Old Friends, New Memories

 

It’s not every day that you get a chance to get so many old school friends together, and this was certainly one of those evenings to remember.

We decided to book a banquet hall at Hotel Pearl for an evening of drinks, dinner, music and, of course, plenty of catching up. The boys did their thing, the ladies had their own conversations, and the kids made the most of having plenty of space and company to enjoy themselves.

There was music, there was dancing, and there was the inevitable banter that comes so naturally when a bunch of old school friends get together. Stories from our school days resurfaced, memories were revisited, and for a few hours it almost felt as if we were back in school again—only with families in tow!

What made the evening particularly special was seeing our families connect as well. After all these years, it wasn't just about old classmates meeting; it was about bringing together the people who are now such an important part of each other's lives.

A wonderful evening of friendship, laughter, nostalgia and new memories. Here's to the next gathering!

Schoolmates & Families at Tung Fong

 

Flavours of Friendship

After a long hiatus a bunch of us got together last evening and all thanks to Dharmesh. He had popped into town a week or ten days ago, headed up to Gangtok and on his return to the city called me day before yesterday and asked if I could get as many of our batch mates together. I immediately went about the task. Calling was going to be rather tedious, so a group text to all the boys was sent out. Monday evening’s plan got derailed as I guess the notice period was too short, and so Tuesday evening was confirmed by a couple of the guys.

On Tuesday morning Dharmesh called me and confirmed that instead of the usual Magnolias, Nizar had suggested a place called Flavours of India. Well that was no problem for me because it was just around a corner from my office and 7:00pm suited me just fine. So as I was getting into my car after work, Dharmesh called me and informed me that Nizar, Narendra and he were already there. Punctual fellow, I guess timing is everything if you’re a Stock Broker.

Anyway I arrived and suddenly realised that parking was going to be the most painful thing to find here, but as I pulled up in front of the restaurant, a Sardarji waved out to me and came up to the car and asked if I was going to Flavours of India and I gave him a confirmatory nod so he came around to my side and said that he would park the car. Yippy! Problem number one solved; now to find the guys.

As I walked in and looked around, an elderly gentleman standing in front facing me clicked his fingers nearly in my face surprising me and said, “Joseph’s?” As I nodded my head up and down involuntarily, he pointed to a table inside. I walked up and saw the three chaps sitting there. As I narrated the story to them, Dharmesh told me that since he had come in early he spent about 10 minutes with the old man and had told him about his life’s history and how he was meeting up with old school friends. Well that solved the mystery of how the old man knew my School’s name.

Anyway we got straight down to the business of catching up and the best way to do so is over chilled draught beer. So along came the first pitcher and then the next. As we got chatting, we were joined by Rahul, Neeraj, Rajat and Punit. More beer and snacks were ordered and the decibel level at our table also rose.

Dharmesh was meeting some of the guys for the first time after school and it was a nostalgic evening which got better as we remembered some of the funny incidents that had occurred in school. Gosh how we guys can meet up and talk about those same incidents every time we meet and still have so much fun. It’s like if we had to relive those times, we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Finally Manpreet and Pankaj joined in towards the end of the evening. By now the buzz had set in after what seemed like an entire keg of beer had been consumed at our table. It was a week night and a lot of us had to get back home to our wives and kids and so we called it a night.
I just loved our flavour of friendship, even though we guys met up rarely and some of us after years, but it never seemed like we had been separated. Our friendship is caught in some sort of time warp where we always get transported when we meet.

Anyway for any of you guys wanting to catch up of cheap booze (they serve Draught Beer and by the pitcher of 4-6 mugs too) and some fabulous munchies (ask for the cheese-onion-chilli-kulcha), visit Flavours of India.

FLAVOURS OF INDIA
6/3A, A.J.C.Bose Road,
Kolkata – 700017
Tel: +91 33 22901972, 22906574, 30284018
(Free Home Delivery Available)

A small SJC94 get together at Magnolias

Headed out to Park Street after office to meet the guys at Magnolias. Narendra was the one who had called me and told me about the get together, so when I went up the flight of stairs into Magnolias and scoped out the entire joint in search of a familiar face, there was none.

So standing by the stairs I gave him a buzz and he told me he'd find out if the guys had comes and so I took a seat at one of the tables. In several minutes the guy from the table infrotn of where I was previously standing turned around to me and called my name. Gosh it had been like 15 odd years since i had seen Shamik Chakraborty.

Anyway just then we were joined by Sumit followed by Arijit and shortly after by Debdeep. Party got moving, catching up on old times, talking about present situations in our lives et al. Then Nizar joined us and the party just got more boisterous.

Nizar had to leave in a hurry having prior dinner plans and so did I. I was meeting Vishal at SPE at 9:00pm and it was was just across the road.

Stepped in finally

After being in Kolkata for over 3 years now, and having crossed this shop on numerous occassions, I finally decided to step in and meet an old class mate of mine, David Chung.

I found him sitting near the entrance deeply engrossed in cutting some papers and when I greeted him he looked up at me, wondered for a while and then broke into a smile, which made his eyes look even smaller, and took my name. Ofcourse he did say something about me looking fatter and older, but I'll forgive him for that as age seems to have got the better of his eyesight. Just kidding.

We reminisced for a bit, caught up on each others lives since we had parted in 1994 and came up to speed. The blokes got two kids, 8 and 4 years old I think he said and wondered why I decided to get married in my old age, as he put it.

Anyway I was in a bit of a rush and took his number and parted ways, only to get a call that some of the old classmates are getting together at Magnolia's tonight. So I confirmed.

Only shortly after got a call from a buddy of mine from Delhi who was in town only for the day and wanted to meet up and so made a plan with him for later in the evening.

Gosh its been a day for catching up with old friends.

SJC94 get together at Tung Fong

Tung Fong Bar & Restaurant
25/B, Park Street,
Kolkata - 700016
Tel: +91-33-22174969, 22174989, 22176563, 22176564

SJC94 get together at Ani’s Place in Salt Lake

As the debacle of the Mumbai Terror Attacks unfolded, a bunch of us old school batch mates met up at Anirban’s place in Salt Lake. After going round and round for a bit, which is not unusual while trying to locate a house in Salt Lake, we arrived at the gates with the crossed Tennis Racquets on them. We took the flight of stairs up to the 3rd floor and were greeted by some recognisable and some not so recognisable faces.

Thanks to the previous GTG and Facebook and the likes, I managed to recognise a sizeable number of folks who I had gone to school with. Like the last GTG at Mags, this was also one of those times when I had to go back in time and recollect names and faces. The faces were easier, like Mr. Saha and our Maths classes together. Soumik and Nandan the two blokes who always contested previous year IIT Question papers on the black board every morning.

Once settled in and a couple of drinks down the party shifted to the terrace with Arijit on his guitar and Nizar assisting on the vocals. As we went into the night, it seemed like a motley crew that broke into song and dance. Yes we did have a couple of tipplers but for most of it, we were a decent gang having fun and reminiscing the good old days. Of noteworthy mention is Prabir who captivated a sizeable audience first with his tales of Piracy on high seas and thereafter his totally Bollywood style Filmy Tragic Love story. Abhi Kahani Baki hai Bhai!

Guys send me more Pictures and I’ll upload them on the Picasa album, and also the names of all who attended. I missed a lot of people while clicking; some left before I got there and some were on the floor below. So I’m waiting for all the pictures from you guys and all the names of the people who attended.

A word of Thanks to Ani & Julie for organising the GTG.

Party Spills over to Some Place Else

After Magnolia’s the few of us who were left headed across the road and indulged in some Rolls at Kathi Rolls. We were also witness to a fire being put out by Firemen of the West Bengal Fire Department.

After rolls Prabir, Pranab and myself headed to Some Place Else and I wanted to get them hooked up with another classmate of ours who plays there. When we got to Some Place Else and each of us got a pint of Kingfisher beer, I pointed out to the Shimmering Bald head on stage. The two of them couldn’t recognise him. I finally revealed his name and they went into shock. Samidh Mukherjee on bass and vocals for Hip Pocket was one of our batch mates. Of course a far cry from what he looked like in school. After the band had finished playing we met up with him and reminisced some more about the good old school days.

SJC94 get together at Magnolias

I was looking forward to this Get together for a long time. Finally the meeting was a blast. For most of the part before getting there, I was just wondering to myself, it would be most embarrassing if I couldn't recognise the boys. The last time I had seen them was in 1994. Fortunately I was banking on Debdeep being there since I had bumped into him several times when my office was next door to his and we'd end up meeting when we were out for a smoke, tea and “shingara”.

Rajarshi, too I was sure I'd recognise, as I inherited his work folders as he was part of the team that had initiated the Radio Project for ABP. Of course with that I also inherited a whole lot of other interesting stuff. Shows how "hard" he was working on the project. The rest were just faint memories.

But the moment I arrived at Magnolia’s and went up to the first floor, it was great to instantly recognise Nizar, who I had been speaking with on and off but never managed to meet. Dhurjati was also easy to recognise. The others took a bit of time, but then the faces started falling into place. Prabir was one of the familiar faces. Arijit who has turned out to grow to "three times" the boy he was in school and I mean literally, took the longest.

The best part about the entire evening was that though we guys and I mean most of us, were meeting after years, one thing that remained is the basic intrinsic people we were back then had not changed. Size, shapes and careers might be diverse, but we're all still the same people we were back in school.