PSG Tech reunion

As July 2018 dawned and dragged by, I could see a few of flurries of excitement here and there. There were subtle blips of happiness on the online radar too. Some of us were proudly announcing our itinerary to our happy destination on social media channels. We were all eagerly setting our plans for the big day and the planning committee was working in full momentum. There were invitations to be created and given, momentoes to be ordered, albums to be created, food to be ordered and oh, the list was an endless one. There were online meetings held regularly to plan and execute the things perfectly for the D-day!(Sitting inside the planning Whatsapp group was a special privilege(and one place I really managed to keep quiet! :)) and I could see the umpteen number of things that had to be done to make this day perfect and kudos to all of them to make it happen)
Where was this and what was happening?
This was the silver jubilee celebration for the Class of ’93/94 BE/BE(SW) of the alumni of PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India on July 27th, 2018. Going back to one’s alma mater is always a warm feeling for anyone, and visiting it, 25 years after graduation is extra special!! 🙂 Many of the alumni traveled from as far as the US, UK, Mexico and other countries to be together and celebrate this special day. 
25 years is a long time in a person’s life. We had grown through highs and lows of personal and professional life. Many of us had become “Sirs and madams” 🙂 in our organization and had reputations that were hard to beat. But still, we all traveled to the one place that made us feel 17 again! 🙂 We could throw all our caution to the wind and experience 1989-1993/94 again for just a day!
July 27, 2018!
The morning of July 27,2018 dawned and I was as usual late! It was 10 a.m. and I finally landed at my alma mater. Who was there? There was everyone(who had promised to come) and after a while I could recognize most of them. It was an amazing feeling to meet the entire(or almost) Class of ’93/94 in person. Even though we all play peek-a-boo on social media and see what others are doing in their life, it is a special feeling to meet everybody in person. We had changed in predictable ways and it really wasn’t difficult to identify everyone after a while. Life hadn’t changed and we were still in 1993/94, right? Nope – unfortunately not… 
For those of us who returned to Coimbatore after 25 years, the changes within the college were phenomenal.  The college had grown by leaps and bounds and there were newer departments. The bridge was absolutely new and traffic in our college was totally new to us! (When we studied, there were only a few buildings near us) Some of our old Professors were still present and it was pleasure to see them and reminisce their teachings(whether they remembered us or not! :))

The morning routine took place with precision. Sitting in the auditorium, recognizing old friends,  and whispering to my friends was a really warm feeling. Prayers were sung, speeches were given, momentoes and the batch report were presented. As the batch report was unveiled, it showed the stellar strength of our batch mates. Each and every one of us had done exceedingly well in life and some had even managed to retire! 🙂
Nostalgia took over and and as were re-living 1989-1993/94 days, we tried to see if the shops we used to visit 25 years ago were still around and we also wanted to see the hostel that housed us for 4 years(though I did not finally get to see the hostel) We wanted to see and experience all things that were present 25 years ago when the only work we had in life was to “study”! 
The evening saw the very popular ‘Tech music’ (songs sung by talented singers) and as the night progressed, it was evident that the glorious day would soon end. There were many who had weekend getaways planned to celebrate the silver jubilee reunion, but for me it was back to routine from the very next day.
As I came back home and was reminiscing the days leading up to July 27,2018 and the very day, I keep thinking when it will be when we will meet again…
On a side note, I observed that the Western world grapples with not having enough women in STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), but we women in the reunion were light years ahead of our times. We, women engineers had conquered the ‘engineering Everest’ years ago and many hold high positions in the industry even today.