Music, dance, fireworks & clicks as ALSOC reunion celebrates fab 40, with The Telegraph
Music, dance, fireworks & clicks as ALSOC reunion celebrates fab 40, with The Telegraph
From sharing chips to old pictures, more than 1,500 former students and teachers of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School got together at the 40th ALSOC (Alumnorum Societas) reunion of St. Xavier’s School Old Boys’ Association, in association with The Telegraph, on the school grounds on December 23. ALSOC felicitated its past presidents, secretaries and conveners on the occasion. The highlight of the evening was a performance by percussionist Apoorv Singh, after which DJ Harish churned out some peppy music to bring everyone on their feet.
TT Bureau
Published 12.01.18, 12:00 AM
From sharing chips to old pictures, more than 1,500 former students and teachers of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School got together at the 40th ALSOC (Alumnorum Societas) reunion of St. Xavier’s School Old Boys’ Association, in association with The Telegraph, on the school grounds on December 23. ALSOC felicitated its past presidents, secretaries and conveners on the occasion. The highlight of the evening was a performance by percussionist Apoorv Singh, after which DJ Harish churned out some peppy music to bring everyone on their feet.
The school was also decorated with laser beams.
(L-R) Debarghya Sarkar, Durjoy Das and Arghya Sarkar of 2017 (Class XII) are happy that they had to only move to the other side of the field after their school days were over. “We miss our classroom and eating in between classes but we are happy that our college is just across the field, so we can go to school anytime we want,” said Durjoy.
(R-L) Father Benny Thomas, the principal of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, felicitated Pradyumn Kajaria and Partha Paul, joint conveners of the reunion. “The annual reunion is a great event. The old boys come back to school to relive the past. This is the best way to recollect memories and meet old teachers and friends,” said Father Thomas.
The evening started with a felicitation of past presidents, secretaries and conveners, acknowledging their contribution to ALSOC. “It was a successful reunion with old boys coming from all over and enjoying. There was record crowd this year,” said ALSOC managing member Dipen Datta.
DJ Harish (left), a Xaverian, set the mood with numbers such as Kala chashma, Nashe si chadh gayi, Under Pressure and Roadhouse Blues.
Celebrating 40 years of the ALSOC reunion, two giant ‘40’s, one decorated with lights and another with fireworks, stood on the ground. Former students captured them in their phones.
The 2011 batch (Class XII) boys relived the old times. “The naughtiest thing we have done is to hide cellphones in our teacher’s bag! Also, our last day of school is worth remembering. We were making paper planes and throwing them in front of the principal’s office,” said Debojit Dey (in white).
Rejoy Banerjee (extreme right) of the 1987 (Class X) batch shows some old pictures to friends. “This is the first reunion I am attending. I have missed out the fun all these years,” Rejoy said.
Jaideep Sen (left) and Joseph Geo of the 1978 (Class X) batch could not hold back their excitement when they met. “I live in New Zealand so I plan my trips keeping this day in mind. This is the 40th year so I had to make it,” said Joseph after hugging Jaideep.
The batch of 1980 (Class X) called themselves Sexy 80. “When the teacher would ask us a mathematical question, we would give an answer from history,” recalled Sanjay Bajoria (with hat).
Christopher Vaz (left) of the 1981 batch (Class X) took the customary dualfie with a batchmate.
Ashish Chandhok (right) with wife Priyanka and Rajiv Bhatia of the 1988 batch (Class X). “We have a WhatsApp group called SXC 1988 with more than 150 members. It helps us stay in touch. The group gets more active when the reunion is around the corner,” said Rajiv.
The highlight of the reunion was liquid drumming by percussionist Apoorv Singh. He surprised everyone when he started performing on tables and lamps. “Music can be created out of anything in this world,” he said.
Dushyant Todi (left) of the 1992 batch and Ravi Rajgarhia of the 1989 batch (Class X) shared a packet of chips for old time’s sake.
(L-R) Sharat Singh and Amish Raja from the batch of 1990 were the first ones to hit the dance floor
