They all are in their late 40s and are going back to school on July 27. The Carmel Higher Secondary School premises will welcome its 1970 kindergarten batch for a get-together on that afternoon. It is also the first anniversary of this group which met on the same day last year.
This Saturday, they plan to troop into the classes, spend some time on the campus and then gather at Uday Suites, Shanghumughom, for a family get-together.
“Alumni meetings of colleges and schools have become a regular affair. But this is something different. The group has members who studied from kindergarten to class seven at Carmel School. The first meeting at Trivandrum Tennis Club (TTC) was made possible through Facebook. We had kept the photographs of these batches at the venue and those who came in identified themselves. It was all fun,” says Rajeev R. Nair, who was part of the batch, and is now working as general manager with an architecture magazine.
Twenty-seven of them came for the meeting. Some of them had studied in the school till class seven, some had just studied till class four and some only in the kindergarten. “During those days the school had classes till seven and was a co-ed school. Later on the boys were admitted till class four and gradually it became a girls’ only school. We were the last batch of boys who studied there,” Rajeev adds.
The meeting was such a success that the very day they all decided that they would gather on the same day, next year. The best part is that more members are coming in this time and include alumni who are now staying abroad. “Facebook has really helped. Nearly 60 of them have confirmed participation,” says Madhu Ganesh, a professor at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, who studied till class four at the school. One of their teachers, Radha, is also expected to come for the get-together.
The most excited of the lot would be perhaps Sheela Ramani, an Ayurveda physician, now working with the Higher Secondary Directorate.
The first woman glider pilot in Kerala, Sheela says: “Ever since the first meeting, most of us often had a get-together, especially when a batch mate comes to the city. In fact, we have been tagged the group that meets the most! I cherish my days spent at the school. Our teachers had a close relationship with all of us and that’s why we all have this fondness for the school. The best part is that we all have become so close that each of us can depend on one another in an hour of need,” she says, adding: “It is the best school! I can’t wait to be a kid again when we all come together this Saturday…”
