Chennai :

It was trip down memory lane for K Vijay Kumar and B Muthuraman at Madras Christian College in Tambaram on Thursday when they were honoured with the ‘distinguished alumni award’.

Vijay Kumar, security advisor to the Union ministry of home affairs and former director general of police, recalled how the ‘severe’ ragging sessions at MCC came in handy during a tough training session in Switzerland many years later.

On the campus, where he prepared for the civil services exams, he said, “It used to be fun from 8pm to midnight.” After that, he would sit at his books till 4.30am before rushing to classes at 8.30am. “Despite all this, I cleared the exams the very next year,” Vijay Kumar said.

Muthuraman, chairman of Tata International Ltd, said he didn’t know a single word in English when he enrolled in MCC. “Thanks to my father and a professor who helped me learn English through Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’, I ended up getting distinction in English after the first year.”

Later, Vijaya Kumar told reporters that maoist-infested states were still under the control of the security forces in spite of many CRPF personnel losing lives in ambushes.

The awards were instituted by the MCC Alumni Association to recognise the accomplishments of various alumni.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by A. Selvaraj & T. Francis Sundar Singh, TNN / March 21st, 2014

Madurai :

Keeping in touch with old classmates and friends is not a big deal in this era of social networking sites. But it is something rare when about 50 people, who studied together in class 1 at the OCPM School here in 1964, could maintain regular contacts over the past 50 years and could gather here on Sunday at their old school premises after a long while.

Madurai-based businessmen A Asokan and Ashraf Tayubare, who are behind the get-together, said, “It all started last December after one of our classmates, Aswathaman who is in Chennai, found his class I photograph. He urged us to locate our other classmates and hold a get-together.”

Today, almost all the classmates have gone ahead in their respective careers. Shobana Ramachandran, a popular industrialist and educationist in Madurai, was active in planning the event.

“Our OCPM School and Lady Doak College were on the same campus. As it was the most reputed English school then, our parents wanted us to be there. The 50 students were part of the 1964 batch of class 1. We went on to finish our class 5 studies there,” Asokan said.

Their classmate Dr Sunandha, who is now in America, helped them to find some of the girls in their class. “Even back then we were a co-educated class,” they said.

On Sunday, there was jubilation as they met. The old mates included Ganesh, Nandakumar, engineers Mukundan and Suresh, government officials Ashwathaman and Kanagaraj, Mathivanan the panchayat president of Chattrapatti, Kalaiyarasi a teacher. Jess and Bhanu came down all the way from Mumbai.

The old batch walked through the school corridors, sat in their old classroom and recalled the characters in their favourite lessons and the dramas they staged during school functions.

Then the old students felicitated five of their teachers — Mrs Lawrence, Mrs Vasntha Nallathambi, Mrs Chandra, Mrs Chellappa and Mrs Jamila — who they had located after much search.

“We are delighted on seeing those wooden benches. They are still intact. We sat on them and recalled our days in class, while the ‘girls’ sat chatting just like in the olden days,” said Asokan. Though most of them were grandparents, they addressed each other as ‘girls’ and ‘boys’.

With old memories welling up, Asokan and Ashraf said it is not difficult to keep in touch for half a century. “Fifty years back we were taught that nothing is impossible and the sky is the limit. We have achieved the ‘impossible’ by contacting our classmates,” they concurred.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by Padmini Sivarajah, TNN / March 17th, 2014