The moment the first bars of the school song Hail! Hail! the name we own started, every Martinian joined in (picture above). It was their Annual Bonfire Reunion, organised by Association of La Martiniere Alumni (ALMA) in association with The Telegraph, at the La Martiniere for Girls grounds on December 29 where around 900 former students had gathered. The evening was all about meeting faces new and old, selfies and groupfies, grooving to music and digging into a sumptuous dinner. The band Barefoot and DJ Sheikh kept everyone on their feet. “We all look forward to this day. Everyone makes it a point to come back to where they belong. May there be many more reunions,” said John Rafi, principal, La Martiniere for Boys.

The ALMA committee. “It was nice to see the galaxy of Martinians reunite and renew old ties, which is the very essence of a reunion. For all of us, it is coming back to school and reliving old days,” said Jayajit Biswas (back row, third from the right), the honorary secretary of ALMA.

Nikhil Patnaik and Alex Nunes (left) met in college in Ohio, later the duo figured both are La Martiniere alumni. While Nikhil is from La Martiniere for Boys, Calcutta, Alex finished his schooling from La Martiniere Lyon, France. “La Martiniere Lyon is a co-education school, while here the boys have to cross the road to meet the girls,” chuckled Alex. 

These boys of 2014 batch think the road dividing the girls’ and boys’ schools is “the biggest tragedy” of their school life! ALMA reminds us of: “Tiffin breaks in between classes before the actual break and bullying the juniors for treats.”

This gang of friends from the 2010 batch joked about how some of them spent more time outside school. 
ALMA reminds us of: “The rule of not being allowed to loiter in the malls wearing school uniform. We would still bunk school and go to different malls. After getting caught, our parents used to be called to school.”

(L-R) Nikita Mehta, Sanjana Goel, Sagarika Choudhury, Dithi Basu and Ishana Ghosh of 2016 batch took their customary groupfie. 
ALMA reminds us of: “How we used to hide chalk and duster before class started, so that the teacher could not teach.”

Devika Saraf (right) and Vanshika Agarwala (centre) of 2010 batch took a groupfie with Rupkatha Sarkar, principal of La Martiniere for Girls. 
ALMA reminds us of: “Bunking classes and chilling in the field. Our parents were also called when we got caught.”

Sadaf Hossain (centre) and Mariam Zaki (right) of 2014 with a friend. ALMA reminds us of: “Haunted hostel stories!” said the ex-students. 

(L-R) Sharang Majumdar, Suyash Tibrewal and Vedant Seth of 2011 batch raised a toast to their friendship. 
ALMA reminds us of: “How we used to close windows and switch off the lights in the classroom before the teacher came in, so that we could waste time, opening them... we used to deliberately make noise so that the teacher could not teach. We were the naughtiest batch.”

The oldest Martinian at the party was Anjan Dey of 1959 batch. 
ALMA reminds me of: “Chasing the girls on bicycle! Those days, we used to hire cycles for four hours and chase the girls from La Martiniere for Girls on Park Street and then my dad would come chasing us.” 

2016 batch ruled the open-air dance floor. DJ Sheikh got them dancing to tracks like Subha hone na de and Sunny sunny. 
ALMA reminds us of: “Our Socials! It was an epic night. The boys stood on one side of the room and the girls on the other. Our teachers would try their level best to convince us to go to the dance floor,” said Misam Hashmi (right, in picture above).