Ravi Speaks:
“ My Schoolmates”.
- July 27, 2020,
- Updated on 23.02.2022.
Just yesterday in the morning hours I got a WhatsApp message from an unknown number mentioning-:
“Hi Ravi, I am Deepak from 77 batches of Jagriti Niketan. I have formed a WhatsApp group of schoolmates. I have sent you the invite for joining the group. In case it is not the contact number of Ravi. The message may please be ignored-Deepak.”
A real pleasant surprise for me since it was after exactly 43 years that I was reading this message from my schoolmate. I am reminded of very simple but realistic lines spoken by someone great: –
“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”
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| Recognize Who They Are?????? |
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| Sweet Remembrance Of The School Times. |
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| Different flavors of Ice-creams compared to a variety of School mates-all sweet. |
Exactly so much water has flown down the seaside over these more than four decades and so many happenings must have taken place with each one of us who happened to be together studying in the school and getting stronger year after year while going one class higher year after year and finally reaching 1977 where we parted for the different streams to be followed for our respective careers. That year was the year when we cleared the Matriculation. So yesterday-I joined my school-mate group and even gave him one-two numbers of my other schoolmates whom I knew and their numbers were with me. By evening the originally two people became five and we started chatting with each other. This moment gave a very fresh remembrance to me of that very loving schooldays-where we all were carefree and enjoying every bit of it-may be we were not that much worldly-wise and maturity might have come afterward. The child’s behavior at its peak and affinity towards each other too, very sincere and without any malice in the mind. That may be the reason why school-friendship even today is considered to be the best out of all the phases of one’s life.
am reminded of the primary school “Abhimanyu-House”-where we were studying till fifth-that every day we were waiting very impatiently for the halftime to come and we used to dash straight to the shop outside the school known as “Jagtey Di Hatti” wherefrom all the students used to take “Chhole Kulcha” for just 25 NP and enjoy the same as the lunch break treat.
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| Myself with Avinash Challu on the right and Sunil Wali on the left-1972. |
Even when we were shifted in class 6th at “Vivekananda-House” during the halftime we had a very good spot at the “Kachi Chhavni-Crossing”-where all of us would get “Samosas” for just 50 NP and enjoy that. Although these are very very small things, they gave a lot of happiness to us as a child and together we would enjoy the hell out of all such activities.
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| Depiction of Classmates |
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Old friends-Valuable Antiques. |
We had even made a school cricket team where we were around fifteen people who used to go to Parade Ground every evening and play there for at least a couple of hours. I remember Pawan, Bakshi, Rajinder Khajuria, Sunil-Wali, Rajiv Choudhary, Gopal Krishan, Atul Gupta, Ravinder Bhan, Rakesh Chouhan, Gurvinder Singh, Rakesh Gupta, Virinder Handoo and Sukesh Jain were the most regular of the players coming there and playing. On Sundays, we used to keep the match with other class teams and this competition continued till we cleared our matriculation exams.
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| 1977 Batch of Matriculation-Jagriti Niketan School Courtesy-Mr. Rakesh Kher. |
Even after my studies and being away from Jammu right from 1982 onwards, I have tried to be in touch with some of my friends where ever it was possible. Even certain shocking news about some of our colleagues losing their lives also came and really disturbed me a lot but as the luck would have it things go on and there is hardly any effect on the normal worldly things to carry on. The following are the people I know as on date and am trying to get their contact numbers also;- Daggy, Pawan, Gopal, Sunil, Umesh, Rajinder, Ashutosh, Anil Prabhakar, Billa, Sanjay are a few which come to my mind.
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| Real definition. |
We were all lucky to have a very good atmosphere in the school right from our primitive stage in the earlier classes. We had a family-like atmosphere where we used to keep the teachers in very high esteem and had a real serious approach towards our studies and even in following their valuable instructions. Teachers too cared for each one of us very affectionately and tried their best to impart in us the true value system -which makes the foundations of child development stronger. This I can say strongly since I find a lot of changes happening around with the advancement of time and children today too have been growing into an altogether different atmosphere. Teachers have to do constructive work for the generations to come up strong and I am reminded of the strong quote on teachers:-“The mistake of an Engineer is cemented in the bridges. The mistake of a doctor is buried in the graveyards. But the mistake of a Teacher is reflected in the generations together”.How true it is and those days the staff of teachers and students was all different and dedicated one.
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| Quotable quotes |
Our batch of 77-was a real mix of students. Some were considered to be the real scholars, some very diligent ones and others had a mix of mischievous cum happy-go-lucky stuff. Rakesh who I was happy to contact after so many decades yesterday was considered to be an intelligent guy where the school expected that he would be bringing the distinction for the school-which he finally got. Likewise, Ramesh, Deepak, Sunil were intelligent guys but even known to be very studious and their results clearly showed that they all excelled and some got the distinctions also. We had a friend who was also a position holder in the class. His name was Deepak Mathu-who excelled in his higher studies also after getting a position in the school. He did IPS after doing MD in medicine-but as luck would have it-he expires at an early age of just 33 years. I had written a complete brief on him in this blogger itself some time back.
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| Quotable quotes |
When I see my schoolmates nowadays -it gives real pleasure and happiness that almost all are very well placed and settled in their lives. Some of them have even got their children married and settled and some have become grannies too. But even after attaining the different stages of one’s life, may it be the old-age stage even-one cannot forget the past and especially the school time-so the Childhood prevails somewhere in him even at the time of attaining the old age. According to Dr. Harris-In every human being at any given stage of life, all three components -Childhood, Adulthood, and Parenthood- are present -but as per his stage of life attained their proportion might differ. All of us have gone into different streams, some have gone into medical, some into technical side and some into sales line and some even into the financial side but when it comes to meeting each other nobody would remember their lines followed but only their past school memories would come again and again in front of them.
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| All School mates meetings after decades |
I would suggest to all my school time friends who so ever reads this dispatch- to at least contact on my number-9811430860 or even those of your schoolmates whom you are having their numbers and immediately add up to the School group of 77-so that we can have a bigger group and we interact with each other on even a wider platform and cherish the old school memories again and again.
Thanks, Deepak, for sweetly contacting me after 43 years and inducing me to write these few lines to cherish those wonderful school moments.
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