23rd December 2004
Plane
loads of rbatchers and their family members descended from various parts of the
globe. Chumber had sent a bus to the airport with Bhalu to receive us. Many
others reached by train and road. Arti had driven down from Bangalore !
After reaching the officers mess, we all checked into the rooms ( they were suite rooms as opposed to the hostel rooms that people like ghati were expecting ). Prabir was tense all through his flight after being told that he was supposed to have brought his own bedding, blankets and towels.
We then
proceeded to the open air dinner reception that had been organized. That’s when
the flow of alcohol
started which continued for the next 4 nights.
The most unrecognizable 3 were:
Baldev Singh, Sanjoy Deb, Tarun Kaul
The most unchanged 3 were:
Subroto Dutta, Sheila Samanta-Mathai, Navdeep Sethi (Most people thought, papa looked younger than his college days and suggested his name be changed to baba)
The formal hi hello conversation got more and more colorful once Nunu had a couple of pegs and by midnight everyone was back in time by 20 years.
All the nasha vanished when RMG announced, that all have to reach the parade ground in formal clothing by 8 am next day. The mild protest turned into ‘chumber ko maro’ when the latter announced that only then would we get breakfast at Naidu café after the wreath laying.
24th December 2004
The
bed tea chai walla woke us up at 6.30 am with his luke warm tea, and we all had
to walk half a km to reach the parade ground huffing and puffing.
It was a solemn occasion with dg, rmg, Sheila and baldi laying the wreath with the fauji background music. Tributes were paid to Srinivasan, Bains, Pemdup and Das.
We then moved to Naidu’s canteen for the open air buffet. The hot idlis were disappearing the moment they were arriving. It reminded us of the hostel mess and where toasts use to disappear on arrival.
We
then moved on to the Bhardwaj audi where felicitations took place. Most of us
were in for a pleasant surprise as we did not know that this was for our ex
teachers. It started with Zargar who in his deep throated address swung a sher
that ended in khamoshi. Ms Koppekar was as gorgeous as ever and Ranjana
announced that her tutorial had 100% attendance by the boys. Someone shouted ‘
Eh Kothare’ from the background. Rock was there and looked as solid as ever. It
was a great occasion especially for those of us who were not expecting it. We
then had tea with our ex-faculty.
This
was followed by a CME program. The audience was kind enough to let us get away
with whatever we uttered and spared us the tomatoes and eggs that had been
promised by Reena. Every minute, one person left the auditorium so that at the
end there were about 15 of us left ( these were the people who decided to catch
up with their sleep).
After
having plenty of Beer for lunch some of us decided to go for Golf at RSI so that
we can be ready for the dinner.
Every one dispersed and met again in the evening to be loaded into buses near dean office.
Tarun Kaul and I
were in Dheer’s car following the buses to the exquisite Corinthian Club on top
of hill in Pune. We noticed fire under one of the buses. The driver ignored us
when we pointed it out to him. Finally 
dheer
overtook the bus and stopped in front of the bus. The driver pulled up and got
out. The bus started to roll towards dheers car as the driver had not put the
hand brake on. So dheer ran to get his car out of the way, while trunky started
throwing mud on the engine and I started photographing the event. ( should get a
barkha dutt award ). Meanwhile by now people in the bus realized that it was a
bit too warm for a December 24th night, so they got out of the bus.
By now the driver too realized that people were not getting out to sing
Christmas carols. People started walking towards the club
while we went ahead and sent the other bus back.
The brief (mis)adventure did not change the festive mood. The party started with rmg celebrating his 18th anniversary by cutting a cake and then dancing with his wife non stop for the next four hours! The energy levels shown at party were simply unbelievable. The food was great, music unmatchable and weather ( and atmosphere ) perfect. No one wanted to return till the management literally threw us out. They also covered the swimming pool on hearing subroto dutta’s plan to have a dip.
25th December 2004
Merry
Christmas at Naidu’s canteen was followed by a Cricket match between r batchers
and Q2 batch. R batch batting first scored 149 for 8 in 25 overs. Beer was
flowing freely otherwise it would have been 149 for no loss. At the break, q2
had scored only 50 for 6 after 12 overs. As it appeared unlikely that they would
score 100 runs in the remaining, they were ‘volunteered’ to give us a walk over.
Dheer and Bhalu were the joint men of the match.
After lunch, we
all got together in front of the college building for the group 
photographs.
There was utter caos to the delight of everyone getting people in line for the
photos. The professional photographers by the end were tearing their hair and
wondering it was worth the money they were getting. They also prayed for the
safety of the armed forces personnel who would be getting treated by
these crazy doctors.
Unlimited momento’s photos, gifts followed. All were surprised and moved by the efforts of the pune-r-batchers in getting all this organized.
Then
there was the slide show compiled by HP singh and Nirad Mehta and anchored by
the latter with farooq siraj. It was a sliding success.
People dispersed to various parts of pune, mostly to main street and returned in the evening to the insti for the Alumni dinner. The basket ball court was converted to a food and alcohol court. Most people topped up their serum alcohol levels and dancing continued from where it had been discontinued early morning. There were afmcites from other batches too ( most notable of all was Madhuri Khote ).
26th December 2004
After
breakfast at Naidu’s, the Pune R batchers were felicitated for their remarkable
efforts and organizational skills.
We then got loaded yet again into the buses and moved on to Manas resorts for a great picnic with a lots sunshine and alcohol.
Swimming pool dives, table tennis, lawn tennis and lazing followed.
After all were drunk, farooq siraj was given a beer massage. Singing and dancing followed till some of us had to sadly depart as the delhi-ites had a flight to catch.
It was a highly emotional moment for all.
The
evening had an abbreviated crowd for dinner. All were inebriated though like any
other day/ night. A slide show was presented by me and co-anchored by Jindal.
There were about 600 odd photos that left everyone in splits by the end.
Chumber and Reena got bumps in the mess and we all departed.
Every one pledged to meet again in 2008 for the 25 years of passing out re-union.
Amen
AP
repo‘R’ter IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE REUNION, CLICK HERE