4-month reminiscence on Jan-05, 2007 reunion

Twenty-four of the 36 guys belonging to the Royal College English Medium 61-Group meet in the evening of Friday, January-05, 2007, at Firoze Nathani’s home ironically located at Royal Gardens in Rajagiriya. It is decidedly the climax of what began on Jan-11, 2006, when thirty-one guys were networked via email, prompting a continual communication thereon re-starting with a bang!

Overseas Guys
Four champions come from overseas – Rifky Mackeen from New Jersey, Rafil Hamid from Karachi, Dr Shaheed Jawahar and A. Balachandran from Chennai. The remaining nine guys overseas remained: Don Michael Lloyd Walpola and David Loos from LA in the U.S; Lee Samad, gallivanting in Australia but sadly missing out on a stopover in SL, and Bev Paul in Toronto, Canada; the three musketeers Down Under: Roger, Peiter and Lye. Imtiaz Sariffo’deen in Riyadh, KSA, still striving to send us his new email address! Last not least there is a unique guy in that crowd: Eric Manny in distant Vancouver, east of snowbound Alaska, who is really in spirit with the 24, when he has the inclination and heart to make that memorable telephone call to Firoze-N’s mobile and talk to every one of the two dozen guys, the mobile being passed around from hand to hand! That was a great gesture of friendship, dear Eric, notwithstanding the cost you had to bear vis-à-vis connecting with guys with whom you grew up. Eric is really with us making up 25 present.

Local Guys
Of the locally based 23-guys, three keep away for reasons known to themselves: Jaldeen absconds; Abdul simply doesn’t attend, gives no excuse; Munam was reported by his family as sick. He made a postdated comment in red ink on the attendance sheet. Anyway, all is forgiven and we still love them all. If they had come, it would have been 27 out of 36 or 75% attendance, but we enjoy 2/3rds or 67% which is marvelous.

40-Year Hiatus
Some of the guys are meeting here face to face after a gap of forty-years! Chaman Amarasekara, Habeebullah-Moulana, Vernon Kern, Hamish Woutersz, I.M. Zafideen, etc. are rare entities who turn up and are to meet and greet. Of the 36-guys, thirty one have been in email contact for almost a year since Jan-11, 2006: so much of shared and common reminiscences, ideas, events and experiences have already been exchanged during twelve months, and the grand finale is this reunion on Jan-05. Although plans are suggested for a 2011 redux, the chances are - to be a little pessimistic – a little remote in view of the factors of age, ever-changing psyches, physical ability to move, longevity, illnesses and operations, distance pertaining to especially guys overseas, locally-based guys who have excuses not to attend, etc. Anyway, let’s hope for the best.

Interaction & Discourse
Guys attending sign on a register, making their respective comments, mostly depicting their immediate feelings of the divine moment. This vital document is posted somewhere down this site. The original, laminated one will be in the possession of our generous host, Firoze Nathani. The interaction amongst the twenty four is not only heart-warming but reminiscent of a lost era which begins way back in Jan-1955 and for some in Jan-1961 and ending sometime in 1967/68. The varied drinks, dinner and dessert are grand and sumptuous. My wife arranges for and sends a cake carried by Jawahar to be cut in advance of my 57^th b’day come Monday. It is absolutely hilarious to hear the guys singing “happy birthday to you,” while I blow the candles, followed by the rendition of the college song ending with the opening strains of the national anthem.

Memorable Reunion
Several photographs are removed by a couple of the guys who have come armed with their digital cameras. Most of the shots are now posted in this site for posterity. It is a superb six hour shindig which takes off at seven o’clock and comes to a pleasant close well past one. The spacious, grassed patio affords the guys to mingle, sit and chat about anything and everything. It is as if we are all suddenly catapulted into minus time and are back in our classroom! A really memorable event which will be relived with ecstasy time and again. A beautiful evening.

Thanx
Last but not least, special thanx go to our generous hosts, Firoze and Shahnaz Nathani, for having entertained us all in their grand, spacious, well-architectured home.

Luv n tc
Sam