SASMIRA COLLEGE FRIENDS VIRTUAL MEET - 191
Sasmira College Friends VIRTUAL MEET
The past fortnight has been one of Virtual Meets . In these Covid 19 Lockdown Days , it comes as a big relief when you get to meet your friends , relatives and colleagues , even if only virtually .
Yesterday , Mukulesh , my friend of Sasmira Days hit upon the Brilliant Idea of a Virtual Meet of the Three Close Friends from the College Days .
Raghava Chittappa (My Maternal Uncle ) had used his good offices , as one close to the Director , SASMA to procure an admission for me in THE TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY AT SASMIRA , WORLI , MUMBAI . My own leanings towards Technical Education and an instant like of the Glass Facade and Ambiance of the Institute was an instant draw . Textile Technology and Textile Chemistry were the two courses on offer and I chose the Textile Technology .
There were 30 of us in each class and barring a very few all were well to do Gujjus who already had their own family run Textile Businesses
Their English was almost pathetic and my own knowledge of Gujarati was no better . At the end of 3 years though , I doubt very much if my Gujju friends were any better in English but I had picked up the language and was very comfortable at the spoken level even with the kutchy dialect .
Verma , Parasu ( who later turned out to be from my own village in Tamilnadu ) and Mukulesh , the convent educated Gujju and myself somehow struck a chord and are close friends even today after a passage of close to 50 years .
The Gujjus are normally classified as a comparatively docile set of people who are not given in to baser instincts. We did have a few who were in to LINE MARROWING , DHAKKA MARROWING , SEETI BAJOYING , QUEUE BREAKING , AND LOUD MOUTHED TYPES , but there were only a few of them .
During the second year , the girls from the SNDT UNIVERSITY who were doing their MSc in Home Science used to attend Sasmira for their Textile Designing classes . The combined Factory Visit to the RAYMOND MILLS IN THANE . " Suhana safar aur ye mauasam haseen " song during the train ride followed by the antakshari made all four of us in very good terms with them . Parashu was particularly good at singing Talat Mehmood songs and I myself was quite good with Mukesh songs . I infact went on to win a competition with the SHOR song Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai .
SASMIRA had a system where the top 3 students of a Semester Examination were awarded a scholarship of Rs 150/- . This amount was almost a fortune in the 1970 s .
Call it luck or conversely the lesser aptitude of the others in my class , yours truely went on to get this prized Scolarship in all the semesters .
Any event big or small is a time for Celebrations and we the four of us and the MSc girls in tow made it to the Roxy Theater to see PIYA KA GHAR .
As days went bye Mukulesh Mehta got married to Shobha Rao , one of the MSc Girls and are now settled at Bombay as also Parashu and Vermaji .
I am settled with my better half at Ambasamudram and we divide our time by visiting our children in Canada and stay in India .
Yesterdays VIRTUAL meet brought all of us together for the first time . My wife Revathy was seeing Vermaji for the first time . She had already met Mukulesh and Shobha . Parashu of course she has met a lot many times . Nothing like sharing old memories.
The fond memories of the Hindi play Directed by Verma and staged by us at The Rabindra Natya Mandir for which I had borrowed a Printed Red Silk Shirt though a bit oversized for my frail body from Mukulesh is still fresh in my mind as are the many visits to the Lotus and Eros Theaters not to forget the visit to Matheran and Khandala .
Thank you Mukulesh , Shobha , Parasu and Verma for this travel down the memory lane.
The past fortnight has been one of Virtual Meets . In these Covid 19 Lockdown Days , it comes as a big relief when you get to meet your friends , relatives and colleagues , even if only virtually .
Yesterday , Mukulesh , my friend of Sasmira Days hit upon the Brilliant Idea of a Virtual Meet of the Three Close Friends from the College Days .
Raghava Chittappa (My Maternal Uncle ) had used his good offices , as one close to the Director , SASMA to procure an admission for me in THE TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY AT SASMIRA , WORLI , MUMBAI . My own leanings towards Technical Education and an instant like of the Glass Facade and Ambiance of the Institute was an instant draw . Textile Technology and Textile Chemistry were the two courses on offer and I chose the Textile Technology .
There were 30 of us in each class and barring a very few all were well to do Gujjus who already had their own family run Textile Businesses
Their English was almost pathetic and my own knowledge of Gujarati was no better . At the end of 3 years though , I doubt very much if my Gujju friends were any better in English but I had picked up the language and was very comfortable at the spoken level even with the kutchy dialect .
Verma , Parasu ( who later turned out to be from my own village in Tamilnadu ) and Mukulesh , the convent educated Gujju and myself somehow struck a chord and are close friends even today after a passage of close to 50 years .
The Gujjus are normally classified as a comparatively docile set of people who are not given in to baser instincts. We did have a few who were in to LINE MARROWING , DHAKKA MARROWING , SEETI BAJOYING , QUEUE BREAKING , AND LOUD MOUTHED TYPES , but there were only a few of them .
During the second year , the girls from the SNDT UNIVERSITY who were doing their MSc in Home Science used to attend Sasmira for their Textile Designing classes . The combined Factory Visit to the RAYMOND MILLS IN THANE . " Suhana safar aur ye mauasam haseen " song during the train ride followed by the antakshari made all four of us in very good terms with them . Parashu was particularly good at singing Talat Mehmood songs and I myself was quite good with Mukesh songs . I infact went on to win a competition with the SHOR song Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai .
SASMIRA had a system where the top 3 students of a Semester Examination were awarded a scholarship of Rs 150/- . This amount was almost a fortune in the 1970 s .
Call it luck or conversely the lesser aptitude of the others in my class , yours truely went on to get this prized Scolarship in all the semesters .
Any event big or small is a time for Celebrations and we the four of us and the MSc girls in tow made it to the Roxy Theater to see PIYA KA GHAR .
As days went bye Mukulesh Mehta got married to Shobha Rao , one of the MSc Girls and are now settled at Bombay as also Parashu and Vermaji .
I am settled with my better half at Ambasamudram and we divide our time by visiting our children in Canada and stay in India .
Yesterdays VIRTUAL meet brought all of us together for the first time . My wife Revathy was seeing Vermaji for the first time . She had already met Mukulesh and Shobha . Parashu of course she has met a lot many times . Nothing like sharing old memories.
The fond memories of the Hindi play Directed by Verma and staged by us at The Rabindra Natya Mandir for which I had borrowed a Printed Red Silk Shirt though a bit oversized for my frail body from Mukulesh is still fresh in my mind as are the many visits to the Lotus and Eros Theaters not to forget the visit to Matheran and Khandala .
Thank you Mukulesh , Shobha , Parasu and Verma for this travel down the memory lane.
Very nice. In my class we were a gang of five. Myself; Venkatesh, who is now in Dubai; Laxman, who is now in Chennai after having worked in Russia for 11 years and Dubai for 20; Suvineeta from Sri Lanka who was my first girlfriend and Shiyamalee also from Sri Lanka who now lives in Auckland with her husband, Sarath who may have been in your batch.
ReplyDeleteShiyamalee had the terrible misfortune of having lost her 30-year old son to a car accident in Auckland a few years ago.
Only Suvineeta who was so much in love with me but broke up in the last semester disappeared from the group and even Google has not been of help. I did meet her during my only visit to Colombo in 1978. I stayed with Shiyamalee and Sarath and Suvineeta visited us with her husband, Fonseca. But since then, no one knows of her.
Venkatesh and Laxman are in touch. Venkatesh is from Kadayam and Laxman from Palakkad
At the outset, hearty congratulations on your wedding anniversary.
ReplyDeleteMeeting or talking to old college/school friends bring lot of happiness and joy and most suited to present day lockdown as we have more time to spare. Enjoy lockdown.
Nice narration. Happy anniversary to you and manni🙏🙏
ReplyDeleteExcellent narration and colorful walk of 50 years back. And friendships of that far can get so much to laugh about.
ReplyDelete