The success of the 26 January 2008 get-together was thanks to the joint effort of each and every one of us from the 1983 batch.

It was during the previous year’s get-together that Lt Col Nikunj Goel assumed charge and insisted on meeting within the following week. So about 10 of us met at Rajeev Agarwal’s house on a rainy Saturday afternoon over hot chai and munchies to list all the things that needed to be done; asking for volunteers for each task. The first task was to compile the list of persons and contacts and then send out mail to all asking for more contacts to build the list. We began with the email addresses of 10 persons in February 2007.

We made some rough calculations on how much each person would have to contribute to cover the costs for the lunch on 26 Jan and then we thought we would set a target for collection, over the get-together expenses, to make some gift to the school. Ideas ranged from books to silver trophies to models of the old school building when suddenly someone suggested collection for a scholarship corpus which everyone present instantly agreed to.

Thereafter, everyone got into action-mode. I sent out e-mails very regularly asking for contributions which I know were annoying. Initially most persons felt the get-together was still several months away and response was slow which discouraged some of our core organizers. But hearing from old names from one’s past hit a nostalgic nerve in each new addition to the list and people began responding enthusiastically sometime after October. Savita Gupta in the U.S. — president of the Students’ Council during our time —popular, active, and instilling enthusiasm in all — rose to the occasion and managed to be the major fund-raiser as she tracked many of the overseas classmates. Finally by December, we had contacts for 76 persons from our batch and 60 persons sent in contributions which surpassed all our expectations.

Each one did their bit to make the event interesting and memorable. And the best part was that each did not really interfere in what the other was assigned so at the end of it we ourselves were surprised how well it all came together. Sangeeta Kashyap put together a wonderful powerpoint presentation of new and old photos; Naresh Yadav hosted a lovely get-together for our batch mates; Piyush Gupta organized the caterers and managed the entire show of organizing tentwalas, drinking water, and several other things along with Nikunj in a seemingly effortless way; Sonya Malik, Seema Jha, and Rajeev Agarwal made special efforts to make things different for this time. Since we go to meet friends each year, people tend to overlook the food arrangements and have fun despite everything but this year the attention paid to details was much appreciated.

Molly Basu came all the way from England, Vijay Bathija from Canada, and Jyoti Puvulla and Vivek Kapoor (our most generous contributor) from the U.S. just for this. Manisha Goel rushed across from Ambala fora day.

We took some effort to make the get-together special for ourselves. We requested school for permission to attend the morning assembly on 25th Jan. Despite being in Delhi most had never come back to attend it. It was an unusually cold Delhi winter but 15 persons came and we sang ‘tu dhoondata hai jisko basti mein ya ke van mein’, ‘shamso kamar mein aapka’, ‘ambe, charan kamal hain terey’, ‘vande mataram’ (amidst groans from the kids just the way we did!); and marched out with ‘ham dharati ma ka aaj naya itihaas banayengey’. It was very emotional.