Alumni Meet ...

A quick visit to Chennai last week was truly a memorable one for me, not just for the fact that I met a girl for a probable alliance, it is also for the fact that I attended the my school's "Alumni Meet" and students like me who were 1994 pass out were invited, in fact even students from 1991 pass out were also there. Stepping inside my school premises after a gap of nearly 16 years is an experience I just cannot put it in words here. I started my education in that school and every classroom in that school would remind me 100s of stories. I met my good old teachers who were my constant source of inspiration. I dedicate this post to Unnaamalai miss, Vasantha Kumari miss, Latha miss, Krishna sir, of course Sunandha miss ... This is how the show unfolded and proved to me that I was actually very famous in my school ...

I just could not stop raising my eyebrows after seeing each and every friend whom I thought I will never see, the best shock and surprise was when I met my super super buddy P K Sriram, we shortly call him as PK. He was the one to identify me and he started his conversation like "Ippovaachum en magnet boxa nee thaan edutha nu othukariyaa ??" (Will you at least accept now that you were the one who stole my magnet box???") and I just could not control hugging my buddy and still maintained the same lie "No daa, god promiseaa naa edukala" (I did not take yours da, God promise) and yeah, as a statement of confession, I only took his magnet box, it cannot be termed as theft, I just safe guarded it, so that no one else steals that, including PK. I happened to meet so many crushes of mine who have come with their husband's, P was my all time fav then (4th std to 10th std) she came with her husband who was an utter shock to me, and reminded me of the saying "Kiliya valarthu korangu kaila kuduthutaa" (Parrot has been handed over to a monkey)

Unaamalai miss was my class teacher from 2nd std to 12 std, I was shaped, molded, designed and carved by that humble soul, if not for her, Satish would have been a rotten lot, "Miss, I owe you my life time, and you are my second mother, I swear, seeing you again after a long time, did made my tear glands sweat" though I am the chief idiot of the class, Unaamalai miss liked me a lot, may be becoz of the fact that I am the only mother less child in the class and she used to beat me and scold me like my real mom, and I enjoyed that as well. She was the one to open the speech and to my surprise she started like this "May I first invite the most useless and good for nothing student of my time, Satish to come on stage and tell what he is doing and has he improved at least a bit" and P was the first one to burst out of laughter and she winked at me and said "Podaa, un vandavaalam ellaam dhandavaalathula yera poradhu" (Go man, all your dirty secrets are gonna be out now).

As I walked on the dais, my then principal took over the mic and further damaged my image saying "The only boy who had the caliber to score 30 black marks in 10 days time". I was one of the worst brat my school has ever seen. I then told them the journey I had in my life and what I am doing now, and how that school has shaped me as a person and stuffs like that, and I could see a sense of pride glowing on Unaamalai miss face, and that moment I felt, I have achieved something in life. Then Unaamalai miss took over the mic and then started to wash all my dirty secrets to the assembled 500 folks, first she started with the fight myself and another student called Dhilip had, where I literally bit a portion of his ears and still that Dhilip is living in this world with a cut ear :(, that day, Unaamalai miss would have given me at least 100 hits all over my body. Then she continued to say the very famous incident of that school and the only famous incident of that school till date.

Oh yaa, yours truly arranged his rickshaw wala to act as his dad in a parents teachers meeting, little this idiot knew that my miss can easily figure that out, but I trusted very much on the color, coz me and my rickshaw wala were on the same skin tone, but unfortunately that bugger came to the school that day "heavily drunk". So the news of a student faking his dad became the talk of the town and I was famous the next day, of course I had a "Star Wars" at home is a different story. When Unaamalai miss was explaining every bit of that incident, the auditorium was ROTFL, so do I. The other famous incident of me getting two votes in SPL election was discussed and PK was pulling my leg all thru the show. I was about to get down and there came another old miss running towards the dais, "Oh No, not again" was my reaction, why ?? Because that miss was none other than "Sunandha miss" my English teacher.

She took the dais and called me near her, she is in her mid 50s and looked into my eyes and I was dwelling with shy, after a brief silence, she asked, so can I tell that now ?? Even my husband and my son are here, and I have not told them this till date. I felt so embarrassed and I just could not stand there on the dais, she hold my hands and said, he is the one and only 4th std student who gave me a love letter. The auditorium literally blasted, and yours truly was searching for a place to hide his face. Oh yaa, I liked her and at that time, love letter was the trend, so I followed. Once the laughter in the auditorium settled, I took the mic and said "Miss, since you rejected my love that time, I just could not digest it and hence I am still single", this time Sunandha miss was ROTFL. Lots of other folks shared their success story and we all thanked the school for being a very good platform for all of us to come up in life.

During the evening snack / high tea I had a hearty chat with PK, who is now a father of two, and P who is now nursing 2 kids, R my second love who is doing her husband's business and my once life time enemy K who works in the same IT industry, came to me and said "I am again telling you, you nicked that ball and it was a plumb catch" and we laughed like anything. We all exchanged email ids and added in our FB's / Orkuts and it’s a day which I will not forget for years to come. Thanks Sethu for inviting me to this and I owe you a zillion.