Puttur: St Philomena College 1983 Commerce Batch Reunites

Puttur, Jan 8: The students of  1983 commerce Batch returned to their Alma Mater after over 27 years. Thanks to the herculean efforts of Elias Mascarenhas of Melbourne who initiated and spearheaded the process of  locating the lost classmates and within a year,  due to the cohesive efforts of the group members, could trace 76 of the classmates out of a group of 83  of them.

The day in St Philomena College was historical. All roads were leading to the Silver Jubilee Hall of the
college to welcome the students of 1983 commerce batch. It was a nostalgic experience to return to the alma mater after over 27 years. Batchmates from the 1983 commerce batch along with their family
members descended from  Melbourne, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai, Bangalore,Chennai, Trivendrum with one goal, to meet their lost friends and the whole atmosphere was full of emotions, overflowing joy and turbulent cheerfulness. They created a record as the reunion of a particular batch was happening for the first time in the history of St Philomena's College, Puttur.

To add icing to the cake, it was the presence of principals and professors of yesteryears which added additional sparkle to the whole re-union event. There was one personality which each of the student as well as the faculty members revered the most, Fr Henry Castelino who was the principal during the college days. The audience turned sad when the master of ceremony announced that Fr Castelino could not make it for the function as he was hospitalized  due to his feeble and failing  health condition. However, the audience  stood spell bound and accorded a standing ovation when Samaritans Rony and Flavy saldanha managed to bring him all the way from Mangalore after taking extreme risk and permissions and it was the experience of  God in human form descending on to the hall. Without any status or hesitation, one could see old students and professors touching his feet and seeking the blessings of the Godly personality. 

Tears flowed from the eyes of each of the members  of the audience when he made a sentimental  and emotional address to his beloved students and accosted the students to look into the welfare of the unfortunate members of the society too.

Each of the students, shared their unique journey of 27 years after graduation which was followed by felicitation of professors of  yesteryears as part of Guruvandane. The professors who were honoured and
felicitated were Fr Henry Castelino,  S I Bhat, Ravindra Rao, Ramakrishna, Vasanthi, J Mathews, Vishnu Bhat and Harinarayana Madav. Every professor had his own story to share and it was a touching experience for both the students as well as to the professors.

Manohar Rai compered the event and Altaf Ahmed added his witty comments and translations to keep the audience exuberating with joy and cheerfulness. Nostalgic quizzes,  talent shows from the audience and plethora of prizes, all made the event even memorable. As a token of appreciation to their Alma Mater, the old students also donated a cheque of Rs. 50,000 to the college. The correspondent of the college Fr Gerald Dsouza, principal of the college, Leo Norohna and former principal of the college Fr Francis Gomes, had their own unique thoughts and words of encouragement and thanks  for the event
attendees.

The Reunion 2010 concluded with vote of thanks proposed by Ganesh. Thanks to the cohesive efforts of Elias Mascarenhas, Altaf  Ahmed, Manohar Rai,  K Subramanya Rai and many others, the event  turned out to be  the most talked and rememberable event for  the classmates and professors alike.