THIRUVANANATHAPURAM: The bell did not ring, still, all the students occupied their seats at the right time. Teachers also lined up before them. But this time, there was no place for books or lessons, as the students who assembled in the class were more or less septuagenarians.They were, for the first time, meeting again after bidding farewell to their college in 1961 from the same room number 33. The rare reunion after half a century at MG College had turned out to be an absolute walk down the memory lane for both teachers and students of a sepia tinted era.Out of the 24 students of the 1958-61 Physics degree batch, 14 were present for the meet here on Sunday. Sadly, from the fold, three had bid farewell from this world.For all these years, many have been busy with their life and activities. Justice M R Hariharan Nair who organised the get- together said: “The idea to organise such a meet came after I visited one of my friends’ house after his death. His wife explained to me how happy he was in his last days after attending an alumni meet at his college. This inspired me to organise one such event at my own college.” According to N Sasidharan, one of the former students and a retired station engineer from Doordarshan, “it was of course a Herculean task to find out our former classmates. The only aid I had with me was the old autograph book that contained the names and addresses of all.”He explained how difficult it was to find one of his classmates as the only description available in the autograph book was the name of her house and place. Finally, it worked after sending one of his friends to identify the place and person. Apart from the teachers and students, there were a good number of spouses, children, in-laws and grandchildren who graced the occasion. Said Indu Binod, daughter-in- law of Justice M R Hariharan Nair: “Actually, I am so delighted to see the reunion of these friends whose friendship, I suppose, was more sincere than that of students these days.” Whereas Vineeth B, son of Balakrishnan Nair, was of the opinion that, “in an age when they had no aid of social networking sites, this get-together needs a seat of paramount importance.”Their teachers were also honoured on the occasion. Prof R S Panicker and Prof Neelakanta Iyer, teachers in Physics, Prof Prabhakaran Nair and Prof Ross Chandran, teachers in English, Prof Pankajakshan Nair, of Economics, Prof Chandrasekharan teacher of Hindi, Prof Gopinathan Nair and Parameswaran Nair, teachers in Mathematics, were draped with a ‘ponnada’ by the college principal G Jayakumar. “If I get to be born again, I would like to be a teacher here,” said Prof Gopinathan Nair while addressing his students. Though it was a holiday, some students of the college gathered to see their great predecessors. When asked whether they too would arrange a reunion in this manner, Mukesh R of third year Zoology said, “definitely, we’ll do, only if we cross that great age bar!”
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