Old Georgian Association

Friends,

This reunion has been absolutely terrific - it was run like clockwork and just seeing the thrill on the faces of the present students and the past students in the valley was more than gratifying. It felt so good to watch all the camaraderie and the great fun and frolic that everybody had for those three days. If ever there was a stress-buster it is this reunion that happens in the old school. I urge every one of you who didnt make it there, to plan on being there come July 2007!

A bunch of us folks from Chennai got in to Metty by the Blue Mountain express on 14th morning and picked up a Tata Sumo at the station to take us to Ketti - the excitement was palpable - we had Anil Kick Ass Mani to keep us laughing all the way from Chennai! The train journey was as usual superb fun - people like Arun and Anil never allowed us a moment of seriousness! The liqour flowed freely - the TTE gave us sidelong glances every time he passed us but he, we discovered later, had bigger hassles to tackle - the next compartment was fully booked by some Lions club gang who were drinking openly through the night and the TTE was plied with the good stuff too so we had no problems to deal with!! The folks in the adjacent berths must have cursed us for our raucousness but we did catch them doubling up with laughter when they heard some of our conversation, so all was forgiven!! Some of them even wanted to know where we were all headed and why we were all so excited!

Once in Ketti, the sweet scent of the air transports you back to a time that seemed like it was only yesterday that we walked those narrow roads leading down to the old school. We quickly headed to the bachelors' quarters allocated to us Camp Tinker dwellers, by the school - freshened up and headed for dining hall for the best breakfast I have had in a long time! Then a few of us headed off to the fork road beyond Hesketh to set up the registration desk - shortly the OGs began to trickle in - by 1300 hours registrations had hit about 70 - which is when we wound up Registration at the fork road and moved it to the Alumni Relations Officer's charge at the old office - by early evening the numbers had climbed to close to 120 or so. Lunch was super stuff - laid out for us after the formal inauguration of the Reunion by Mr. MC Wood, Chairman of the Board that manages the school. Post lunch we all headed for Breeden Hall for the Annual General body Meeting which went off very well and was attended fairly well. That is where yours truly was elected as President and the new team duly elected. Thamil and his team are a tough act to emulate - I hope the new team will do better in the coming two years. At the AGM the OGA handed over a cheque for Rs. 50, 000.00 to Matthew Cooke who had bravely come all the way from Bangalore for the reunion - he went thru a lot of pain and hardship to get there and move about the sprawling campus. Matthew Cooke promptly handed over the cheque to Mathew Varkey who represented the Bangalore OGs who are the driving force behind the project to get Matthew Cooke back on his feet.

The AGM was followed by tea at Breeden Hall and a short break to set the Breeden Hall up for the Quiz, DJ session, Casino and barbecue to follow - it was an evening packed with action. The Football match between Past and Present was on at the OGA pitch - even with 24 members playing in the OGs team they were thrashed roundly by the present Georgians - final score 6 - 0!! The Quiz was fun to conduct even though technology played truant every now and then! Its wonderful to see a hall full of present and past Georgians enjoying themselves so thoroughly. The past fielded a team headed by Pearce Memorial Award winner Dr. Mathew Ninan and made up of two younger OGs - it wasnt a cake walk for the Past team - they just about made it - final scores 9 - 7 in favour of the Past. The Karaoke is always a hit with the kids - a competition was set up between the four houses - Pat Kerr, Anil Mani and Suzy Thomas were the judges. As soon as the Karaoke was over Breeden Hall was quickly transformed into a small Casino with Darts, Super 7, Wheel of fortune and some other betting games for OGs. Lots of folks lost a lot of money for sure but a few could be seen grinning from ear to ear, must be because they cashed in well!! The barbecue dinner was awesome - Baba Pujara had it all organised in every detail - people stuffed themselves well and truly on some delicious food!! While the betting was on, the DJ stuff was on too - some of the OGs showed us they could dance especially Arun N!! All the fun and frolic wound up by about 2330hrs that night. Us Camp Tinker residents headed to Hammick pitch while the bulk of the OGs headed off to Ooty - Lawley Institute was choc-a-bloc with OGs!! As for us Camp Tinker residents we decided it was going to be a bonfire that kept us warm - the wind was really strong and the euckies were bending over like they wanted to shake hands with us! In the pitch dark of the night we collected some dried eucky bark, wattle twigs and branches and started off a bonfire - Bob opened a bottle of Jack Daniels and the spirit was really flowing!! A very high PC and a not-so-high Thamil decided the quantity of wood in the bonfire which was a huge raging fire by now, wasnt enough so they set about pulling down a half dead wattle tree - it was crazy watching the gang heaving in drunken non-coordination, to pull down the tree which served to keep the bonfire going till about 0130hrs that night! Slowly the bunch - Bob Jenkins, Ashok Bennett, Pat Kerr, Thamil, PC, JC, Prashanth, Anil Mani, Sayilen and yours truly crawled into the tents with the wind howling away!! Thereafter it was a rhythmic snoring competition in full flow with me leading the gang!!

The next morning we were up and about by 0600hrs - headed off to the bachelors' quarters for our ablutions and out to dining hall for breakfast before setting off to Hesketh pitch for the march past and the past vs. present athletics! The registration counters were abuzz with large numbers of younger OGs who were coming in droves - total registrations crossed the 250 mark. The athletics was well contested because the Past had some great athletes in their team - Imran Sait running away with the 100m, Assan with the discuss and shot put - Assan had travelled all the way from New Zealand for the Reunion - he represents New Zealand for Pole vault - he clears 5 m which is more than any Indian has ever cleared!! The OG girls put up a spirited fight but the present girls were way too good - main contestants for the OGs were June Nahas, Suzy Thomas, Cherie Maheshwaran and Namratha Mehta. Patrick Kerr changed his sex to become Patricia Kerr to run and jump for the OG girls!! He even wore a small sized pink OG T shirt to show some midriff and a fair pair of breasts for which Sayilen has promised brassieres!! By the end of the athletics we had quite a few on the casualty list - Pat Kerr had damaged a tendon, Cherie had sprained herself, Paul Chater had a grain injury!! It was soon time for cricket - OGs did some awesome batting and put up a decent score of 152 but for the present students that was simply not challenging enough - the knocked it off with ease!! Arun N and his OG team simply were no match!!

Then came the hockey - yours truly was designated goalie by the OGs - I had played a fair amount of hockey at school and inter-university level in my days but hadnt donned goalie equipment for more than 25 years!! Yet, when I put on all the new-fangled equipment I was rearing to go! I looked like something from outer space - the match was keenly contested and ended in a 1-1 draw. By the end of the match I had a severe injury below my left knee and could hardly put my foot down - one more OG on the injured list!! As soon as the hockey was over it was time to set off to ready ourselves for the fireworks show at school flat and then head off to Fernhill Palace for the big one - the OGA Banquet. The fireworks were enjoyed by all the kids who had been assembled on school flat - lot of people went back to their cottages with cricks in their necks!!

The banquet was really fantastic - the dance floor was packed - look out for all the video coverage that will be available on DVD for anybody who wants a copy. For years the Chennai OGs have been trying very hard to get me on the dance floor and I have managed to keep them at bay and avoid dancing but this year Mr Gardner decided that wasnt going to be the case - he got everybody off the dance floor and announced that it will be the headboys and headgirls that would have the next dance and then announced that the new President would have to get on the dance floor. I tried to use my lame left leg as an excuse but he would hear nothing of it!! So there I was, on the dance floor and having to decide who would be my partner for the first dance of my life!! I chose Mrs Gardner and I believe I chose well because she was very patient with me and my wooden body which by now was sweating profusely in the cold of the Ooty night!! The band was simply superb - they belted out some all time favourites and had the young ones and old ones enjoying themselves on the floor of the majestic banquet hall of the Maharaja of Mysore. The ball went on till 0230hours - there were more than 240 OGs there that night and everybody had a fantastic time. Thamil and I got back to Camp Tinker by 0315hrs after settling accounts with the hotel. This time there was plenty of firewood (stolen from the school bakery!!) for the planned bonfire at Camp Tinker but it was way too late and nobody had the strength to start a bonfire so late into the night! Soon Thamil discovered there wasnt any more sleeping bags in stock so he couldnt sleep at camp Tinker - he headed off back to his car parked at the Bachelors' quarters nearby and crashed out in his car while we went on with our snoring contest in the tents!!

Sunday morning and most of us would get out of bed with all kinds of pulls and pains emanating from muscles we didnt know existed!! We hobbled to dining hall for the last breakfast in school for a year! Enjoyed the awesome bread, butter, fried eggs and ragi porridge and headed off to church for the special service for OGs. Anil presented a tribute to Pop Mac and Richard Smith did the bible reading for the service. OG Mrs Rani Jeyashekharan (Ma Paul's daughter) conducted the school choir - they sang beautifully. The service was wonderful and transported us to our times back in the old days.

Immediately after the service it was time to transform school flat for the School Fete - I was looking after the Georgian Memorabilia stall and was ably assisted by Pat Kerr, Arun N and Bennyboy. It was hard work because there were a lot of goodies for sale - T shirts, Georgian Towels, Georgian clutch purses for women and wallets for men, embossed leather belts, jackets and key chains. Business was brisk - we sold about 60K worth of Georgian merchandise - Arun's leather goodies were a big hit as were the towels - next time around we will be more organised. The profits from this exercise will go to the Poor children's fund in school.

Prizes were given away to winners and Juene's little school bag filled with goodies (which I had carried back from Australia) was the hamper that was on offer. The crowd on the school flat had to be seen to be believed - school flat was packed to capacity! Parents, children, teachers and staff enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Sattar and Baba were a big hit with their horse racing and Cherie and JC had a toucgh time dishing out the thousand plus prizes that kids won! It was now time for winding up - the usual speeches and OG hugs and bye-byes were in order. Another great reunion was drawing to a close - slowly the last of us made our way from the old valley back to our bases in Malaysia, the US of A, Chennai, New Zealand, Oman, Dubai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Kerala and so many other places.

Thanx to all those folks who put in all that hard work to make this reunion a terrific success - hats off to Thamil and his team for a great job and we hope he and his team will be available to help the new team find its feet and take the OG movement to a higher plane.

Apologies for this long-winded piece on Reunion 2006 but that's the shortest I could make it and I am aware that in trying to cut things short I may have missed out several details which I hope you all will forgive me for.

Warmest regards


Tusky