Author and techie Veena Muthuraman is busy making a movie at her home. She is director, editor, sound engineer and script writer. Once she is done with it, the film will be screened at a reunion of the class of ‘93 that passed out from the 138-year-old Holy Angels’ Higher Secondary School, Thiruvananthapuram.
For more than three months now, the classmates of all six division of class X (A, B, C, D, E and F) 1993 have been busy exchanging notes, photographs and reminiscences of school days of the girls in blue and cream. “We were teenagers before the advent of social media and so, over the years, most of us kept in touch only with our close friends. We had no clue where all the others were, considering there were at least 50 students in each division,” says Veena.
Gradually, they managed to locate many of their classmates on Facebook and, from there, they moved to a Whatsapp group that is active 24x7. “Last year, some of us came up with a tentative idea to organise a get-together and that is how this reunion came about. To make it easier for our classmates who are non-resident Indians, we decided to hold the reunion sometime in July when many come to Kerala on vacation. Since then, we have been at work to get it going,” says Reshmi Rajendran, an HR executive in ITC, Kochi.
C.P. Lakshmi, a gastroenterologist in the city and the school topper of her batch, says it was the non-resident Indians in the group who mooted the idea of an alumnae meet as most of them had not gone back to the school once they left it in 1993. Those in the city have been on their toes, meeting the principal, locating old teachers and arranging the venue.
“It is a special feeling. My mother was a student of the school and today, my daughter is studying in the ICSE branch of Holy Angels’ Convent. The only difference is that my mother was in the Malayalam medium of the state syllabus while I was in the English medium. When I went to invite our former English teacher, Sister Angel, she identified me the minute I told her I was in the class of 1993. She remembered my class (X B) and the name of my class teacher. Today, Sister Angel is the Mother Superior and will be attending our function in school,” adds Lakshmi.
The excitement and anticipation are evident in their voice as friends from the United Kindom, United States, Sweden, Ireland and West Asia fly down for the gathering.
“That year, our batch secured 11 ranks in the toppers’ list. I was 13th. Imagine, of 28 ranks in the State, 11 were from our school. Many of the toppers went on to become medical practitioners and some are well-known in their respective specialities. But for one, we have been able to get in touch with all those on that list and someone also managed to track down a press clipping from those days,” says Veena.
About 100 former students have confirmed that they would be present on that day on the verdant campus.
Swathi Sasidharan, a budding author in Malayalam and English, will release her book Raindrops on My Memory Yacht . Once the formal function and speeches get over, they plan to go on a nostalgic walk around the campus. Then the friends break for fun, food and festivities at Hotel Residency Tower. “But we don’t want the bonds to break after one gathering. Some of our formers teachers and a few others who were with us are not in the pink of financial health and we want to explore ways of helping them. We will chart out the plans during our get-together,” says Lakshmi.’
An encounter with people and places in the city
