Alumni Feedback
the Goldern Jubilee 2005
Let me jump the que (as I am too drunk to sleep) and dig it into those unfortunate ones who could not/did not make it to the Golden Jubilee Reunion that it may be one of the costly misses in your life, career, whatever you would like to name it!!
Starting from the Back to School programme in the morning, kicked off by SHri GBS’s prayer, stint in the class room, most of the past and present teachers around and to top it, Bombay Halwa House serving samosa with the magic chutney and gulab jamun……….It was like opening a Time Capsule!! We had people from 1963 to 2005 and what a feeling! Jayendra’s idea hit off with Umashankar Vishwanath unable to torpedo it while holding the mike!! Uma, as energetic as ever, tirelessly went about his job, not bothered whether anyone heard his announcements or comments – similar to his emails!
The 450 odd Alumni were in Cloud 9 and many were in tears, thus setting the trend for the Grand Reunion Dinner!! The Committee (a secret!) sensed that the evening with such a tumultuous participation form the Alumni will require a much higher head-count than what was envisaged. In true VM style, the warn-in was paltry and Sumitha was all at sea to arrive at a figure for the Dinner. Our great friend Ravi (Hey Moderator fame) had predicted 800 and was voted out as being too ambitious!! Believe me, Ravi was bang on target and thank god, the Committee was blessed with the overwhelming response from the members. Sumitha deserves all praise for ensuring an excellent spread (available at all time, during the evening) and ensured that no one open their mouth with their after-dinner comments!
I had the “embarrassing” task of operating a “BAR” in the midst of a whole lot of teachers, past and present. This was done without any announcement. God sent Ravi was there to reassure me and with the assistance from the staff of Madras Race Club and couple of well wishers, we could stealthily open the bar and above all, close it without any hitch!! (before expiry of the permitted hours, as per City Police Rules). My thanks to one and all for the excellent cooperation extended to our Team manning the BAR!! Ravi, Satish, Mahesh all worked towards enabling the Bar getting well stocked.
Venkat Shankar of Pepsi and an alumnus ensured that there were more soft drinks than liquor!! Many thanks to him and his team. It was nice to see him walk quietly towards one corner, totally unnoticed.
Further, kudos to C.V.Bhaskar and his team from Space Scope. Brilliant work done without much ado! His team ensured that the Dance floor was fully occupied till we closed show.
Vijay Nagaswami, much respected VMian – because his spoken english is much better than many of his contemporaries – made the likes of Larry king look like a novice!! More on this programme will be available on a CD that will be made available, shortly.
Ganseh Baliga and Fifth Estate made the Coffee Table Book possible and also, the office was practically the Secretariat for the Programme. Drs.Vijay Sriram and B.Chidambaram (both surgeons) along with Lakshmi Baliga who desists any credit being given to her, tirelessly went
about the production in Ganesh’s office and their effort has brought out one of the most elegant books for such an occasion.
Prem Sai, his brother (regret inability to recollect his name) and Sriram – all alumnus dished out 30-minute Rock concert.
Mr.Palani Babu, not an alumnus of VM, Manager of MRC is an amazing guy who was most explicit about how we should go about the nitty gritty details of both catering and bar. Ever smiling and obliging he had back up for some of the possible problems that we did not foresee in the Bar. May the tribe grow!
The point I am trying to make is that the Show was exhilarating and was put together by a whole lot of people whose name may not figure here and who are Who’s Who in their respective professions. Everyone did with a lot of passion and love for their Alma Matter. I am sure this will add inspiration to many of our brethren!!
Rajiv (1973)
Words can’t describe the evening of fun and “nostalgia” we had. The DVD VCD can never do justice to what we experienced. The whole thing was a team effort. The credit goes to all who made it memorable. It was like sex. Describing it or watching it on DVD will not do any justice. It had to be experienced!
Chidu (1973)
wat a fantastic day it was… dec 25 will henceforth be known more for the vm alumni bash than xmas itself….
the morning back to school session took the cake… it started off with prayer, gbs and his characteristic style…. i was surprised that i cud actually remember the prayer songs… there was an air of familiarity all around….
the best of it all…. ag miss at the end of the prayer, throws up a cycle key – ‘lost property’ it was…hahaha…
we were all then asked to head straight to class… the batch of 92-95, were assigned one class… prema ragunath walked in and like obedient students (we always were) we all stood up.. good morning miss…
kanaka (physics) miss came and was generous enough to give a free period…
i was pleasantly surprised when padma miss (my kg teacher) actually recognised me… almost every teacher recognised every student… thats sumthin unbelievable…
the bombay halwa samosa was the biggest hit, u guys must have seen the crowds in front of the counter… the samosa was something out of the world, the chutney even better…
if the morning session took us down memory lane, the evening clearly showed the strength of the alumni… so many successful people, from neurosurgeons to architects to cricketers to teachers to photographers to theatre personalities, the list is endless.. donations to the school poured in from all quarters… the medical insurance scheme was launched…the coffee table book…and many more…
there was an auction held, the proceeds of which will go to our very own chapathi (anjaneylu’s family)… the paintings were lapped up and close to a lac of rupees was collected…
there was also an announcement that every year on the 25th of dec, the alumni bash will be held in the city of madras… so those of you who have missed the one yday…. the countdown has begun..364 days to go…
Vinod (1995)
Words can’t explain about the feel of how lucky I was to participate in yesterday’s programme (both sessions) and to witness the excellent teamwork by the entire group who had put in their best to conduct the programme in such a ROYAL manner.
Dear “Alumni Team” ( i don’t know many by name) it has been extremely grateful on your part to have performed this function in this “CLASS”.
Lots of regards to THE TEAM which dedicated themselves to plan and execute.
Lots of respects,
Srijaganathan VM 84 (lucky guy)
Hats off to that bunch of our Alumni who worked tirelessly to organise yesterday’s function….it was fantastic!!!. It smacked of VM flavour right through. I for one met a dear friend of mine after 1968….37 years…and took off from where we left. The friendships that cut through batches….lovely.
Auctioning Anjaneyulu sirs painting was a stroke of genius…it touched a chord in me which was the reason that I bid and bought one of the paintings…to get it off my chest, here it is:
When in school we had gone an excursion to the Sathanur Dam. En route we stopped at the Ginjee (Chenji now?) fort. After the climb up and down, when we were sitting in the school bus waiting to start, we were surrounded by a huge group of “Nari kuravas” trying to sell their wares. I was sitting next to Anjaneulu sir who was busy sketching the scene at a furious pace using his black ink pen. I looked fascinated as the hills, the fort and the nari kurava gang sprang to life in his sketch book. Impulsively I asked him for those sketches….he had done them in a matter of minutes and so I thought that he would give it away just like that!! He looked at me and said in his Telugu-tamil..”willula unakku ezuthi vaikaren, appo eduthuko (I shall will it for you)” and smiled at me. I am sure he told me what he did, in jest…I wanted one of his paintings, yesterday.
Have a great holiday season and a wonderful New Year!
A.Subbu (1968)
Was one of the lucky guys to dash to chennai y’day, our batch was well represented
I had to take an early morning flight 5.40am back to Bby today, as I had to make it back to office for some urgent work.
But here I am in Nariman Point, trying hard to Work , BUT I JUST CAN’ T ,
The trip to chennai is still in my mind and I wonder what why we cant be students and go back to school forever
it was such an amazing Re Wind of great memories, lovable teachers, warm teachers and cold beer !!!
am still Nostalgic and will take me very many days to get over this Hang Over.
Thanks to all the GUYS who organized it and to the hundreds of VMites who came in from all over the world
and made the occasion special.
Warm Regards and a Very Very Happy New Year to all of you
Mahesh Bala ( Bima) - 1986
Last night was probably one of the best nights in any
of our lives! Our thanks to all those people who
helped in making the show a grand success.
Thank you again and looking forward to many more such
re-unions:)
Charumathi Raghuraman ( 2003 - 2004)
Dear All
It was a memorable evening y’day. Still nostalgic about the days spent in the school, that haven’t gone to the office today and sitting at home thinking about the school days and y’day evening reunion.
My special thanks to all the organisers for the wonderful evening which would always remain special in me and hope to have many more reunions in the future to keep the spirit of vidya mandir going.
Mahesh Vetcha (1990)
It is a great feeling for the organisers to know that everyone had a great time. The success was because it didn’t matter if one belonged to the batch of 63 or 2005.It was one big group of people who spoke one language and that was vidya mandir and it was heartening to see that everyone went out of mrc feeling they want more. The success was because of the confidence of all vmites on the organisers. Definitely there will be more. see you again next year .
I have to share my most touching moment after the event when i got a call today from the mother of one of our alumnus who is in the usa to say that her son heard about all that happened and he wants to donate 100 dollars from his first salary which he received just last month. Thats what vm is all about. The donor is sharan ram of the batch of 2000
Lakshmi Baliga
25th Dec 9 AM – i get a call from my friend ,waking me up and asking me to get to school fast…
man… i am soooooo glad i did that i was so elated to meet all my teachers and i felt great.back to school was fun with “yakundhendu” and “dheerakishora” wow…brought back my school days..
then the wonderful class session we had…ooof simply superb and trust me guys the amount of marketing i did to bring in my friends from morning to evening was a lot and i did manage to succeed..
MRC was even better…as in..my mother(Srekala), uncle (Srikkanth) and myself in an awesome VM party together ..i have never dreamt of such things.
kudos to the following ppl-nedu/lakshmi baliga/arun sarathy/and a whole lot of ppl.really it was a memorable event and i am proud to be a part of this school. Awesome .is the only word i can describe the event.
even today my mother and I were discussing abt this at home and we felt good about it
a million cheers to VM hip…hipp. hoorrrrrayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Till then
Abhishek (1999)
I was happy to have been part of the Alumni celebrations yesterday morning at school and the
evening program at Madras Race Club. It was a grand success thanks to the enthusiastic turnout. The organisers, spread across many batches, deserve utmost credit for the magnificent job they have done in making this event a memorable one for all. I met some of my classmates after almost 20 years – it was such a nice experience.
I am not sure whether any other school Alumni could have matched it in terms of the thought process, the meticulous planning etc. Any one can say ‘things could have been done the other way’, so on and so forth. For a guy who did not do any thing in terms of organising other than attending this event, I can only sum up my views as “Three Cheers to the Organisers”.
One point I would like to add here is that I was absolutely amazed at the untiring efforts of some of the seniors (not to speak of my batch mates, who were also toiling away)and the enthusiasm some of them showed through the whole day. Though some of them were elder to me by well over a decade, I wish, if I had half their enthusiasm, I would be a much better individual and setting a right example for others to emulate.
I am sure the annual get-togethers would generate the
same kind of enthusiasm in the years to come.
Bye for now, Vasu
Vasudevan S – 1986
The entire event and the tireless efforts put in by the
alumni who made this possible is essentially a tribute to the greatness
of our alma mater and the education that it imparts.
Gr8 effort Nedu & team…
Murali (1975)
It was a wonderful evening. It’s really heartwarming to meet friends after seven to eight odd years,
I can imagine how the older (?!!?) alumni must have felt.
Thank you organizers, for a memorable evening and a whole lot of new numbers on my cellphone :))
P.S.: I’d also like to convey my compliments to the Master of Ceremonies for a fantastic job done.
Shrinath (2000)
A bit of Nostalgia, a dose of old friends (some whom you havent met for over 25 years), a bout of intelligence (courtesy the serious speakers) and finally a large portion of goodwill and Camaraderi (wrong spelling Im sure).
And Lo Behold, A very good time was had by all. The gentlemen (and ladies) had taken grandly to wine (as the Bard put it) and that is as good a conclusion as one can get for an evening. Music and Dancing did make a heady combo.
Well done Committee (of which I am apparently still a member,though I had nothing to do with the success of the event!! .
God bless us all and a Happy New Year.
Hobber (1977)
This message is just to acknowledge the great job done by the organizers of the events on Dec.25.I could in all sincerity say that this was the BEST HOMECOMING event attended by me. The effort that has been put in by one and all associated in organizing this event must have been colossal, and I for one am proud of the excellent results. I am indeed grateful for the opportunity provided to all of us to meet our teachers, friends as well as making new friends with our juniors. I was indeed moved by the fact that some alumni came up to me and introduced themselves to me as being my juniors. They relived old times and in some cases expressed their joy at meeting me. It was a trip down memory lane and as one of the alumni has mentioned, It is hard to come to the present as the past memories keep flooding back.
I do look forward to the next annual event.
Once again all members and workers of the Association —-TAKE A BOW.