Old Martinians
Labore et Constantia
TNN Sep 14, 2011, 
06.25am IST
06.25am IST
KOLKATA: From the predominance of bright red in all the brands that he owns to the way he leads his businesses, Vijay Mallya admits he owes everything to his alma mater — La Martiniere for Boys. Mallya passed out of this school in 1972 and was back on campus on Tuesday for the institution's 176th founder's day. He spent a long nostalgic while moving about the campus and looking into the nooks and crannies where he spent some of the best times of his life with his classmates.
Among the large number of old boys present to greet Mallya on the campus, were some buddies with whom he exchanged bear hugs. Some, like Anil Mukherjee, the COO of Tollygunge
Club, said that Mallya hasn't changed a bit. Mukherjee was captain of Hastings House before passing on the baton to Mallya. "I remember pulling his hair and often sending him back home for keeping long hair," Mukherjee recounts. The two chatted for a while and were soon joined by well known surgeon, Darius Ankelsaria, another close schoolmate.
"The flag of Hastings House is red and it is from here that I developed a passion for red, the colour that you see in all my brands," Mallya told the audience. Thanking his school for teaching him to communicate well, Mallya said, "The gift of communication has helped me reach where I am. Please remember that all those extra curricular activities that I had participated in here, built enough confidence in me to go out and face the world," he said.
Mallya was a regular at dramatics, elocution and debate and won many laurels during his school years. He reminded the boys that in LMB, extra curricular activities were just as important as studies and this is where the magic lay.
While humbly remembering all his teachers in school, Mallya mentioned the legendary teacher, John Mason, who taught for many years in LMB and became the vice-principal of the school before moving on as principal of St James'. Mason thereafter moved to the Middle East to head a group of schools affiliated to the Indian school leaving boards. It was indeed an emotionally charged moment for both Mallya and Mason, who was in the audience to be part of the founder's day programme.
A divine service was read out by Bishop Ashok Biswas and a silent toast was raised to the spirit of the founder of the school, Major General Claude Martin. Thereafter all those present feasted together.
Principal of the school, Sunirmal Chakravarthi said, "Mallya was among us not as chairman of the UB group but as an old boy and it was a touching experience for all of us. He was extremely respectful of all the teaching and non-teaching staff here, just as he was friendly with the past and present boys."
He adds, "In a cynic
al, sceptical world, a reunion is a journey into the days of innocence. It's a reaffirmation of the human spirit and makes you believe in all that is warm, true and genuine. You don't care how much money the other's making."
Monojit's in regular touch with 40 of his former Rishi Valley classmates now, mostly over email. He's not the only one. In the age of social networking, it's easy to bump into old friends in cyberspace. It's not uncommon to have former classmates go down memory lane in groups on Facebook as they lock dates for a reunion. The batch of 1988 from Bangalore's Sacred Heart's Girls' High School goes down memory lane, recalling eating 'stick-jaw' in the school canteen and eagles swooping down to make away with their lunches. Another remembers the little experiences that made school special, when a teacher handed her the exam paper, having given her five extra marks. After a moral tussle, she decided to tell her teacher, who gave her the grace marks for honesty!
Actor Amitabh Bachchan blogged about the whirlwind of emotions he experienced when he met up with former classmates at Sherwood in Nainital. He wrote, "This is a lifetime. A lifetime of incredible passage of time. Of incredible moments and events. Events that built you into what you are today." He adds, "We are back to addressing each other by our pet names - Tich and Baj and Zaf and Gingi - nothing's changed. We are grey-haired, spectacled, bald and wrinkled, generously paunched and heavier, our movements slow and laboured, we have our wives with us and some of us, our sons and sons-in-law and grandsons, but we are the Class of 1958 and we are back in school!"
Putting up videos of past reunions online or photographs in school T shirts, revisiting the age of innocence was never easier! Before her primary school reunion after 25 years, Thanga Mani Mudaliar worried about whether she had put on too much weight or was doing well enough professionally, but finally realised it didn't matter. "I realised that people put on airs at the workplace or when meeting new people but with friends who go back a long way, we remain ourselves."
Says designer Preeti Ghai, "I passed out in year 1994 and we had a reunion after 16 years. There, we were not designers or professionals, just kids back in school."
Adds Shirin Abbas, "The Loreto Convent batch of '84 organised its 25th year reunion two years ago. It was a blast with friends from India and all over the world coordinating their vacations to be a part of the bash."
An emotional Ganesh Ranganathan recalls celebrating Teachers' Day after 40 years in his alma mater, "The programme started with my taking the mike as the MC. And, when I started to speak, I noticed that it was 10 a.m, when the school would have normally started its working day with the bell. I said to the audience 'Friends, it's 10 a.m and, if you recall, the bell is struck at this hour. What would you have done at this moment...?' One voice from the back said, 'We would have wished 'Good morning'." That's when nearly 500 voices rose in crescendo to recreate the moment, to wish their former teachers. When it ended after several minutes, the entire audience burst into tears.
al, sceptical world, a reunion is a journey into the days of innocence. It's a reaffirmation of the human spirit and makes you believe in all that is warm, true and genuine. You don't care how much money the other's making." Monojit's in regular touch with 40 of his former Rishi Valley classmates now, mostly over email. He's not the only one. In the age of social networking, it's easy to bump into old friends in cyberspace. It's not uncommon to have former classmates go down memory lane in groups on Facebook as they lock dates for a reunion. The batch of 1988 from Bangalore's Sacred Heart's Girls' High School goes down memory lane, recalling eating 'stick-
Actor Amitabh Bachchan blogged about the whirlwind of emotions he experienced when he met up with former classmates at Sherwood in Nainital. He wrote, "This is a lifetime. A lifetime of incredible passage of time. Of incredible moments and events. Events that built you into what you are today." He adds, "We are back to addressing each other by our pet names -
Putting up videos of past reunions online or photographs in school T shirts, revisiting the age of innocence was never easier! Before her primary school reunion after 25 years, Thanga Mani Mudaliar worried about whether she had put on too much weight or was doing well enough professionally, but finally realised it didn't matter. "I realised that people put on airs at the workplace or when meeting new people but with friends who go back a long way, we remain ourselves."
Says designer Preeti Ghai, "I passed out in year 1994 and we had a reunion after 16 years. There, we were not designers or professionals, just kids back in school."
Adds Shirin Abbas, "The Loreto Convent batch of '84 organised its 25th year reunion two years ago. It was a blast with friends from India and all over the world coordinating their vacations to be a part of the bash."
An emotional Ganesh Ranganathan recalls celebrating Teachers' Day after 40 years in his alma mater, "The programme started with my taking the mike as the MC. And, when I started to speak, I noticed that it was 10 a.m, when the school would have normally started its working day with the bell. I said to the audience 'Friends, it's 10 a.m and, if you recall, the bell is struck at this hour. What would you have done at this moment...?' One voice from the back said, 'We would have wished 'Good morning'." That's when nearly 500 voices rose in crescendo to recreate the moment, to wish their former teachers. When it ended after several minutes, the entire audience burst into tears.
Back to school!
I dreamt about you day and night those days," media person Monojit Lahiri told his former classmate, who blushed. He was meeting her after a gap of 45 years at a school reunion in Lonavla. His wife, initially hesitant to accompany him, was embraced in the all-inclusive warmth.
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