Pune get together on 01 Jun 2008

A get together of SSKZM alumni at Pune was held at the Officers' Mess, 101 Inf Bn (TA) MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY on 01 Jun 2008.

The attendance though was not overwhelming, was encouraging. It was heartening to see that besides those settled/ located in Pune, Kazaks came in from Mumbai, Ahmednagar and Lonavala.

After navigating through the lanes of Pune Camp ( some did manage to get lost!) people started reaching the venue by 12 o' clock. The warm climate was ideal for a couple of glasses of chilled beer which was available in plenty. Most came in by about 1 o' clock or so.

Informal introductions broke ice and then Thilakan took over to inform everyone about the way we would go about conducting the event. It started with a brief introduction of each one attending to include his name, roll no, batch, family details and some interesting episode from his/her schooldays. The last part was what made the afternoon so interesting. Each one had a hilarious yarn to spin and this time the theme was ` Shank's Humour' ( with due respects to late Sri CVSN ). It really went on and on till someone looked at the watch and said that he had an appointment to keep. Reluctantly, the session wound up at 4 pm and then everyone moved for lunch. Before moving for lunch, everyone together sang the English School Song which once again took everyone back to school. A sumptuous meal later, the crowd slowly broke off with a promise to meet again in the near future.

The following old students( all young at heart) attended the GTG:-

171/62- Brig(Retd) Shyam Lal
642/72- Capt LG Meprath, IN with family
835/78- Col (Retd) Thilakan EV with family
914/78- Col PP Davis with son
967/80- R Sreesankar
980/80- CG Krishnakumar
988/80- Jagdish Nair with family
1013/80- Col K Nandakumaran with family
1039/80- Lt Col Rajesh Nair
1234/81- Col(Retd) Shyam Nair
1433/85- TH Gopalakrishnan with family
1598/85- Satheesh Manmohan with family
2011/89 Mrs Medha Vitekar with family
2376/93- Shyam V Srivatsa
2654/97- Blessan CK
2859/98- Lt Rishi Das, IN
2862/98- Radish Pillai
3107/2000- Lt Nilesh KG, IN
3117/2000- Lt Abbie George, IN
3216/2000- Raghav Pachauri

A highlight of the event was the presence of Capt Louis George, the President of our OBA.

MP Anil was requested to attend but his medical condition did not allow him to be moved over such long distance but most who attended the meet also paid a visit to him.

Thilakan, the `Karanavar' of the Pune Chapter requested to be relieved of the responsibility since he is shifting lock, stock and laptop to Mumbai. The responsibility was then handed over to Col K Nandakumaran for as long as he is posted at Pune.

It is high time someone took the initiative and compiled all of CVSN's jokes. The compilation would be a bestseller. Anyone who is reminded of his jokes, please start putting them on the net. They will remain on record.

Those who took photos that day, may I request them to upload them on the net.

Hope the families also had an interesting time as we had.

The attendance could be much better. Hope we achieve that from the next time.

(writeup by Col K Nandakumaran 1013/80)