BMHS 1976 Batch annual reunion

27 February 2021 happened to be the day for the second annual Get Together for the1976 Batch SSLC students of Basel Mission High School, Dharwad. The venue was Tekfarm owned by Sanjeev Kulkarni, a batchmate of the same group near Tarihal Toll Plaza on Hubballi-Belagavi bypass road.

In fact, the reunion began in the morning with batch mates from Dharwad, Hubballi, and nearby places to start with while three from Bengaluru joined in the latter part of the day. The numbers increased at around lunch and went going by evening and late evening.

It turned out to be a happy momentous occasion as the old friends wished, greeted, and hugged one another to cherish the second annual event. After a hefty lunch, typical of the North Karnataka region including the traditional ‘Godi Huggi’, it was time for the guys to try Rain Dance and a swim in the pool.

These facilities were made the best use of by the old pals and the opportunity turned out to be a show of strength of their bellies in general! Well, a very few looked to be trim on their stomachs’ while most of them appeared as though they were Three-Six months pregnant. Some even showcased as if they were Nine months and a couple of them overdue for pregnancy!

Narayan Sabhahit, taking a glance over the oversized bellies remarked: It’s like saying EPND, Ever Pregnant Never delivery!

All these odd-sized bellies didn’t bother much and they began to enjoy the moment by dancing to the tunes of fast music played by Saurabh, son of Sanjeev Kulkarni in the Rain Dance section. Some of them tried to experience the effect of the hanging showers on different parts of their bodies covered and uncovered. Gajanan Kamat expressed having felt as if he received an electric shock sending peals of laughter among the tiny crowd.

Later they moved to the swimming pool to have a swim. Jagdish Dharwadkar, whose WhatsApp status claims Always busy gave a try to learn swimming wearing the safety ring. However, Ananth Deshpande gave up due to severe pain in his knees.

Later, after changing the dresses they got ready for the next item of Girmit and Mirchi, both sought after local delicacies. All of them enjoyed the evening snacks having multiple servings.

The Tea Party soon paved way for the Party of the day. Suresh Radder and Narayan Sabhahit found time to openly share their adventures, misadventures while on tours in Dubai, Pattaya, the US, and Germany. It turned out to be a session of Pornography all along. Although, Gajanan Kamat and Ravi Megeri, the duo who go out all the way to ensure that the GTG becomes a big success appeared to be keen listeners but having their own inhibitions for not revealing whatever adventures or misadventures they might be having or hiding!

Ramu Lokhande of the legendary Lokhande Opticians, who by and large remained a mute spectator to the experience sharing session, seemed to have the last laugh. Someone provoked, that he too had been to Pattaya multiple times on business offer trips. Yet he didn’t open up and his mild introvert posture gave an impression as if he was saying to himself: Neevu nannashtu maza yen maadiri nanmakkala!

The porno session began to transform into a sexy hot debate, but got interrupted and deviated, thanks to the entry of Deepak Chinchore. He made an introspection of his innings in his political career, how he was denied a Congress Party ticket despite being recommended by the committee to contest HDMC elections and how he successively fought back to emerge victoriously.

After several rounds of pegs with snacks, this almost went post-midnight culminated in supper concluding the party for the day. While a handful of them preferred to stay back, the trio from Bengaluru made way to Suresh Radder’s posh house to retire for the day.

As if the multiple pegs earlier weren’t enough, Narayan Sabhahit felt the Black and White bottle hasn’t been over yet. He felt ‘justice’ needs to done to the poor bottle. So it got emptied in no time among the four. However, Suresh Radder felt the post-midnight session should continue and brought another bottle of Chivas Regal! 

Ashok Naik, a military official felt there should be some discipline even while drinking and all others conceded. In this way, the day-long party got over at around 2 AM.

28 February 2021: Thanks to Edwin D’souza, a meeting was planned to meet SG Bailey Sir on the school premises. Interestingly, the 1975 batch had already planned for their GTG on the same day and had turned in big numbers as theirs was the first such one after a prolonged gap of Forty+ years!

Though most of them appeared to have become grandfathers’ their enthusiasm, bonding and spirit gave an impression as if they had left the school only the previous day. All of them were talking at top of their voices, shouting, screaming, and running around just like they were during the school days.

As we had thought of meeting only SG Baily Sir, Deepak Chinchore had come prepared with a shawl and garland. But there were other teachers like Santosh Patil, Hoolimath, and Sakkari Madam.  So another four garlands and shawls were arranged by him and all of them were felicitated in the VIII B classroom by Narayan Sabhahit. Prakash Haliyal introduced the batch mates.

Suresh Radder spoke in English and recalled the school days when Baily Sir had the practice of levying a fine of Five paise for not speaking in English. When he wanted to know whether whatever he spoke was in the right form, Baily Sir jocularly remarked: I will have to pay the fine now!