Media Release

Mangaluru, Oct 3: Fifty years after they walked out of St Aloysius High School, 64 classmates of the 1976 batch from standards D and E returned to their Alma Mater on September 23 for their golden reunion. The celebrations covered a meet at the campus in the morning; a family gala greet event at the Mangalore Club in the evening and a three-day retreat at Peninsula Delmar Resort.

Classmates arrived wearing white reunion t-shirts bearing the school emblem and the year 1976. As they first met and mingled over snacks and coffee at the school hall, many needed introductions after half a century, and old nicknames quickly resurfaced. They then formed two lines behind their original class leaders, Mohan Frank of X standard E and Kevin Pereira of X standard D, and marched to their preserved old classroom, taking their seats on the same benches they had occupied as boys.

The school bell rang as headmaster Fr Johnson R Pinto SJ and assistant headmaster Lancy D'Souza entered. As the boys spent a golden moment, basking on the ‘air’ of the classroom they had re-entered after five decades of their life, they spent the next few minutes in silent prayers and homage for their classmates and teachers who have passed away. Fr Johnson R Pinto congratulated the batch on its golden reunion and praised the solidarity shown by 64 members converging at the campus after five decades.

The highlight of the morning was the roll call. Reading from the school's original 1976 records, complete with register numbers, the two class leaders called out each name, and men now in their sixties answered just as they had as schoolboys: ‘Present, Sir!’

The batch then posed for the grand reunion photograph on the steps of the St Aloysius College Chapel, before visiting the newly established museum ‘Aloyseum’ and walking through the playgrounds and school blocks.

The evening celebration at the Mangalore Club began at 6 pm. Classmates were joined by 27 spouses, and the couples walked the ramp for the professional photographer. Golden name brooches, arranged by core committee member Harsha D’Souza, helped everyone put names to faces changed by fifty years.

In a well-planned singalong session led by Chandrakanth Rao, the classmates fondly sang in loud chorus, the school anthem ‘Bhuvanava Salahuva’. Rudolph Rodrigues in his erudite style, raised a toast for the occasion, after which Isaac Vas, regaled the audience with a audio visual presentation containing pictures, anecdotes and memories of the batch's school years, from primary school to X standard.

Their stories revived the pranks and punishments of those days, including the class's rare distinction of being suspended for three days, twice. This was followed by the Golden Aloysian 1976 Awards Nite, a glittering Show curated and presented by Isaac Vas and Chandrakanth Rao with humorous citations written for individual classmates and revealed on the big screen.

In a nod to the Mangalore power cuts of their youth, the hall was plunged into a planned blackout for a few minutes. The DJ then took over. Later in the evening, Mohan Frank and Loy Roche took the microphone, with Mohan singing the Konkani classic 'Mog Tuzo Kithlo Ashelo' and Kishore Kumar's 'Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaaye'. Baila and folk numbers followed, bringing Errol, Loy, Mohan, Rudolph, Chistopher, Austin, Denzil and many others onto the dance floor.

The next day, the classmates set off to Peninsula Delmar, a resort near Yermal, for a relaxed stay together by the sea, and visited Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village in Manipal with its restored traditional homes and artefacts.

As a lasting gift to the school, the batch has proposed and started working on the Aloysius 76 endowment, a permanent fund with an initial corpus of Rs 50 lac to be set up in association with the Jesuit management. It will support need-based freeships for deserving students in primary and high school, annual awards in the Kannada and English mediums to all rounders, and annual recognition awards to teachers who give extra time to conduct extra-curricular activities such as public speaking, sports, scouting, NCC, science clubs and dramatics.

While the Corpus is expected to grow at above 12 percent, withdrawals each year will be capped at 5 per cent of the corpus, so the fund keeps growing while giving every year. Classmates have commenced with sizeable individual commitments and others are considering their commitments which may be any amount, individually or in groups, as a lump sum or in instalments over two years.

There is a deep sense of give back in all the classmates who converged at the event and they cherish a common desire that the legacy of good students being cared and nurtured in the Aloysian Campus should continue.

The golden reunion conceived and planned since over a year was worked upon with backend connect and media management efforts by Loy Roche through calls, whatsapp group messages, an informative website www.aloysius76.com and interesting Instagram handle ‘sahs.76’. The golden reunion that connected classmates from across the globe including USA, Canada, Gulf, UK, Australia and across India. was organised by a Core Committee comprising Errol Pinto, Harsha D'Souza, Terence D'Souza, Chandrakanth Rao, Isaac Vas and Loy Roche.

Fifty years on, the school has changed and so have its boys of 1976. But as the reunion showed, the friendship has not – they all said 'One School – one Brotherhood – We have come home!'.