From their high school days under trees in true ‘gurukul’ model, they have come a long way.
With many of them in mid-50s and some even retiring from service, looking back at life they had spent 40 years later and comparing the notes with classmates is something they have never even dreamt of.
But here they were, almost 60 of them who studied SSC in 1973-74 at Gopalapatnam ZP High School.
The school itself has grown much, and now girls and boys have separate schools.
For the teachers, with a few past 80, also it was a wonder that after four decades so many could come together and bring them on to one dais.
A generation that was not born into e-mails or online chats of today’s instant communication could not believe it happened, though reunions had become common among batches much later and in engineering and medical colleges.
“I have seen it in films and all the night I could not sleep with the thought of seeing several of my classmates the next evening,” said an excited Padma of Anakapalle at the reunion organised at a function hall at Baji junction on Saturday. Some like A.S. Murthy and Lalita from Mumbai, Achyutananda from Angul in Odisha, and Bh. Rambabu from Bhadrachalam came with their spouses. Many found employment in industries and Defence organisations that took roots and expanded in the 1970s and 80s in and around Visakhapatnam. They were delighted to see their teachers and classmates. It was a rare photo-op for them.
Reverence to teachersAll of them expressed reverence to the teachers who guided and disciplined them early in life.
It was the turn of teachers to recall how some of the students were mischievous and a whack brought them around. Mathematics teacher Sanyasi Rao narrated how a frog brought for dissection ended in the mathematical instrument box of a girl, making her jump in terror.
The teachers — Lakshmana Reddy, Sadhu Rao, Subrahmanyam, Ramakrishna, Kameswaramma, Sanyasi Rao, and B.N.N. Sastry — were felicitated.
