Nostalgia in the New Year

It was certainly a night the 23 stalwarts from the Royal College English medium class of 1961 remembered. Meeting at the gorgeous house (nay mansion) of Fi Nathani in appropriately termed Royal Gardens in Rajagiriya on January 5, 2007 were classmates who had not met; some for 30/40 years.

Whilst the a bulk of the credit for collating names and contact details of the class goes to Firoze Sameer; the credit for initiating the event should go to Delano Uduman who was astute enough to focus on a meeting if at least “three could turn up”. The numbers committing attendance were many more. Sam also celebrated his 57th year at the crease of life on the Monday following and a cake (I believe brought by Jawahar) was cut in recognition more of the man behind getting the group together than for the years he was celebrating.

For those not at the party and even for some who were; there were some niceties which were not overtly evident (to use an oxymoron for emphasis) making me have a warm fuzzy feeling which was not Johnny Walker induced. For instance one could see a few of the stalwarts (names being suppressed to prevent any embarrassment) passing cash to cover some of the costs. It had to be for this unless they were paying for some other services of which we were unaware. The four of us from overseas were not included in this arrangement and were really treated as guests. So were many others who were present but who were not asked to contribute to the pot.

Another nicety was the transport arrangements made for all (which was coordinated by Fazal); including paying for getting to the party and more importantly getting back home. These costs were also discreetly shared by the inner group. This especially made sense for guys like Hamish to get a ride home. He was so inebriated that he was making romantic overtures to all and everyone at the end of the evening. (I believe that he successfully fertilized the large tree standing near the door firmly believing that this was Munam Refai who would have resembled one if he had come – more later) .This also appropriate for non drinkers like Habeebullah who had a long way to go after attending the function.

Well done the inner circle who arranged all of this. Nicely done.

Fi had also made sure that the drinks had been separated in two distinct areas – one for softies and the other for hard alcohol. I am sure this was much appreciated by the likes of Tariq, Habeebullah et al who are hard core non- drinkers who may otherwise have found it offensive to have served themselves from the same table. Nice touch. However, making a bed available for the night (next to the toilet) did not play out too well as Sam forgot to bring the birdie num num to the party much to the chagrin of Fazal, Moin and co.

Hats off to two of the four ( the others being Rafil and Rifky) from overseas for making the trip ESPECIALLY for the party. Dr Jawahar and Bala flew down just for this event all the way from Chennai (Madras for the geographically challenged) and I for one will not forget this. Contrariwise, that fat fcuk-er from Horton Place, Munam (Thakkali) Refai was suddenly felled with a life threatening disease (no – it was not related to his pimply face or constitution) and despite previously confirming his attendance did not even have the decency to call and apologize. His wife had to provide/make up the excuse. Bear in mind that he lives literally five minutes away. Abdul Moosa also could not attend and I am unsure of the status quo in this case to criticize the man – who probably has some issues which I am unaware.

Also making it to the event, albeit virtually was young (looking) Eric Gnanasihamany (now Manny for short) who called from Canada and spoke to each and every person. I still remember his email saying that cost was not an issue as this was a reunion he would have liked to have attended and making an overseas call was worth it both in terms of cost and time. Well done Eric.

Ifthikar and Omer (who the hell renamed him Omar) had to come a little late as they had a wedding to attend; but they still did. As a consequence Omer is missing from most of the pictures but I still managed to get him in one shot when the cake was being cut. Omer’s older son is getting married in a week from the party ( to a gorgeous air hostess) and we congratulate him on raising two fine young men whom I had the pleasure of meeting during my short trip.

The pictures recording all of this are posted in the Blog for posterity with more to follow from the lenses of Bala and Rafil. All are easily recognizable except perhaps for two notables – one is Tariq and the other is Bala. Boy. Have these guys changed. Tariq in particular. If he comes to the USA he will definitely be detained for body cavity search as his resemblance to U.B.L is uncanny. Bala still has those innocent eyes but his demeanor and physique are such that he is not someone you want to run into on a dark and stormy night. Most others have changed primarily in girth and hair color but can still be identified without any difficulty. Chaman really needs to tell us the secret of his youthful looks. ”Alvis Amarasekera” looks so delightfully young that Priscilla (Presley) will probably take him on anytime. Bottle the secret ingredient and sell it man. Use it on Munam first to see if it will work. If anything can change that fcuk-er; it will work on all (as you can guess – I am really annoyed as I was looking forward to meeting him).

Will leave it to the others to comment (and please do as what you have observed during the re-union should be recorded).

Just a reminder. While we will meet at all and anytime possible in the future; please keep 2011 free for our 50th reunion with date, time and place to be announced. Hopefully all will be alive and kicking in 4 years or so. For those requiring it; walking sticks, wheel chairs and wiagra ( Sri Lanka version spelt as such consisting of gotukola, ground elephant testicles and robin blue for color) will be provided.

My best to all for a happy, healthy and horny 2007.

Regards

Rifky