This reunion was a further affirmation of our ties as shipmates who shared two eventful and memorable years of training on the grand old lady of the Indian Mercantile Marine – I.M.M.T.S. DUFFERIN.
Our chief movers and shakers were, as before – Shashi Shantagiri and Nand Hiranandani. Venue was Coonoor where we managed, I believe, through the good offices of Ronald D’Rozario, to get accommodation at the Wellington Gymkhana Club. Ronald, who is from our Junior batch, lives in Coonoor with his family, used his membership to introduce us as guests and put down a solid base for our gang to have an excellent venue for four days. Some who could not get accommodation at the Club were put up at the Mciver Hotel close by.Satnam & Inderjit Sahi had to cancel at the last moment. Would have been wonderful to have them with us once again. Gulu Nain was the other regular who could not make it.
Members began checking in during the day on the 25th Feb. and most were present by the evening. This time the ages ranged from 6 years to 75 years, beginning with Soman’s grandson Ezra, Bensina Bhate, Soman’s daughter Elizabeth, Soman’s son Jeljit , and then the rest of the ladies and us old seadogs. Ramu braved the odds once again and made it after a gap of six years. His last presence was at our Coorg do, we were really glad to see both him and Usha again. Badal Sengupta was yet unable to make it but we hope that he will be with us the next time. Paul Gonsalves and Catherine returned to the fold after a gap of a few years, whereas Harash and Poornima Channa were newcomers. Ronald and Kayo Rosario, Ranjit Batra and Sanat Bhate were our Junahs who were able to join us. Sanat has been almost a constant participant in our past gatherings, whilst the other two are locals who helped as well as joined our gathering.
One aspect of this extended association has been the enthusiasm of our ladies, who, courtesy Pilar Sinha, have joined together to make up a composite Dufferin family group on Whatsapp. They too, have got a big stake in the success of our reunions.
The proceedings began in earnest that evening, at the clubhouse with drinks and dinner. Good cheer heralded the beginning of another episode of our common heritage. The evening ended early to allow the effects of the inward journeys to wear off.
Lunch on the 26th was outdoors in the front lawn of the McIver hotel, a cheerful affair laced with camaraderie and generally a good time preceding lunch, which was served indoors. The venue has a beautiful view of the town and the bright sun with cool winds blowing made up a perfect ambience.
We retired to our rooms after lunch and got together for tea in the late afternoon. There is a decent sized gazebo outside the club house which seemed purpose built for us. It accommodated all of us and provided a very nice place for an informal chat before we dispersed for a break to prepare for the evening’s function.
The evening fall in was scheduled for 1930, gents in jacket and tie and the ladies in their finery. Group photographs taken later showed how seriously this stipulation was followed. The new DRACEA ties had been put to good first use along with the other baubles that Nand had put together for us. By around 2015, the first of our yearly commitments began with a hymn, led by Soman and his family, sung for Late Laila Mani and a short dance performance to honour her mother, by Elizabeth in the Mohini Attam tradition. Our customary homage to our dear departed batchmates followed with a candle lit for each man gone before us. The “Last Post” and “Reveille” [“Charlie, Charlie rise and shine, early in the morning”] were sounded before and after an observance of two minutes silence, played by the pen drive bugler. Sujata Moghe sang a Light Hindustani Classical composition. She has a mastery over her medium. I found it in the order of things to recall the honour, bestowed by Portugal, of appointing Somesh Batra as its Pro Consul in Mumbai. We all applauded this great achievement and then we headed for the bar. The gathering went into top gear after that and wound up close to midnight.
27th February, the morning began with a beautiful, though late, sunrise followed by a breakfast, before making our way to Ooty. Some preferred to take the Nilgiris Railway trip, just for the experience. We met up again for lunch at King’s Cliff, a beautiful vintage hotel above town. The meal was preceded by a session of drinks in the lawn, in the shade of garden umbrellas. Good weather, bright sun and cool winds were a great boost to the spirits. Both thirst and hunger slated, we returned to our base for a leisurely nap until tea time.
For the evening’s activity we had a barbecue laid out of doors, so this time we were all bundled up for the cold. This was a self service routine with different kinds of stuff offered over the grill. The entire company settled down into smaller groups getting on a good buzz, keeping both bar and grill busy. The sound level of the party was good, no silent brooding participant to dampen the good cheer.
28th February, the last full day of the programme, began similar to the previous day until it was time to sortie out for the day’s visit to Kotagiri, about an hour’s drive away from base. Most of the group went excepting a few who decided to spend time in Coonoor. Some of us had the pleasure of visiting Ron Rosario at his beautiful house in upper Coonoor. We were able to spend some quality time with his wife Kayo and daughter Lisa. Both have very charmingly likeable personalities.
We got together under the gazebo for one last tea break. Not all the group was there, only the thirsty ones. Dispersal was around sundown, all back in their cabins for the last evening.
For the evening’s fun, Ron Rosario had arranged for a band, who started playing right away, as soon as most of the revelers got there. There were only two musicians but they produced some good music to getting the toes tapping. Thereafter began a time of great merrymaking with some redoubtable singing talents revealed as the evening unfolded. Notable among the “Singing Seadogs” were John Paisley, Paul “Speedy” Gonsalves, Harash Channa, Ron Rosario. Kayo Rosario joined Ron, or was it the other way around? To sing a few Japanese popular songs. Paul and yours truly put together “Falling in Love With You” and the performer of the evening was our very gifted Sardar Amaraj Singh Nain, displaying some fantastic leg work – shades of Elvis – in addition to singing “Tutti Fruity”. Our ladies had whole heartedly participated in the revelry, right till the closing time for our last dinner.
At such a time, there is always a regret that the reunion was now drawing to an end. Amaraj indicated that the next reunion would be in Goa. A vote of thanks was proposed for Nand Hiranandani and Shashi Shantagiri, who had both, so ably shouldered the responsibility of organizing the whole show.
Our last meal together, in the morning of the 1st of March, which finally brought curtain down was interspersed with farewells and optimism that we would meet again. We went our separate ways, most of us reaching our destinations by midnight. Little did we know of the providential escape that Arnab & Maushumi had en route by air to Kolkata, after one of the aircraft’s engines caught fire at an altitude of about 7000 ft. Their pilot shut the engine down, flew the aircraft and executed a safe landing on only one engine at Mumbai. They were able to resume their journey and landed in the wee hours of the morning. Maushumi gave us, next morning, a very vivid description of the fireworks she witnessed in midair just outside her cabin porthole! A very sobering end to what otherwise, was, a very happy interlude in our lives. Cheeeeeers!!!!!!
NAND HIRANANDANI LIGHTING A CANDLE FOR OUR DEPARTED BATCHMATE
CANDLES FOR ALL THOSE GONE BEFORE US
STANDING : C.N.ALEXANDER, U.V.GOKHALE,S.K. SHANTAGIRI, RANJIT BATRA, A.S.NAIN,S.K.KANWAR, P.P.S. AULAKH, JELJIT MANI,R.D.SUDARSHAN, PAUL GONSALVES, SANAT BHATE, SOMAN MANI RON D.’ROSARIO
SITTING : JOHN PAISLEY, N.ALLWYN, N. HIRANANDANI, S.BATRA, A. SEN, H. CHANNA, A.D. MOGHE
STANDING: P.GOSALVES, N.ALLWYN, S.BHATE, A.D.MOGHE, S.K.KANWAR, C.N.ALEXANDER, R.BATRA, U.V.GOKHALE, A. SEN, J.PAISLEY, S.BATRA, N.HIRANANDANI, H.CHANNA, A.S.NAIN, R.D.SUDARSHAN, S.K.SHANTAGIRI, JELJIT MANI,SOMAN MANI,R.D’ROSARIO,ELIZABETH MANI, P.P.S. AULAKH, GOGI AULAKH
SITTING : CATHY GONSALVES, SHAILA SHANTAGIRI, BENSINA BHATE,SUJATRA MOGHE,SHANTA ALEXANDER,SHABNUM GOKHALE, MAUSUMI, UMA BATRA, POORNIMA CHANNA, NEELAM SUDARSHAN, EZRA, AUDREY PAISLEY, SHALINI KANWAR
STANDING: SOMAN, SURESH, ARNAB, HARASH, RIPPU, NORMAN,JELJIT, PAUL,CARL, ELIZABETH AND EZRA
SITTING: SHANTA, POORNIMA, MAUSUMI,NEELAM,SHALINI,SHAILA,GOGI,CATHY