KOCHI: The excitement was palpable. Our class 10 B, 1982 batch of St.Teresa's Convent Girls School, Kochi, were meeting after a gap of 34 long years! 25 ex-students and five teachers graced this memorable event. All our teachers, who attended the reunion, had graciously grown old, with no pretensions whatsoever. Among our teachers was the lone nun, Sr. Antonio, who taught us Hindi.
We sat in our old classroom, reminiscing about the good old and joyous days spent in school. Our class teacher, Mrs. Francisca, still retained her smiling demeanour.
However, in her speech, she became emotional and had most of us grabbing a tissue or two. As usual, she had words of wisdom for us to pass on to the next generation. Many of our teachers could remember most of us. How could we blame them for not recognising us? We ourselves found it difficult, to remember the names of our classmates after such a long gap. Many of our friends had changed in their physical outlook.
But we were all fifteen-year-olds in our hearts and behaved likewise on July 16, our special day. Many of us had expanded sideways and looked well fed! However some didn't look a day over 30!
We had friends who had turned grandmas and mothers- in-law.
We had extraordinary dance, singing, instrumental and recitation by our talented batchmates. Exchanging pleasantries, we were in a hurry to catch up with all the events and happenings, that had taken place in each others lives. To top it all, our teachers had brought cake and flowers for each one of us.
We had a colour theme of blue and cream which were colours of our school uniform. To sum it all we had a wonderful time bonding with each other, recollecting sweet memories of our school years. Extremely glad that 25 of us from different parts of the globe could meet up along with some of our beloved teachers for a meticulously planned event .One decision was unanimous, that we should make it an annual affair and meet more often!