Class of 84

Whew! Time flies. What do you remember of your days at MCC? I was thinking of this question that Don, our senior and creator of the classof1984@mcc.com asked.

I asked Vijay my eldest son, ” Have you heard of Indra Nooyi. She is from MCC”. He looked at me, a look that said, ” So what?”. So I shall let that pass.

We the class of 84 will soon be unofficially celebrating 25 years of completing our graduation. The reunion in August is truly one. I have not seen many of my class mates since moving on. I hope they carry a name badge. I surely shall. The class of 81 MCC School reunion was a memorable one.

I remember the first three days of initiation by fire. We the freshers, junior pissa kattans, ( Kattan means forest dweller  It also means unrefined, uncouth) were being ragged( give the dog a name and kill it) into becoming refined, polished gentlemen ( the guys passing out of MCC were called Gentlemen of MCC). In comparison, the guys from Loyola grimaced at being called Slaves of Loyola. Those from Pachayappa’s were Rowdies. Only the Presidency College had something better than what we did. They were called the princes of presidency.

The free hours ( remember no more periods, some one said, your reach menopause in college) were spent in the ditches near the cafe. The cafe was the first place I  had beef. Many of the guys in the cafe were mallus, one was from my town near cherpalacherry and all of them were football lovers.

What else do I remember. Oh, of course being lucky having six friends from school ( Thomo, Babu, Arul, Sai, Pappan, Michael) in the same class in college. I remember passionately chasing the soccer ball while most of my college  friends were busy chasing dreams, girls, guys, careers and not in that order.. I have this theory that school friends last longer than college friends.

I remember being part of the college soccer team from the first year, of practicing hard with Philip Naka, Devasigamani, Shammem, Bahman, Modelley and so on. My biggest achievement was playing for the University of Madras in the third year and being crowned the best midfielder in South India.

I remember Sai and I taking a walk to the lake.You see MCC had a 600 acre campus. It had a lake, a farm, and about ten football size playgrounds, four hostels, an international guesthouse, residences for professors and staff. Sylvan is a word to describe my alma mater. On this occassion, it started raining and there was no shelter nearby. So we got wet and walked back. One professor, I forget his name, was blissfully getting wet in the rain outside his house in the garden, and still continuing to water his plants. Even to this date, Sai and I have cramps doubling up with laughter thinking of it.

I remember Viju and I cycling to the beach and running very near the water barefoot. He of the famous bear hug almost crushed me till I fainted.  I remember the train journeys from Tambaram to Chetput with Arun, Stephen, Regi, Sekar and many others. I remember Jo Tom and his music. His ‘hole in the bucket’ song was awesome. But I remember him for being a friend and for teaching me a lesson. I was too lazy to change a two buck note. I offered a discount of 25 paise to him if he offered me the change. He made as if he was taking out the change but pocketed my two bucks all the way to the cafe, where he got change, kept his 25 paise and made me follow him doing all this. I could have done this myself.

I remember Sandra and Jo my good pals. Sandra called me onion, which I explained to her was younger brother in Malayalam and she kept at it.

I remember that I learnt more outside the classrooms of MCC than within. Yes, the college gave me confidence to face the world. We had some great profs too.Prof Swaminathan who went out of the way to help me get admission. I liked his lectures. He was brilliant and taught us to think.You couldnt write an exam listening to him. But he spoke of the real world which lesser teachers couldnt.  I also liked Prof Rajkumar for his ‘pacing about’ lectures. We became great friends after I left college. He offered me a position on the faculty when he became head of the department. It is another story that I didnt join him. I also liked Prof ChandraDas for his interest in football. He was very friendly on the ground, but that didnt translate into internal marks.

I remember eating at Pappan’s place many times with friends. He stayed inside the campus and his dad was also the controller of exams. Thomo, o captain, my captain and Babu gave up football after school, but were my best pals, always supportive of me.

I look forward to the reunion. So much water and muck has flowed down the river of life since those wonderful days.