‘Friends, we are looking for you’

One for the album: A group photo of one section of the 1965 SSLC batch. / by Special Arrangement
One for the album: A group photo of one section of the 1965 SSLC batch. / by Special Arrangement

Students of the 1965 batch of P.S. High School are scouring the city for their old buddies.

The 1965 SSLC batch of P.S. High School, Mylapore, has understood the spirit of reunions, which is about honouring old ties. A small group of these old students are leaving no stone unturned in finding out the whereabouts of the rest of their friends from the batch.

This group, which is on the job, has the contact details of only 40. Not a happy number, considering the batch had eight sections with 250 students. As the reunion is scheduled for January, 2015, they don’t have much time left to trace the rest of them.

“Target setting is the order of the day and each of us has to locate four to five classmates,” says M.S. Sundararajan, former chairman and managing director of Indian Bank, who is the president of the old students committee.

Some of the batch mates at a recent get-together. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Some of the batch mates at a recent get-together. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu

The goal is to locate 100 to 150 classmates before the reunion, planned to be coducted on the school founder’s day. Currently, the majority of the 40 identified batchmates are from ‘B’ section and the committee is looking for at least two people from the other sections who can help with the contacts of the others.

Sundararajan, a resident of Ambujammal Street at Alwarpet, says he is excited at the idea of the entire batch meeting after 50 years. He vividly remembers Sivaraman Street, where a few of his classmates used to come from. He plans to revisit the area in search of his friends.

K. Muralidharan, who created the pages on social networking sites to connect with the old friends, has little hope of locating people through Facebook or Twitter. “It looks like not many of my batchmates are tech-savvy. I have therefore decided to go to various streets,” he says.

Recently, he went to Luz Street and tried to get details of a few from a stationery store. “Some even shy away from attending the reunion for various reasons,” he said.

Not many of the teachers who taught the batch are alive, so the reunion will be a success only if a good number of old students turn up.

A souvenir has been planned for the occasion. To get in touch with the group, call Muralidharan at 98840 27239 or email jhamuna@gmail.com