Ludhiana, August 22
History repeated itself last night exactly 26 years and 6 months later when about 40 well-known names from the region turned up to pose for a group photograph that would become one of their most cherished possessions. All of them had one thing in common-they comprised the class of 1978 along with their teachers at Sacred heart Convent School here.
It took nearly five years of hard work to make this reunion a reality. Aimed at re-establishing contact with people who were instrumental in shaping lives of the class of '78 in some way while growing up. The event was rightly summed up as a long cherished collective dream transforming into reality. To re-live, the past school pictures were beamed on a screen. And those present were made to stand besides them for all to see how they had changed over the years.
The alumni cover every profession. The Civil Servants from this class include Maninder Gill (Maharashtra cadre, currently with World Bank), Vandita Sharma (Secretary, Education, Karnataka), Seema Dhir (Indian Railway Service). Defence officers include Commanding Officers Col Rajbans P. Kahlon and Col Rajesh Bains, besides IAF Best Pilot Award winner Wing Commander Anil Massey. Twelve students have become doctors with as many as six pursuing MBBS at the CMC. Sanjay Talwar and Kanwalpreet Bawa have become taxation consultants. Gurpreet Brar and Satvinder Bhuttani are serving their alma mater as teachers and Mukti Grewal and Swapna Malik teach in colleges here and at
Noida.
The success of the reunion goes primarily to Mr Navneet Sehgal, a Chartered Accountant, Dr Dinesh Trehan (surgeon), Dr Navjot Chugh (optholmologist) and Mr Rakesh Chopra (entrepreneur).
The most touching part of the evening was the students paying floral tributes to their teachers that included Mr B. S. Grewal (geography), Mr O. S. Nagi (physical education) Mrs Meena Kapoor (biology), Mrs Sarla Nahan (Hindi) and Mr Chander Mohan (chemistry). A silver medallion with "Class of '78" engraved on it was also released. The event can easily be described as a fantastic night that exuded happiness and enjoyment, turning back the clock many years. The only people were behaved grown-ups in comparison to the "regressed students" who were their spouses and children. Several anecdotes took time back by over two decades. This included a narration about how Sunil Nayyar once interpreted an "F" for "Fail" in the final results as "First" and extorted Rs 200 from his father for a party, only to be discovered later and face a punishment that called for shaving of his head.
Mr Nayyar too recalled how he lost the School Pupil Leader Election to Gurpreet Brar, and how he had fumbled to say "Hi flocks" instead of "Hi folks" wherein after he was nicknamed "Goldie flocks" because of the golden hair he had at that time.
On the occasion, e-mail messages of those who could not attend were read out. At least 29 students from this class are settled in the United States, Canada and the UK. Mr Narinder Sandhu, a Hewlett Packard consultant, and Wing Commander Massey called and nostalgically spoke to several friends on the phone. Dr Satwinder Grewal and his wife Lily, who could not attend the reunion due to Dr Grewal's health condition, were represented by their children. The two had fallen in love during school days and were married some years later.
Several faces from the class of '78 are top names in business today, including Kamal Oswal (Nahar Group) Dr Ravinder Verma, Mr Gagan Khanna (Khanna Textiles), Mr Sunil Nayar, Mr Madusudan, Rajan Beri, Ajay and Rajiv Sareen. Eleven of them had travelled for the reunion from Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, etc., where they are now settled.
On the occasion, the class missed Bhupinder Singh Danewalia, who is now no more. A lot of efforts were made to trace the half-a-dozen-odd students who still remain untraceable. Mr Nagi disclosed that the idea to have a reunion was mooted about five years ago, and it took three months of serious efforts to make the event a reality.
It was proposed to put up all the names and addresses of the class of '78 on sites like batchmates.com and alumni.net. The reunion concluded with the message, "Thank you to everyone who attended... thank you to everyone who helped... we must not let this be our last meeting.…"
