Rendezvous with Old Friends – 15th August 2014

The gathering on 15th August 2014 was nothing short of exciting. I met up with Sunil Saraogi, Chapparia, Ginoria, Prakash, Pawan, Anish, Ashok, Manish Choudhary, Didwania, Thakkar, Sanjay, Rahul, Jitender, Alok, Anand, Ajay, Sandeep, Dr. Sid, Vikash Modi, Khattry, and a few others. A big thank you to Vikash Khattry for inviting me, as I wasn’t on WhatsApp at the time!

We met just outside Bhikharam in Kankurgachi and waited for a few more friends to arrive. The reunion was as lively as ever, with the typical Tantia-style conversations filling the air. In short, everyone was still the same at heart.

A Few Highlights from the Meet:

• Jain brought roses for everyone. Thanks, bhai!
• Anish has managed to maintain his weight — neither gained nor lost any.
• Didwania and Alok still have their charming faces, and they look like they’re still in their twenties.
• Dr. Sid didn’t show off his clinical skills this time, but he seemed to be the same old alumni of Tantia.
• Jitender and Ashok were the hosts of the party. Big-hearted as always!
• Manish Thakkar looked completely different. His appearance had changed quite a lot.
• Anand was hiding behind dark sunglasses, but still looked sharp.
• Sanjay Jain appeared more civilized than during school days — a pleasant change!
• Manish Choudhary was as expected — unchanged, and probably never will be.
• Pawan was busy doing PR and left after the kachori session.
• Samir Saraogi — we need more people like him who can keep everyone connected and bind the group together.
• Sunil Chapparia looked great! He doesn’t talk like he does on WhatsApp, but still had that boyish charm. Congrats, buddy!
• Sunil Ginoria looked fantastic and didn’t recognize me at first — though I’ll admit, I beat him in the weight-gain department!
• Sandeep Bhansali still carries the same warm smile he had in school. It was clear how happy he was to meet everyone.
• Rahul Sonthalia seemed to be recovering from a neck injury. Hope he's fully recovered now.
• Ajay Chaudhary — hahaha, he really needs to ditch the beard. Otherwise, everything else was good.
• Vikash came late, but he was in good form. Note to Vikash: leave Pan Parag or Rajni Sajni Gandha (Ganda)! It’s killing your communication skills, my friend! But he’s definitely more mature now and seems to have gained a lot of experience.
• Prakash — I reminded him that we once had a fight in school, but he forgot all about it. His face hasn’t changed much, though.
• Manish Jalan — Still has the same height and slim waist!
• Vikash Modi — Looked great and pretty much the same as ever.

I’m sure I’ve missed some people — the names are getting blurry, but after one or two more reunions, I’ll update this page with more memories from the 15th of August meet.

Afterwards, Manish Didwania and others suggested going to "Nashta" — the little shop behind Bhikharam — to enjoy Kachori and Jalebi. It was clear that we couldn’t enjoy the full Tantia-style banter in such a confined space, so we made our way to Nashta.

It was a great decision! We had hot, crispy Kachoris with Aloo Saag and steaming hot Jalebis. Jitender and Ashok were the hosts again, keeping everything in order while we enjoyed round after round of snacks.

People couldn’t stop talking about how Manish Thakkar’s appearance had changed, and how Anand Sancheti still looked so youthful. There were a few forgettable conversations between Manish Didwania and Manish Choudhary, but nothing too serious.

Most of the group seemed to be more focused on having drinks later in the evening. The talk was about a liquor/cocktail party they were planning at Salt Lake.

Enter Khattry… He was given a fresh plate of Kachori, and we all listened to him with great attention.

Nashta was truly blessed that day!

Afterward, we headed to Haryana Sweets near Phool Bagan for tea. The passersby were staring at us, especially since some of us had returned to our “old form.” Our loud voices certainly attracted attention, and we could feel people wondering who these enthusiastic group of friends were.

The conversation shifted to colleagues from past and current jobs, and we shared information about each other. There was a fun little argument about Shuddh Hindi (pure Hindi) between me and Manish. We reminded him that he was once the head boy of Tantia High School — the only head boy who became head boy mid-year after the expulsion of the previous head boy. Manish wasn’t too thrilled to be reminded of that story.

We took some photos to capture the memories and then parted ways. Those photos are now on Facebook for everyone to relive the moment.

Here’s hoping for more such meet-ups in the near future.

Something more on N.N.Mishra ...

Thanks to my brothers for liking my recollections of Tantia days......Lets share some more memories of our great Hindi Teacher . ............... N . N .Mishra ji

It was only N N Mishra who was hard to be utilised by I D Singh for multipurposes. Hence he was given some more additional responsibilities :

• He is the librarian of Tantia High School Library. We were supposed to get one Hindi Book per year to read and return. But were not issued any book from class eight to ten. However, one book I read " Edison ki kahani  in class V , that is still in my memories. After that I could not get any chance to read about the great scientist "Thomas Edison"
• He was the chief coordinator of Tulsi Jayanti , Premchand Jayanti --- i.e. functions in which there was no inter house competition. We used to prepare for songs at Tulsi Jayanti in his Library in the presence of K P Mishra and S D Dwivedi. However, I never saw him singing and to teach how to sing a particular line. Me, Pawan Bhatia, Kunj Bihari Bhatia, Dinesh Vyas ( Now an Acharya -- I appeal every brothers to take his services for Marriage , Namkaran Sanskar and other Mangalik Functions... he is a good acharya / Pandit) , Vijay Agarwal, Vineet Khaitan ( for lecture on Tulsidas ji ) and others. However, the practice were closely monitored by S K Mishra. Sometimes N N Mishra ji was called by I D Singh to update him on practice of Tusli Jayanti and sometimes we had to sing before him... you can imagine ........the pressure of singing before him in his chamber .......... 
• N N Mishra was also a permanent judge in functions of  Antakshari and Inter house Hindi debate. But he was always unbiased at the time of awarding marks during competition. The result of Antakshari and debates were audited by D N Jha and Y Singh and they always used to produce the report with marks just after the lecture of I D Singh after every functions. 
• N N Mishra had nothing to do with Annual school sports. On that day , he used to mingle with classics like J K Singh.
• It was impossible for us to understand the assembly speech of N N Mishra. I think it was hard to understand by a few teachers too. Impeccable hindi was always a challenge for us. Once I heard the word " DRISHITKONE" , after that the entire speech was a bouncer. It was impossible for S K Bhattacharya to understand anything from the speech from N N Mishra
• In our Annual School function we had one section - Hindi 's one act play i.e. EKANKI .. N N Mishra  was the chief supervisor of that One act play ( Natak ). How he used to handle that , its a life long curiosity for me.
• He was our Hindi Prose teacher in Class IX. First term examinations used to held like class test. He challenged us to write answers from Hindi Guide or taking the help of text books ....... he proposed us to take help.........we took help........but none of the boy could pass in that exam. He wrote one line from the first lesson " Meri Jiwan Gatha of Acharya Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi" .. the line was " Mai yadi kisi ka atyachar sahan kar loon , to isse meri sahansheelta ka bodh awasya hota hai , parantu isse mujhe doosron ke uper krodh karne ka adhikar prapt nahi ho jata " ... and he asked the first question from that line " Atyachar kis prakar ka Achar hai" ............. ab kya likhen ????

We realised after leaving the school that we lost a great opportunity to learn a better Hindi. When we were student we did not like some of his lectures, but after I personally felt sorry. 

will update more.............

pls dont consider english general mistakes..........without review I have written everything.

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