A Rendezvous to Remember

Time - 3 PM
Venue: NSS School

It was the get together of the school mates....after a long long time...for the first time...after the school days...

The school witnessed a handful of happy wonderful moments...the fabric of moments strung together in our school premises with the delicate thread of time spanning 200 mins with just 4 people! It was the the NSS School 95'Batch re union with a much meagre count...

Myself though always arrive late for the assembly and jump in on the last moment just to say "Assembly Dispersed" took a conscious effort to be a responsible school leader atleast now to chip in early on the school premises after almost 11 years of gap !

The Gates were closed - the main gate, the small side gate as well as the NSS Working Women's Hostel gate on account of Onam Hols....
Njhaan parungunnathu kandu oru 50+ aged man samshayam thonniyittu ennodu chodcichu "hmm enthaa vendae...enthaa kaaryam"

I said that I was a student of the NSS school and passed out in 1995 and we have planned for a re union and get together of the old batch at 3 PM here. He was delighted and asked how many is expected.
I retorted: Around 20 + minimum...
Little did I know that it would be just 4 to sum it up !!!

He told his name as thankappan - the peon and said has been here for the past 10 years and mohanan and bhaskaran (paakkaran as we used to call) are still working there and told about Vincent Sir, Happy Miss and few others.
I was delighted to see his courtesy in offering me the meen(fish) curry he had packed for his lunch though I said "No, Thanks!"
He opened for me the side gate and I found myself the comfortable cozy place - none other than our "paalappoo thara" located just after the main gate on the right side. Awaiting others, it was nostalgia raining for the next few moments with absolute silence as the backdrop creating an aura of ecstasy - a moment of tranquility personified !

Afterall it is still a Bachelor's blood flowing thru - so looked around and caught first in sight the working Women's hostel adjacent to the school compound separated by a wall. The school boy in me still consider that as a taboo - well I convinced myself that being an eligible bachelor, now I have every right and the privilege to google there! A horizontal scanning followed by a vertical scanning across the floors resulted in zero results....- hopes died down as all the windows were closed - it is expected as its Onam time!

Looked behind....The INDIA MAP is still on the wall - is still looking FRESH.....quoting of the different cities/places of INDIA there refreshed my geography knowledge and position of many places still seemed an INFO to me.....

I felt the rains haven't faded the MAP wall paints or rather the COLOUR of INDIA...
Neither our spirits have got dampened over these years or rather the SPIRIT of NSS BATCH....Else the get together idea would not have even kicked off....

Looked around to see the PIPE area, the taps were seen slightly rusted here and there.
My memories went back to the school days and the manner in which I got elected as the school leader.Me and my friend Kishore after lunch always go together to the PIPE section to wash hands. With lunch box in left hand, everytime when we cross the Principal's office room to reach the water taps, we both used to give a RIGHT-HAND 'HALF NAMASTE' (with the unwashed hand full of rice and curry items spread over) to greet him with graceful gesture slightly bowing the head. This made us to get in to his good books and inturn became the prime reason for choosing me and my friend as contestants for the school leader post during my 10th std stint.
Moreover we were supposedly belonging to the 'padippists aka toppers' fraternity.

Both of us were called to the Principal's room and asked : Can one of you become the school leader ?
As it was like a bolt out of the blue, we both were hesitant to say YES.
He left us with no option and called in the LKG Class teacher over the phone to bring one of her students to the Principal room. We were caught unawares and looked at each other puzzled. Principal tore off a page from one of his scribbling pads kept on his table. Tore it into 2 halves and wrote on one piece "Santhosh Balasubramanian" and other piece "Kishore.P.Radhakrishnan". Folded both and threw into his table. LKG student was told to pick up one of the folded pieces and thus I became the SCHOOL LEADER !!!

Back to present....By this time about 20 mins would have had elapsed...A thick moustache guy in Kinetic Honda arrived....
Oru Chandana Kuriyum undu....Kandaal Oru Sathweekan...Onnu shangichu.....It was Vijay Narayan of Class 10B... It is not a lonely planet anymore....I felt happy....

Pinnae we had lots of kochu varthamaanams.....about IT, software etc etc....Not seeing others turning up, Vijay one of the prime organisers called up the other key group 'activists'. They had their own busy schedules and was sad that they could not make it for the event.

Rajesh joined us who took some time off from his Branch Head activities of Centurion bank. We continued our school visheshangal when a GYM BODY in Full Formals in his BULLET slowed down near NSS school gate - it was our Sarin Poulose. Hats off to him as he drove down all the way from Kunnamkulam for attending our get together! Called up all the possible numbers from our contact list to woo in the oldies and have some fun time - but in vain!

We four went inside the school premises and 2hrs we spent time inside discussing about our teachers, class mates, batch mates, memories associated with every nook and corner of the school - the ground where we used to play hand cricket, the principal room, the drinking water taps, the toilets, the cycle stand, the LKG UKG swing or the oonjhaal, padarnnu panthalicha maavu and many other stuffs.

It was a flash back - dived into the memories of school life - the innocent boys in trousers/pants and girls in skirts and all naughty stuffs done to teachers and fellow mates.
We sipped in the school tap water to get ourselves into the school days and feel rejuvenated but we felt chlorinated rather !!

Sarin repeatedly was talking about my "class leader role and varthamaanam perezhuthal" and sarin always in my 'TALKER'S LIST' and always getting "chutta adi" from teachers. I apologised saying as 'part of the process' though he didn't ask for it and all was fun and laughter. We noticed few new constructions - one more floor on the Prinicpal's Office building side and one special cemented construction resembling a "pashu thozhuthu" (cow shed) in Rajesh's words near the aaalthara for reasons unknown. The trio except me had all their 12 yrs memories attached to the school - from LKG to 10th standard. Sarin was calculating the fees he had given to NSS school right from his LKG and Vijay and Rajesh assisted him in calculation. The Vincent Sir's previously thatched roof tuition centre was no longer there behind the school and instead he has constructed a 3 storeyed building for it !

We did a pradakshinam around the school and checked the latrine and toilet cleanliness which was always neglected and seldom bothered when we were having our academics there. The dilapidated walls and broken benches were seen inside the classrooms thru the partly opened windows and snaps were taken at various places to capture the old memories and infact they were the moments of exuberation. Calls from many old batchmates during the time helped us to boost our morale and raise our spirits !

We planned to have some juice from the adjacent Mayor Stores but Sarin was afraid to have an encounter with Mayoraettan aka Robin as there were lots of UNACCOUNTED biscuits/juices/ponds powders taken from there years ago! Along with Jimmy,Joby and others NSS team has sneaked in and snatched a lot of items from Mayor stores - which can be attributed to childish recalcitrance or innocence or follies or whatever. My tongue has still the taste of those unaccounted cream biscuits my fellow friends procured from this shop. Since the "kutthippokkal cases after 20-30 years" being the toast of the season and headlines in papers, Sarin didn't want to take chances with Mayorettan for his possible "PALISHA SAHITHAM KANAKKU VAANGAL"and so we set off to the Varkeys supermarket after taking a BYE BYE photo from NSS compound.

The peon Thankappan had finished his late lunch - rice & fish curry and also seemed had a good evening nap as well.....His eyes were searching for those 20+ NSS oldies supposed to arrive there..... Thanks to him, he had enough common sense and understood the grim reality and hence did not ask me infront of the other guys..... He posed for the Canon infront of the Women's hostel and his smile seemed contagious and we said alvidaa to him as well....

From Varkeys supermarket, we had apple shakes and some puffs items and we departed by 6:30 PM.

I sent a long mail to the recently formed NSS Group id detailing the get together.
I concluded like this....

"Folks, this was for those who could not make it for the event..... This re union was just a prelude....Next Time we must have a BIG crowd attending the get together and let us take a sanguine stand and we would make it in a much better way....But it was really a nice time to ruminate those good old school days with our fewer friends around and the vast NSS school compound to witness all these and share with us the happiness and be a part of those treasured moments !!! "

Sasneham

Sanbalas