St Paul’s 1993 Batch plan a REUNION — they have set an amazing example of using the internet to maintain school bonds — theirs truly is friendship of the 21st century!

Carefree & joy–filled days of school can never be forgotten. In so many ways they continue to influence every stage of our life’s journey. This is especially the case with about 160 students who finished their schooling from St Paul’s, Belgaum in 1993. Each batch-mate walked a path on his own terms, many scaling new heights in India and beyond her shores. Now after 15 years, they will come together to share their rich experiences.

The ‘Paulites of 93’ are indeed a very unique batch. They have stayed in touch via a yahoo-egroup since the past 7 years. But, what makes their story really fascinating is that even after so many years their intensity of communicating has not waned. In fact, the year 2008 saw an average of greater than 250 emails clocked each month; one month reaching an astounding 600 emails!

In 2003, precisely 10 years after completing school, they met to relive school days, with about 110 batchmates attending the reunion. Now after another 5 years, they plan to meet again. The planning of the second reunion began about 6 months ago via the egroup. Mr. Rahul Chingale (founder of the Paulites egroup) told this blog, “It is thanks to the egroup we know who is married or getting married — who has kids and how many — and who works where and lives in which city or country”.  He and several others in the batch are ardent promoters of uniting the batch through the egroup. Mr Kiran Nippanikar, another enthusiastic Paulite said, “During the 2003 Reunion, donating part of the funds to an Old Age Home set a very solid example of how we should conduct ourselves to help society. This Reunion we intend to use a similar approach by diverting part of the reunion funds to assist the school in whatever ways possible”.

Many batchmates abroad are super-duper excited about the prospects of meeting school friends. They have booked tickets almost 4 to 5 months in advance. Like them, batchmates scattered all across India have been deeply involved in the planning process. The massive flurry of activity on the egroup is a testimony of the level of excitement within the batch of coming together. It is not just the Reunion that is the primary topic of discussion on the egroup — recommendation for jobs and exchange of professional information also takes a lion’s share. During these hard times of global recession, Mr Kiran Patil has stepped up to create a professional database of the batch which could be used in the years to come as a career boosting tool.

The 2008 reunion will be held on the 27^th December in Camp, Belgaum at the school campus. There will be several unique sessions held; one of which is called the “Chronicles of 1993”. Mr. Devikant Birje who is making this happen said that the “Chronicles of 1993” would be a collection of events and pranks played in school, for example — it could be incidents involving stealing the teachers’ cake, wild fights, copying during exams, and even extreme confessions of final-exam paper leaks. Already, many batchmates have contributed to these chronicles via the egroup. The goal of this session will be to recreate these memories and turn them into a book accompanied with a short film.

The Paulites of 1993 sure know how to throw party and yet make it meaningful. This blog will report their story as it unfolds. Best wishes to them for decades to come!

Edited by PDK