Sunday unites 47-year-old batchmates

Out of the 200-member-strong batch that comprise those who graduated from various branches of engineering like civil, mechanical and electrical—at least 100 had been tracked and out of them a significant number keep attending the breakfast meet hosted every month since 2012, says RV Gopalan, joint managing director, TAG Corporation, who has been a key person in organising the reunions.

S Balakrishnan, who has been in the field of shipping, and is today pursuing his passion for photography as a profession well after retirement, has come all the way from Singapore. He says, “The nostalgia and good times we have during the meets are things we cherish always and I always look forward to coming back.”

The fascinating part of the catch up sessions is the bonding, the members point out. V Subramanian observes, ‘We might have worked as subordinate- superiors or not even interacted much during college days. But at this meet, we are all equal and we only talk about our post retirement lives or hobbies, and the friendship has developedto be stronger.”

The CEG71 had the highestnumber of women graduates in those days with eight of them. The batch recently had their 47th alumni reunion—an annual event in December 208. As part of its social outreach, theyalso maintain a corpus fundfor offering scholarships to needy and meritorious students.

“We would, however, like to add more on the social contribution and are looking at ways to arrive at a consensus to begin working on it,” adds Gopalan.

An hour and more of chatter and laughter comes to an end with a group photograph. Jokes at someone’s inability to hear or eating capacity fill the air, as they assemble for the perfect frame. The group has been tapping social media actively to stay in touch and keep the vigour and the boyish excitement alive in the subsequent meets, they say. Through three WhatsApp groups—one befittingly named ‘sappatturamans’—e-mails and texts, the group members have taken a vow to stay connected. We look forward to the 100th breakfast meet soon, theysay in unison.