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Udupi : Milagres College, Kallianpur, B. A. 1981 batch students reunion after 41 years at UVA Meridian Bay Resort and Spa, Koteshwar near Kundapur held on Monday, May 23, 2022.

Together once again growing old at the same time looking back at memories, they have got older but still young at heart with excitement, joy filled the hearts meeting each other, sharing life’s journey stories and memories.

The get together of 21 Alumni of the B. A. batch 1981 that came together four decades after they left the college campus. Alumni of B. A. batch 1981 now they are working in various professions had not met after them graduating from the Milagres College, Kallianpur. The idea to reunite came after Collin D’Souza who met two days prior to Covid lockdown, to Arundathi at Homeopathic shop at Udupi. While Collin heard the voice of Arundathi which she was heard before and she recognized her. So, she asked her that you are Arundathi. She said yes. It was the moment of joy with each other. Yes, it was the moment and starting point of idea of reunion with other classmates of their batch.

The excitement was palpable. It had all started off when some enthusiastic classmates formed WhatsApp group. There were 52 classmates and four students are passed away. It would be glad to say that 43 students of BA batch 1981 are joined to the WhatsApp group called Milagres College 1981 batch. The solid contribution to form the WhatsApp group by various batch mates are Collin D’Souza, Divakar Shetty, Nithyananda Shetty, Shivaram Shetty, Jennifer Mendonca Buthello, Arundathi and others.

They did not even know what messages to post. Back in the 1980s, the boys and girls had been too limited to have much to do with each other, forget interacting the way today’s generation does. At the beginning getting our college batch mates together was a very arduous task. It has difficult to locate them after such a long span of time, but gradually the group grew, very slowly at the first then faster to over 43 members.

Now, under the leadership of some, there was idea to get together in any place. Firstly, the group members decided to have got together at Uppinakote river side. But, due to pre-monsoon predictions, it was decided to have meeting together at UVA Meridian Resorts and Parks at Koteshwar.

Nothing beats a college alumni group of friends from a time when they are incapable of selfishness. As social beings, they are crave for opportunities to exchange their collective memories, ideas, views, experiences, opinions and agendas and an alumni get together is just the occasion with old friends whom they have not met for more than four decades.

Though they all met after 41 long years, the spirit and the liveliness remained the same. Despite, not being in touch with each other for over four decades - after passing out from the Milagres College – the bond they once shared did not vanish. They spoke, they laughed, they played, and they went down the memory lane and made sure they are all still young like during their college days.

The reunion programme that lasted for 8 hours, witnessed 21 of the 43 members of the group coming together after 41 years, where they recollected the good old memories, shared their life stories, played interesting games on water park, exhibited their hobbies, eating together in solid breakfast and highly served in star restaurant and what not.

Speaking with kemmannu.com, Divakar Shetty Past President of Udupi district Bar Association said that he had a fantastic experience meeting his friends, who were not in touch for long time. Wonderful experience and enjoyed the lot.

Veerappa Naik retired manager of Canara Bank said that though we all had an instinct to meet for the last several years, we could finally fix the day and were able to meet today. I am so glad to see that my classmates who are all senior citizens now, have come all the way from Mumbai, Bangalore, Mangalore and other places to attend the fantastic get together of ours.

Arundathi, retired Bank Officer of Syndicate Bank said that it is the beginning and in future also we will meet again and will get our friendship alive with certainly more number of our batch mates.