Down memory lane with … Class of ‘80, St. Josephs High School

Last weekend was different in many ways. It was the first long weekend of 2009; as Monday was a national holiday on account of 26 January, India's Republic Day celebrations. And although there was so much more time on hand, there was just so much to do, too. 

Saturday morning was spent at work as usual, followed by a quick lunch from my tiffin. Just as I was tucking in my last bite of dal-rice my hand-phone buzzed - It was a call from Ramona Dhawan, my childhood 'chaddi buddy'. I was excited to hear her rattle on about an all-girls reunion from the Class of 80 on, Sunday, 25th of January at the Radio Club, at Colaba. 

Coincidentally, Shama Mohnani had called me a few days ago too, saying, “Hi Priya, kaisi hai … this is Shama from school. I am in town with my hubby and son and do lets please catch up yaar – I am dying to meet with all of you”. Shama had got in touch with me a few months ago on Facebook and introduced herself and embarrassing for me I just could not place her despite her many animated ways of trying to remind me who she was. She looked beautiful but strangely unfamiliar. After her call I remember looking closer at the miniature sized school picture of her in my class III black and white photos. She said that Ramona, Lipika, Shama and I studied together in class III at St. Joseph’s High School, R. C. Church before I struck off with my parents on several naval transfers across the globe including Vizag, Russia, Chandigarh and Delhi and then finally back to Bombay in 1977 in the VIIIth grade once again in the same school from where we all passed out in 1980. It was that it dawned on me that she was known to me as Mala Guriya and she was registered on Facebook as Shama Mohnani (her after-marriage name). 

After Shama or Mala's connect on Facebook, I had received a call from Vinod Hamilton who had set up a yahoo group called Class of 80. He not only got me to join the group but also gave me a list of everyone’ telephone numbers and email ids. I was ecstatic to connect with my old school friends. It was great speaking with Ramona Dhawan, Sangeeta Lalwani, Geeta Kapoor, Rehana Karim, Vinod and above all Utkarsh Palnitkar, the first ever head boy at St. Josephs. In fact, shortly after speaking with Utkarsh he visited Mumbai on work (he did travel to Mumbai every week) so we did lunch at Copper Chimney, Worli. He was late and so I waited anxiously at a table facing the entrance of the restaurant. When the familiar face finally stepped into the restaurant, I noted from a distance that he had put on some weight, lost some his salt and pepper; but he still had the same toothy child-like smile and his intelligent way with words - he is now a partner at E&Y and is doing exceptionally well for himself, optimising his leadership skillset that had emerged in him as a schoolboy. It was a pleasure meeting with him and knowing that he is now married to Padma and has twin boys – they live in Hyderabad.

Ramona too had looked the same to me when I bumped into her at Links Pavilion four years ago, just as she did standing on the second row in the black and white class photo in which Ms. Rose our class teacher, looked prim and pretty. Along with her were several other familiar faces – Geven Hoogverf, Lipika Ghosh, Sangita Lalwani, Anisa Poonawala, Shamshad Mirza, Shola, Mala Guriya, Seema, Sharmila, Dennis and me and several others that I am sorry to say, my aging memory fails to recognise! All of us looking adorable in several stages of attempting a smile; our earnest looking minds not having an iota of what lay ahead in our lives.

My fondest memories of school were - sitting on the pews of the church listening to mass and hymns; going up to the figure of crucified Jesus who peered down at me through his sad eyes; singing along with choir during Christmas; playing in the fields and platforms of school without a care for the hot sun; eating samosas and jeera golis at the school tuck shop; eating perus with salt and chillies at the peru-wala cart; guzzling glasses of sugarcane juice at the bus stop; playing the 'Devils March' and 'Doe a deer' on the school piano each time I got the chance; attending a packed morning assembly and marching to class after that to some of the peppiest instrumental music; acting as Chimanrao and Gandhi in the plays; loudly singing 'Je suis dam me dam de dodo' orchestrated by our lovely French teacher Prabha; doing gymnastics stunts on the school's only gymnasium equipment - the parallel bars with Anisa and Rajani; Father Joaquim swishing around the corridors and the winding steps in his white robes with a smile on his face; our lovely teachers - Mrs. Murthy, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Ramachandran, Mrs. Thor, Mrs. Agnihotri; playing kitty kitty near the priest's block; the classmates that I have individual memories with - Nalini Bamba, Suchita Kumar, Diana Menezes, Ruth Saldanha, Anisa Poonawala, Rajani, Sangeeta TC and Mansukhani, Preeti Rangachari, Anil Nair, Arun Iyer, Alan D’monte, Gwen, Gewen, Draupadi, Garima; having secret crushes on the boys including Utkarsh, Alan, Francis and Rizwan among others; our seniors - Ranee Desai, Swarna Rajagopalan, Sharmine D’monte; and above all the school building itself – just looking at it brings a lump into my throat and my eyes get wet.On a recent trip to school with my sister Mala, mama and papa it was sad to see the condition of the school … and to think, that we have spent some of the best times of our lives within this half acre plot of land. Someday I hope I can give back to my school in some way … even it is in a small way! When Sunday morning arrived I had a knot in my stomach and I did not know what to expect from the lunch meeting that was but a few hours away. I quickly put brunch together for the family and then rushed to slip on my favourite white Kurti, beige corduroys and a pair of white heeled sandals. I got on my way with a skip in my walk and my digital camera in my bag. On the way, I stopped over at a florist to pick up 6 single roses for my girlies – Ramona had said to expect Mala, Reshma Shetty, Geeta Kapoor, Rehana, maybe Sangeeta Lalwani, at lunch. I reached a little late and went insane trying to find a parking spot. I first met Ramona or Cociii as I love to call her, with a little weight on her but looking as gorgeous and well kept as ever. Shama looked different from the school pictures but was a bundle of warmth and smiles - she was there with her hubby Harish and son Sahil (adorable 12 year-old). Reshma Shetty looked as prim as ever and both Rehana Karim and her looked as if they just got out of their school uniforms – so slim and simply lovely. Geeta Kapoor came after a while looking gorgeous with her salt & pepper tresses and was as mad and as beautiful as ever - she brought along her 2 lovely daughters. I felt so good meeting all of them. We laughed and screamed with joy and talked of our lives, school, our teachers, the economy while chomping loads of yummy Mughlai food and clicking loads of pictures. As I drove back after lunch my thoughts went back to the black and white class photo of std III and std X … so many years had gone by … to be precise 29 years … and each of our lives had changed in some very unfathomable ways … some for the better and many with a lot of sadness in them. Sigh ... this is not the place to share the details of the sadness, which I choose to keep within the folds of my heart with a silent prayer that their pain alleviates … some separated from their partners, some very unwell, one of our dearest dead and gone from the world _Anthony the ever smiling white toothed face either singing a song or kidding someone around_ I miss you Anthony and hope to meet you in our next lives again; some have lost their spouses and some are just very sad with the way life has treated them. And yet some of us are not only well but doing great with their respective families.None of us could ever have imagined the things that God had planned for each of us … and yet here we were meeting after close to three decades and all of us were down the same memory lane … I have and will always have very fond memories of each of my classmates and hope and pray that God fills their lives with all the happiness ever. It was great meeting my girlies and I hope to meet the boys and the rest of the girls, some day soon!?