A bunch of smiling faces – both young and old — light up the University of Hyderabad on Saturday as the ‘students’ walk on lanes of nostalgia. Emotions are high at the DST auditorium which is playing host to the University’s Alumni Meet 2015.
At the entrance, one could see friends walking hand in hand, eager classmates sharing memories as they try to recognise old friends and recall others, and a few othersaccompanied by their spouses, sharing the good ol’ days.
Reigniting old memories are two friends Varanasi Nagalakshmi and Vijayalakshmi from the ’82 batch as they fondly speak of late night movies and the famous Great Wall of China of the university. “In the entire campus, we were only 30 girls in the hostel and many-a-time we would walk alone late at night from the academic block to hostel and never felt unsafe,” they say. “I was always interested in art and even held a one-woman show,” declares Nagalakshmi proudly. Seeing old classmates in person will never lose its appeal, exults a group of four Pranay, Deepa, Satyajit and Riyaaz. “We belonged to the same cricket team,” the boys cheer.
At the corner of the auditorium, a group of former classmates cheer out ‘mama’ as they hug each other. Venkat, who came from Bengaluru for the alumni meet went to ‘Gops’ before coming to the auditorium. What is Gops? “Gops was like a small shack serving tea. Now it has become ‘big’ - a complex with five shops. The place used to be a meeting point for boys as it is nearer to the girls’ hostel,” says Nagaraju with a wink.
Back in the days when he was a student, Jairam Chigurupati had walked around as the General Secretary of the student’s union, with dreams in his eyes. Today, as the chairman of Express TV, he says coming back is like reliving old days.
“There used to be a lot of cattle roaming around and university felt like a small nice family,” he smiles and recalls former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s visit to the campus when he was the country’s first HRD minister.
Kishore Dutt of Zen Technologies Limited says it is exciting to meet classmates at alumni meets and see where life has taken them. G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, Secretary of tourism, Government of Kerala talks about the vibrant and intellectually stimulating sessions. “Our classes were held at Golden Threshold and we would come to the campus only on some occasions. The canteen used to be a hub of activities and we would often play table tennis. The only drawback was there were no other games. We were fortunate to have stalwarts like Dr. Shanta Sinha and Prof. Haragopal as our teachers who played a major role in what we are today.” Dwaraka Tirumala, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), CID from the ’84 batch speaks nostalgically of the great ‘homecoming’ . “I was interested in knowing how many subjects one could fail in and still go to the next level,” he recalls with a laugh.
Say Room No. 108 in A Hostel and MLA Bhatti Vikramarka’s face shines brightly as it was ‘his’ room as a hosteller. “That was the first room as you enter the hostel,” he says with a smile.
In the end, former classmates were in high spirits after meeting old friends and lecturers except for Dr. Santosh who waited in vain the whole day to meet her batch mates.
