was to get back into the old class our ours. That 800 sq ft of land seemed to have data more than 1000 TB. Spoken truly like a software engineer. LOL.

REUNION 2009 - PREFACE

There has been many a saturday since February 2005. None of those 250(atleast) saturdays have been more soul-filling as this one. Its rare to have a home away from home. It is tough because even if you have bought a swanky new villa, you need people whom you love to fill it up with. Not to forget the innumerable memories associated with it. Every tree, every bench, every classroom and every lab.

We felt as if a monument of immense pride and history lost forever when we found that the canteen/hostel was lost to chennai corporation. The college never owned it was a different story. There we stood, gaping over the college grounds over which now stands a lawn, volleyball court and a basket ball court. The old football ground which it used to be was converted into a corridor of mirror-facade buildings.

Between 2005 and 2009, I've been to college a couple of times. Every time I've been there I would be lost and would be looking at something else. I would feel as if 10,000 plus years of human evolution happening in a very short time. The walls though are still the same will boast a new paint. The reception area would look entirely different. The staffs unrecognizable. The students to put it simple not from Tamilnadu. Therefore I have a feeling that I don't belong here, this is a corporate firm which may demand my identity at any time and may throw me out for loitering.

So it was meant to be that on one day, time would freeze and a portal to the past would open. I did not have any high hopes on what would happen over the day, as an organizer I never had. All I would ask for myself is to get things in place, trust in my people and the other things will get aligned automatically. We had Ganesh/Ramya and Babuji from singapore. Jaga from US flowing down for this specific purpose. Not to forget that Shaik has to travel overnight from Bangalore as well. The rest of us were Chennai vaasis bound with several complex layers that life could take us to.

END OF PREFACE