Golden Jubilee Anniversary of Admission (1972-2022)

It would be a mere repetition of a fact, if I say that the awesome memories of our 10th December 2022 will remain in the minds of all my batchmates forever. The event is over, but I cannot resist the temptation to recapitulate every moment of the day with the same nostalgia, which overwhelm our mind, for another 10th December … down our memory lines – fifty years ago, the day when we all, the friends of 1972 admission batch, stepped inside the campus. And, on 10th December 2022 which means after fifty years of our landing In the campus, we all gathered in our beloved college to celebrate the half century of our bondage.

The celebration was obvious, with all young (don’t judge by age) go getters of two WA group, উচ্ছল একঝাঁক and BEC 77, and also an organizer like Kamdeb. The enthusiasm for participation went up with high spirit and the special WA ‘Events Group’ – meant for such occasions, started receiving record number of posts every day. Almost all friends across the globe jumped into action!

With the able support from friends like Himu, Hasu, Hara, Khanchacha, Leto, Mrinmoy, Sadhan, Prasun, Soham, Bhisma, Gaga, Asim (excuse me, if I miss out anyone’s name, by mistake) – the team took their self-target and challenge for a maximum participation in the celebration. Asim and other group members utilized the WhatsApp amazingly to propagate every development to all group members. No wonder, the excitement level would reach out the peak point on morning of 10th December – the sunshine day. and it reached the peak too.

Prasanta added a novel idea of felicitating of our teachers as a part of the event and all friends wholeheartedly supported him. Asim performed the arduous task of contacting all teachers and inviting them for the occasion. Prasanta managed the task of collection of the fund for the felicitation with precision. The challenge of selection of suitable articles to be presented as tributes to our teachers was dealt with due care by Sushovan, Letu, Sohom, Songjomi and myself. Almost all invitees, excepting very few indisposed teachers, graced the occasion and thankfully acknowledged the love and respect of their students. The whole function was managed by our darling Anjana, duly supported by Ratna and Sanghashree.

To add, as a bonus, there was a mini celebration of marriage anniversary day of Sukanta and Anjana with a jumbo cake! We, specially the women folk ensured their ceremonial মালাবদল with উলুধ্বনি. Our Haradhan could arrange flowers and decorated the bride and groom’s car. Another attraction of the Event was distribution of Memento specially designed for each batchmates, with their names embossed. It is a brainchild of Abboy, who single handedly managed everything – from collection of money, designing, to get it ready by the stipulated date all by himself. Abboy got hundred out of hundred in the job and won all the hearts. Anjana conducted the distribution part of it with excellence as she always does. Ratna and Sanghasree too helped Anjana.

Our event was also marked with a surprise. স্মরণীকা, a beautiful magazine published by Asim. It was not known to anyone, except another batchmate who is our মেঘনাদ, always offering his supports and services from behind the curtain. Kamdeb, the crusader with a mission to squeeze out as many “Mr. Writer” as possible among his old pals. He is successful in discovering several hidden talents among us, who are already in the list of authors of স্মরণীকা, a. Kudos to him.

The day started at our Lord’s ground, with সামনে বানিয়ে দেওয়া গরমাগরম জিলিপি and hot tea, followed by other items. The চায়ের ঠেক was লম্বা লম্বা কাঠের বেঞ্চিতে বসে মাটির ভাঁড়ে চা, এক্কেবারে সামনে গ্যাসের উনুনে জল ফুটিয়ে দুধ চিনি দিয়ে গরম গরম বানিয়ে দিচ্ছে (মেশিনে বানানো চা নয়), took us back to the days of ‘70s when our adda on tea often used to be at Gopal-da’s shop (2nd gate) or Anukul-da’s shop and Pandit-ji’s shop at 1st gate. It was Asim’s idea, to have unlimited tea throughout the day, and at the end we could realise that we consumed average 5-6 cups of tea in those 6-7 hours. We had so much of talks on mostly non-sense topics, with many of us had the liberty as well as the golden opportunity to use raw selective words (খিস্তি) amongst us, that can’t be said loudly. These were used carefully, only when the teachers and the ladies’ community was far off.

We couldn’t realise how our daylong fun flew so fast. The Sun started leaning towards west and like all other good things our event ended with a happy note. Participants said goodbye to each other with a hope to meet again soon.

Without the unrelenting support of batchmates it would not been possible to make such a grand celebration, with a special mention of Kamdeb for leading the show. The proud moments were also marked with Abboy’s Memento।

Teamwork and love for friends was the call of the day to make it a grand success. And yes, the spirited batchmates, those took admission in 1972 passed the human exam with flying colours.