A Message to my Old Friends at the GREMS Batch of 89 Reunion

Dear friends,

Welcome to the first reunion of the GREMS class of 87(X)/89 XII).

Although I am not physically present here today, I wanted you all to know that I am here in spirit and hence this welcome message (which Rajesh graciously asked me to deliver – Thanks Rajesh). It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you here today – an idea that started with a casual chat that Rajesh (Umatt) and I had a couple of years ago has finally turned into a reality!! By sheer will power, today we have turned back the clock a score or more years back.
The GREMS batch of 87/89 – A group of naughty, screaming kids, that were all bunched together one fine summer morning in 1975 in the Junior KG class at the Refinery English Medium School in Agashe Madam’s class (for me and many others) to start a magical journey of education, discovery and growing up together. Over the next 14 years, many joined and many left the group, but the bond that ties us all together is here to stay. It is said that true nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories – and I am sure that today as you meet old friends and teachers after almost 2 decades what you feel, and what I feel sitting home talking to my dear wife about old school days, is nothing but true nostalgia - Nostalgia about those wonderful years we all spent together and impressions of which have left an indelible mark on the futures that we have built for ourselves today.

Since leaving the school and parting each others company almost 19 years ago, all of us have followed our destinies and today reached a point in our lives where we are enriched with many more relationships and friendships that we have formed in our college, professional and personal lives. From personal experience, I can tell you that after years of not being in touch, I have never been able to pick up and continue a conversation with any of my friends from college or work, like I have been able to with many of my friends from the school days and many of you would have felt the same thing as you talked to each other in preparation for this reunion. Yes, there is something about the bonds of friendship that we formed in those early years of our lives that will always be missing from all the other friendships that form over the entire course of our lives – perhaps it was the lack of an ulterior motive, or perhaps it was that we were too innocent to be judgmental – whatever it is, these friendships always go the extra mile.

Going back to the subject of nostalgia – they say it is never safe to be nostalgic about something until you are absolutely sure there is no chance of it coming back. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no chance of those days ever coming back, so it is safe to be nostalgic about it today. That is what the excitement of a reunion is all about – meeting old friends, hugging them and sharing memories that have been sweetened by the passing of time.

I will get you started with some of the wonderful memories I have from the 14 years I spend at the school and with all of you. On the “decent” side, there are the morning assemblies, reading the news, post-prayer talks on the stage, the exercises after the morning assembly on Fridays/Saturdays, the house quizzes (Go RED!), essay competitions(Go RED!), debates (Go RED!), school elections (Way to go! Anu), Interact clubs, the fun fairs, the picnics to Xeshwars (Uthkantheshwar, Galteshwar, Jalkantheshwar .. ), walking to school with Rajesh (Umatt) and Dashrath (Vala), Father Julius, who wanted me and Ganapathy to sit separately because we “talked” too much …. great 2 hours each day on the school bus (khataara) with Shailesh (Manwar) and Pankaj (Patel) and the cricket matches that we played before the assembly began !!, walking to the school bus stop on cold winter mornings and the “Taapni” we used to make .... On the other side, there are fun memories that can still evoke laughter every time they cross the mind – like the Saputara trip that many among you who were in the Interact Club would remember, Avtar Singh and his obsession with Samantha Fox or the occasion when Ashish (Chaubal) begged and got a beedi from the “mama” that was working outside in Beena madam’s class!!

Well, those are just a few strands from my own web of nostalgia. Of course, everybody here would have enough of their own to weave a carpet of old memories to share and I hope you do. As this evening wears on, all of you would have created another set of memories that you will share with your spouses and children for many years to come. I hope that in the midst of our busy lives, this trip back down the memory lane provides a welcome relief and reawakens the child in all of us and rekindles friendships that were on the back burner.

As we celebrate this reunion, please remember that this is but only a rehearsal for a grander reunion – a reunion where we should strive to get at least 85% of the around 85+ friends that are inherently part of this group. In the last 19 years, not many of us have kept in touch – perhaps due to the lack of infrastructure to facilitate this, or perhaps due to the hectic pace that life has taken. Let this be a new beginning and let us all strive to maintain this “new found” old connection. Please continue to try and locate as many more of our classmates as you can and bring them into the folds of this group. As you talk to each other tonight, I also encourage you to brainstorm ideas for giving something worthwhile back to the wonderful institution that molded our futures.

As a reminder, there is a Yahoo Group which has been the main tool of communication for friends from our batch. The email id for the group is grems@yahoogroups.com and the website is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/grems/

Last but not the least, I would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts that all of you have put in to make this event a reality. I hope the next time around there are more of us available to help and organize a grander reunion.

Thank you all for a memorable childhood!
Enjoy the evening, make new memories and I hope to see you soon again

Best Regards,

Bala

School Reunion

This is a special weekend - My old school classmates are meeting back in Baroda tomorrow for a reunion - 19 years after leaving high school in 1989. I have studied in the same school with these friends for 14 years, right from the Kindergarten years to graduating from the 12th grade - so even in literal terms, many are my "langotia yaars" I guess. For many years, only around 7 or 8 or us were in regular touch with each other and so to imagine that we are going to have an attendance of around 30-35 of our old classmates tomorrow is an amazing accomplishment.

Talking to old friends and just thinking about old school days have brought to the forefront so many memories - i have been reveling in nostalgia for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday as were watching "Tare Zameen Par" I recalled our art teacher - a Mr. Hajranis - who used to throw chalk pieces to hit us just like the art teacher (not Amir Khan - the one he replaced) !! I recalled my friend Rajesh telling me that he wanted to grow up an find a cure for Cancer (or was it Heart Attack?) as we walked to school one morning (BTW, Considering that he is the COO of Gujarat Life Sciences, I guess he has alteast not strayed too far away from where he wanted to go !! ) As I write this listening to a Hariharan ghazal, I cannot but recall that it was my friend Ganapathy (Gania) who introduced me to Hariharan's Ghazals, 20 years ago. I could go on and on since I am on a roll, but I am going to save it for another post ..

I will be in NJ this weekend physically but my mind will wander with my friends as they go to school tomorrow morning to attend the morning assembly...

Yes, time fies, but nostalgia prevails ....

GREMS Batch of 89 Reunion

GREMS Batch of 89 Reunion

All my old classmates from Gujarat Refinery English Medium School - Please mark your calender for the first reunion 

Saturday, Dec 29th,2007 @ 6.30pm 
Hotel Surya Palace, Baroda

School Visit @ 10.30am same day. Meet for regular saturday assembly

This is a picture perfect view of Valdivia, Chile



and it had some unusual residents along the river banks !!

 

If you need to see more Red Flags in one place ...

.... I guess a CITU rally in Kerala would be the best place !!

 

NJ comes out with flying colors this fall !!

New Jersey is having a color blast ! Never has fall colors been so brilliant in the Garden State in the last 10 years (that I have been here). Byways, Inroads, State Parks are all aflush with colors - In fact, just driving the Garden State Parkway to work has been a wonderful experience the last few days .....

Visited Countries Map

I had been to Chile earlier this month.. and that called for updating my countries visited map since this was my first visit to the country.

Just 10% of all the countries in the world - I have a long way to go !!!




create your own visited countries map

14 years ...

Of professional life ...time flies but the nostalgia prevails ...

An India State Of Mind

What better day to finally break my writers block and post again than the 60^th anniversary of our independence day !

 

Being away from the country for almost 10 years, I guess this would be a good time as any to wonder what being abroad has meant to the Indian in me.    Many millions of Indian have over the years decided that their “tryst with destiny” was on foreign shores.  Does being away from India and perhaps even acquiring a different nationality change the relationship with India? In my own case, I would say NO!! .  I am coming to the realization that India is something that gets engraved in your soul the moment you are born in the country or, in case of many children who are born in foreign countries to Indian parents, get intimate with it.  What defines it are not the geographical boundaries of the nation, but rather the all encompassing culture, traditions, lifestyles and arts that defies limits. It is a state of mind.   I believe you come in touch with the inner Indian in you every time you hear the name India mentioned on the world media – pride when the context is positive and of course, hurt when the context is negative. The intense sense of shame and betrayal that so many of us abroad felt when news flashed of Indians being involved in terrorist activities in UK is a very recent example. You reinforce your inherent nationality every time you have heard praises of India’s economic rise or every time you see the Indian flag abroad and swelled with pride.   No, it is not easy to lose the sense of being an Indian.  My friends and I have often argued if the sense of nationalism and patriotism for India is essentially a sense of attachment to our own parents and siblings who are in India and not in fact to the country itself?   I have always maintained my view is that while the frequent visits to India might be the attachment to our family,  the sense of pride in the country, the feeling of belonging and the reactions it invokes in your inner spirit when you are no longer in India are an expression of the Indian in you.  

 

I recall the closing lines from one of my all time favorite movies – A Few Good Men:    “You don’t need a patch on your arm to have honor”.  Yes, that is right; you don’t need an Indian passport or live in India to be a proud Indian

 

Jai Hind

The trees on the Laurence Harbor Beach front are still devoid of leaves...V captured this image yesterday as we went for an evening walk...
The cold has extended well into April this year and the trees are just starting to bud...a couple of weeks late I guess ...

Happy Vishu

Wish you all a very happy Vishu

Greetings from Rio

Just wanted to say a quick hello from Rio de Janeiro !!
Will be back next week to enjoy the New York winter :) - but for now I am beach burned

Welcome to this world !!

My nephew Aditya -   the most handsome boy in the world !!