Golden Jubilee Reunion of the Batch of 1974

Our first dinner was on the dunes outside the resort, and you could even opt to hitch a bullock cart ride to transport you the short distance.  The Rajasthani food (including the prized laal maas) was excellent and artisans showing off their creations, women cooking fresh millet rotis and Rajasthani folk musicians completed the atmosphere. And the feelings that flowed as we Old Boys lined up for drinks at the bar and met around the sigris.  

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 The cultural highlights of any trip to the Shekhawati region where Mandawa is located has to be a visit to the beautiful havelis built by the Marwari merchant class which were intended as a statement of their wealth and status.  Sundeep had picked out the Kamal Morarka Haveli and the Poddar Haveli in the nearby town of Nawalgarh as prime examples for us to visit and we were stunned by the grandeur of the fabulous frescoes and the intricacies of the architecture on display. Our large party was divided up into four groups which alternated between the havelis with a guide who showed us the collections of miniature paintings, bridal costumes, jewellery and musical instruments.  We found it a fascinating educational journey into the rich history and heritage of the Marwari community!

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Back in Mandawa our stay concluded with a visit to the grand Castle Mandawa, the ancestral home of the Mandawa family where a sumptuous repast was laid out for us under a moonlit sky in a secluded garden within the castle walls.  Fuelled by large quantities of Indri single malt and several other intoxicants, our happy group of senior citizens cut loose and boogeyed the night away to the immortal rock songs that we grew up on in the ‘70s, hands-down favourites being Elton John’s Teacher I Need You and Alice Cooper’s School’s Out! The cerebral Alok “Mental’’ Mathur on his first visit back to school after he graduated in 1974 described the feeling eloquently “One fanned the embers of stray memories from our boyhood days spent together at Mayo, recalled schoolboy situations and the teachers who had influenced us in different ways, the warmth of friendship glowed anew. It was also lovely to see all the sparkling and stylish Mayo spouses, bonding with equal gusto and adding much colour and gaiety to our gathering’’

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Swapping one princely residence for another we departed Mandawa the next morning in a motley caravan of cars and buses to drive over 200 Km to Pratap Mahal, a Taj property located just outside Ajmer in Pushkar, easily the best place to stay in the area and befitting the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Batch Without A Match. We were made to feel very welcome by the entire staff from the GM Devendra Ratnawat ’85 complete with Mayo signage and flags everywhere you looked. 

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In the evening following the Special Assembly for Old Boys the highlight was the performance of the school play Dead Poets Society at the Bikaner Pavilion.  The students of the Dramatics Society did an excellent job but what was all the more impressive to us Old Boys was even the choice of play with its themes of breaking free from tradition and rebellion against authority, something unimaginable during our times! Clearly the old alma mater had come a long way, a sentiment best expressed by Ashwini “Ghoda’’ Kumar who said of his homecoming ‘’Fifty years have gone by and what did I find? A Mayo with an excellent campus that had further been enhanced with outstanding new infrastructure and facilities; superbly executed extracurricular activities; an active and responsive administration striving to keep our school up to the challenge of a rapidly changing world and, not least of all, polite and courteous students !!’’ And in a final flourish of enthusiasm “Would I want to come back to Mayo should I ever be reincarnated? A most emphatic, YES… Back to the future!’’

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 Day Two at Mayo had us all running around the central campus area centred around the main building in a desperate bid to solve clues within an hour that would take us to different parts of the campus.  Sundeep had ingeniously devised this ‘Down Memory Lane’ game and divided us all up into teams who were given six rhyming cryptic clues like “Didn’t get the Honours but you made this list.  Game, set…surely by now you get the gist’’ As one of the spouses Anjali Malhotra remarked “It was a perfect blend of fun, teamwork, and discovery, reminding us of the school’s rich history while forging bonds within our mixed boys-and girls gangs.”

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In the afternoon many of us made the journey to see our old senior houses and dorms our heavier footsteps retracing the path that we had taken as schoolboys 50 years ago.  Two visitors from as far away as the West Coast of the US described their feelings:  Rajesh “Sam” Suri was moved to tears on seeing his old room in Ajmer House while Rajive ‘’Baggy’’ Bagrodia remembered vividly the resounding slap he got from his HM for peeing off the balustrade in Jodhpur House!!  Both felt that “the days simply flew by, and it was like we were meeting each other after mere months apart, certainly not several decades’’ and ‘’it was a very special feeling hard to explain, like meeting a lost family member after decades of them being missing in your life’’ 

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But by unanimous acclaim the piece de resistance was the school musical concert which left the entire ’74 batch spellbound and starstruck.  Ram Mohoni recalls ‘’We came expecting a simple ensemble of flute, sitars, tablas and violins like in our times but were blown away by a 500 person orchestra playing 58 instruments which delivered a performance worthy of Carnegie Hall in the magnificent Kangra outdoor amphitheatre”  Fulsome praise came from another musician from our batch Rajive ‘’Baggy’’ Bagrodia, ‘’The performers and the performances themselves were superb, from resonant Indian spiritual chants, high-energy Bollywood song and dance productions, to the Chopin piano solo and Sultans of Swing by the Arpeggios, the college rock band !’’  Ritu Gill was moved to tears ‘’by the level of talent, dedication, endearing enthusiasm and sheer joy’’ displayed by the fresh-faced young boys in front of her.

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 Prizegiving Day dawned bright and sunny with the majestic backdrop of Madar framing the colourful assembled gathering seated at the Bikaner Pavilion and spilled over onto the Central Ground in front.  Students, parents, Old Boys, teachers and administrative staff all dressed up in their best finery. The Class of ’74 was out in full strength with the ladies in colourful saris and the men in black jodhpuris and proudly tied custom-designed blue safas and occupied pride of place in the topmost tiers of the pavilion.  The new Principal Saurav Sinha gave a heartfelt speech in which he paraphrased lyrics from the Beatles ending his homily with ‘’Mayo, in my life I love you more” which caused my buddy Ashwani ‘Fonta’ Prasad to trip down memory lane once again.  Finally, we all trooped over to the Mughal Gardens for high tea and the obligatory batch photo with Prithviraj Singh (trust him not to read the dress code) resplendent in his white jodhpuri looking like a lonesome white dove leading a pack of black wolves with blue headgear!

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And what of the record number of wonderful spouses that accompanied this League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on their lifetime journeys brought full circle at the 50th?  What stood out for Tusha Gupta was to see ‘’the child in each of these men brought back to life with their camaraderie, energy, naughtiness playfulness and the sheer reliving of the fun that they experienced as students all those years ago”   Anjali  Malhotra attending a reunion for the first time, waxed emotional and eloquent ‘’the 50th Golden Jubilee offered me the privilege of witnessing all those legendary Mayo stories come to life—and becoming part of them. It was not just a gathering; it was a celebration of a legacy that embraced us all, including the wives, with open arms”