50 Golden Years

The original academic building of St. Joseph School at Narinda

The two-day ceremony, which began on February 6, was inaugurated early in the morning, followed by breakfast. Organised by the present students of the school, the various clubs, namely the Scintilla Science Club, Josephite Debating Club, Interact Club, Josephite Chess Club, Josephite Cultural Forum and Josephite Language Club arranged fun-filled events for the old students and their families. Former students of the school, who were each given an identity card for the two-day occasion, were seen enjoying the debate competition, chess contests, extempore speech contests and the various quiz sessions.

Right after lunch, the Cultural Forum began to display their array of programmes. Old classmates screamed with joy when a band from the classes of '95 and '98 performed popular numbers. While talking to the performers from the class of '98, Robin and Fida claimed that they never realised that they would actually gather the courage to go up on stage and sing the famous 'Mary Ann' by Anjan Dutta. 'We were told of this just before lunch, and didn't have much time for preparation.' Smiled the guitarists Amit and Mamun.

The whole school had turned into a fun fair, where not only the young children, but also the reunited friends bunched up together and bought ice cream and puchka for each other. In one of the many stalls, Newaz, a former student was selling T-shirts with the by-line 'My Husband is a Josephite' which literally cracked up everyone around. The old class-time jokes came back to life and fresh laughter was heard all over again on the school campus. The much awaited Miles finally got on stage late in the evening, much to the screaming delight of the spectators.

The frolics continued even on the next day, when the newly renovated basketball court was declared open. To celebrate this moment, a match was organised between the present school basketball team and the St. Joseph's Old Boys Association. After lunch, a special moment, titled 'Reminiscence' was organised, where former students and headmasters voiced their love for the school and school-time stories, followed by a cultural show.

A gala dinner finally marked the end of the event, including the tears and hopeful dreams of coming back together once again in another 50 years.