Mangalore: Gaiety, Deep Bonding Marks Victoria Girls Old Students' Meet
By Nina Rai - Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore
Pics: Prajwal Ukkuda
Mangalore, Jan 11: Members of the Old Students Association of Victoria Girls High School observed their annual meet of old and new students, at the P U College premises at Lady Hill here, on Sunday, Jan 11. This meet is normally held on the second Sunday of January every year.
The function began around 10 am with a welcome speech by Wilma Lobo. After which the inaugural ceremony commenced with the traditional lighting of the lamp by one of the older student of the year 2008, president of the School’s Old Students Association Sister Elena and vice president of the Association Prabha Kamat.
Sister Elena in her speech spoke proudly of all the old students especially those who had touched great heights in their respective fields all over the world and made their alma mater proud. Speaking to daijiworld exclusively she said their institution was nearly 100 years old, and wanted to make progress in the field of science and technology. Particularly with regard to the Audio Visual Rooms in their school, she said they were actively working towards having a LCD Power project this year, so that the students may benefit by having wider exposure to various subjects.
After Sister Elena’s speech, a prayer song was sung by young students of the school. An announcement was made of an old student making a donation of Rs. 75,000 which was greeted with loud appreciate applause all round. A condolence speech was made for those who died in 2008 namely senior teacher Sister Benita the founder of Old Students Association, Kannada teacher Kusuma and Hindi teacher Shantadevi. In fact it was proposed to sponsor a prize for deserving students, in Sister Benita’s memory. Zena, the secretary of the association then read out the balance sheet /annual report of the previous year.
Puja Puroshotam of Karavali College, the winner of the National Award 2007 for Fashion Design in-fact one of the old students of the school was felicitated on the occasion with a memento by Sister Elena and Prabha. Other old students called on dais and honored with small mementos were founder member Lily Pereira of the 1953 batch, Stella Patrao, Tracy Arahna, and senior most member of 1936 batch Jovina Menezes.
After the formal felicitation ceremonies, there was a group song by ex students of 1963 batch which was sung with such fervor, gusto and gaiety that it had everyone in the audience encouraging and cheering them on. The song composed by the group themselves gave a vivid description of the time they had all spent together in school in the good old days. This is followed by another upbeat and fun-filled impromptu dance session on the floor led by Geeta Kishore and other students of the 1980 batch, who were soon joined by other younger and older students. Dancers comprised students as young as 18 years old to the oldest aged 85 years. This was then followed by games organized by the association.
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