How two enterprising and creative friends made a mini re-union a life-time remembrance

Muthu(left) and Spy(right) in action

This is the story of how two non-comprising, creative, enterprising minds and loving hearts made a normal re-union meeting of college batch mates into a super grandiose event that will be remembered forever thereby setting a new benchmark for anyone else to emulate.

A small group of ‘85 Batch mates 18 in number from BITS, Pilani (including this author) decided to have a mini re-union in Mumbai as a precursor to the actual Silver Jubilee Meet(SJM) happening in October 2014. Under normal circumstances all of them had the option to gather at a restaurant, have a bash and bid bye-bye. But that would have been another run-of-the-mill meet with least scope for the event to be remembered, thought my two friends Muthuram Natarajan(aka Muthu) and Milind Joshi( aka SPY).

Mind you, both of them have their own things to do in the busy and fast life of Mumbai where every minute counts. While Muthu works as General Manager – India and Middle East with Warner Bros., Spy is a busy consultant and runs his own company called Isha Enterprises.  Their busy schedules didn’t deter them from planning meticulously and taking some time off to make the reunion of just 18 members a grand gala event with the creation of Pilani feel in the heart of Mumbai in around 500 sft banquet hall called Caves, located in Andheri at literally no cost. Please read on how they did it and you will not stop appreciating their ingenuity.

First and foremost, they used technology and kept constantly communicating with the group on Telegram to keep the excitement on. They did not let know anyone about their plans except for informing six others from Mumbai that Mumbaikars would be the hosts for the event.

The highlight of the reunion was the creation of Pilani feel starting with the entry point at which a standee was placed with all the nick names of friends as they were called in BITS, the host’s names at the bottom and the friends from other cities at the top.

At the first landing of the stair case was a standee carrying the flexi of the great Shri. G.D.Birla because of whom so many lives have changed in this country including ours. He was the founder of Birla Engineering College, Pilani which was later rechristened as BITS in the year 1964. It was very touching that my friends expressed such gratitude to the founder as gratitude is the hall mark of an evolved personality.

At the second landing of the stair case is the standee carrying the flexi of Giris- a popular joint where we used to frequent for a cup of tea and ‘jilebee’. Waiters were posted here with cups, tea flask and ‘jilebee’ to welcome the guests.

After this, as we enter the hall, there are two big banners of the main campus( then and now) hung on the walls which immediately makes one sweetly nostalgic and the heart gets incensed with pure sentiment. Just adjacent is a smaller flexi sign of Sharma restaurant known for its ‘aloo parota’ and hard tasty curds. The most pleasant surprise is the sign reading ‘SKYLAB’ Restaurant at the place designated for serving drinks. Skylab was the most popular location on campus where most of us gathered. It was well landscaped with 'cushiony' grass and water body flowing through from one end to the other in the middle of it. The biggest attraction of Skylab was not its beauty but a person called Pappu whom everyone liked and loved with no holds barred. His was the ever smiling face I had ever seen till then. His milk shakes with various fruit flavors and cold coffee are still fresh in our memories. The greatest characteristic of Pappu was speedy service with a smile while at the same time throwing temper tantrums without hurting anyone.  There was a small standee showing Hercules whose statue stands tall in front of the Museum of our campus. You wouldn't find a BITSian who would not be awestruck with the statue every time he/she sees it.

In BITS hostels, though there were individual rooms for every student, the bathrooms, called as BOGS, were common for every 6/12/24 rooms depending on which wing of the hostel one’s room is. The bathroom doors made of iron were painted in dark green (was it to bring out the graffiti talent of BITSians!!!). Some guys used the doors to express their creativity by writing frequently spoken words on the doors with a chalk. So thoughtful and creative are my two friends that they got a flexi printed in green color with all the words they could recollect on the flexi and got it placed on the restroom door of the banquets hall which actually camouflaged the door. Only when we were told that it is a restroom did we realize it.

The waiters five in number were dressed in a T-shirt (of course they wore pants too) that read PILANI – 0 kms – 333031. There was a DJ to rev up the ‘spirits’ and was specifically instructed to play songs that were popular during our times in the campus. The most liked being the Eagle’s Hotel California song, Kishore Kumar’s ‘Pyaar Hame Kis mode pe le aaya’ from the film Satte pe Satta.

Drinks and munching were arranged for everyone as per pre-collected information on preferences. After all the friends landed, a memento, a nice mug with few campus pictures and the individual ID number of each friend printed on it was gifted to each one. This was last of all the pleasant surprsies.

With all the above in place, there was high energy that radiated in the hall and lot of fun and reminiscing while enjoying the evening which went on late into night and a few hours after the date changed in the calendar.

This is how my two friends made a simple re-union into a grandiose event that can be pleasantly remembered in a life time. They proved that anything can be done in a great manner if only one worked with his heart and soul in it.

It would be good to acknowledge the presence of 15 friends other than Muthu and Spy namely Mitra Priya, Divya Sundaresan, Lokanathan, Anand Prakash, Bejoy Joseph George, L V Prasad, Alladi Sridhar, Sridhar Kalyanam, Sanjay Singh, Mayank Gour, Manish Bhatnagar, Ratnesh Kumar, Chakrapani Mantena, Mukesh Agarwal and Rajesh Raju without whom the re-union would not have turned out the way it did.