Rocking Reunion 2008

Come 5th.January and it was again time to meet dear old friends and ex-students of our ALMA MATER. The evening got to a late start due to usual traffic problems and also due to participant’s non familiarity with Vashi ( Navi Mumbai ). The venue MARINE CLUB was a fabulous location with all modern facilities and beautiful arrangements. The initial greetings and exchanges went on till 7-00 p.m. when the meeting was called to order.

After observing 1 minute silence in memory of the departed souls of our respected teachers, and 1974 Alumni Amitabha Chakrabarty; program host Dileep briefly narrated the past few years` activities of the Alumnibes and also the efforts put forward by the Executive Core Committee of Alumnibes. A resolution was moved to enable our Alumnibes Executive Core Committee members to donate the funds raised (partially or fully) to our alma mater after due consideration from time to time; which was passed unanimously by all the members present. Remembering our beloved Principal Late Sri Gokul Chandra Pain who rendered yeomen service to our school from 1953 to 1968, and also to all the Bengali Institutions of Bombay viz. Bengali Education Society, Bengal Club, Bengali Maheela Samiti, Banga Bhasha prashar Samity, and all others in projecting, upholding and publicizing the rich Bengali Culture and traditions in this western part of the country; Dileep invited Shri Pradeep Kumar Pain ( 1958 batch SSC topper of our School and son of Late Shri G.C.Pain ) who served the Indian Banking Industry with great distinction and honour, to share his feelings about the school and the rich contributions made by his father Late Shri G.C.Pain. Emotional and proud, Pradeepda recalled his wonderful days at the School, batch mates viz. Swapan Nandi, Indrani Mitra and others and how apart from learning the lessons in school, our cultural and traditional values were built up. He fondly remembered how the children were taken to see good, educational and epic English movies to far off theaters like REGAL in double decker TRAMS and brought back safely under constant and loving care of our teachers and staff. Pradeepda paid rich tributes to his father`s era in BES High School ( 1953-1968 ) and echoed the sentiments of how Shri G.C.Pain had strived to project and uplift the Bengali Culture in this part of the country. The fund raising programs for our school building by staging of Tagore`s Dance Dramma " CHANDALIKA " in Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan , the visit/felicitations of famous Bengali dignitaries viz. Miss Anita Bose ( Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose`s daughter ), PadmaShri Bishtu Ghosh and Padmashri Reba Rakshit ( who would demonstrate the power of body building and yoga by making an Adult elephant walk over her chest in ‘Raymon Circus’, Indian football squad for Tokyo Olympics under the captaincy of legendary Mohun Bagan Left-in player Chuni Goswami and many others were mentioned with great satisfaction and pride. Our simple, poised and elegant Ashok Roy ( 1964 batch ) recited two great poems by Tagore. Bharath Tirtha ( hey mor chitta punya tirthe jago re dheer` e, ei Bharath er maha manab er sagar teer`e ) and Kazi Nazrul Islam`s famous lines" Bhaang Bhaang Bhaang re Kaaraa" which is still reverberating in every ones ears.

The ALUMNIBES thanked the host, our own ex-student, Captain Partho Das,a very enterprising and successful businessman and proud owner of this Marine Club at Vashi and yet humble enough to designate himself as only Chief Servant, felt very excited and offered to stage our future programs too. The next part of the program , which was the brain child of our Convenor  Shri Prodyoth Nandy and Capt.Partho Das was the magic of Video Jockey Dev (son of Capt.Das) and VJ Sen (son of another ex-student of our school)). This program set the entire gathering ROCKING to the fantastic music. It was such a treat to watch and a rare event when the 60 year olds danced to the rocking beats with the youngsters of 20 years and derived TOTAL satisfaction and heartiest enjoyment. The snacks and drinks session by the side hall provided the much needed interval to meet, mix, greet, get introduced to, identify and remember and exchange the pleasentaries with each other. The need to fulfill all the appetite for gossip and opportunity to meet the long lost batch mates and contemporaries and the younger generations have been one feature which could not be addressed in earlier Re-unions was completely unleashed and at one time made every one long for the evening to go on and on for ever. Every good things in life have a limited span. Very very delicious and tasty dinner was ready around 10-00 pm and so the crowd had to be pushed to the Dining hall. So we bid adeu to meet next year again!

                                                   - Shri Dileep Chatterjee