Train To Mt. Abu From Bandra Terminus 24th September 2004
1. Batch of 1957
2. Batch of 1951 to 1957
3. Domnic
4. Sunil Noronha
Mumbai, 24th September 2004, Bandra Terminus
I headed for Bandra terminus very early as the train was leaving for Abu Road at 9 p.m. It was the last day of immersion of Ganpati and the roads were usually all blocked. Around 7:30 pm I arrived at the station. Not much of a crowd at the station, allot of people sleeping on the floor on their make shift bed's. I had called Dr John and he said he was on the way. Just wondering at the time if he was going to make it in time for the train at 9. Around 8:30 pm he arrived at the station we headed for our train on platform no.4. Towards the end was our 2 tier air condition compartment.
Once we settled down at 9pm the train began to move ahead. We began to notice allot of my elderly people speaking english but didn't seem like locals to me. Realized they were all from abroad. Dr. John pointed out to one of the passersby who he recognized was Michael Andrade. A bald guy with specs, helloed me shook hands and went on his way. Tried to recollect but just couldn't picture his face back in school.
It was getting late I couldn't help hear all these elderly guys talk, talk and make a hell of a racket in the next two tiers before and after us. To our surprise one of them asked if we were St. Mary's ex students and we said YES. These old dudes were ex students from 1950's some of them had come with their kids and families. Surprisingly they seem to have heard about this only on the internet. As we sat and related our old stories between the 1950's and the 1977 era there was a vast difference although we shared a common bond of having bone curry for dinner. Dr. John took out his camera and wasted no time cause this would be one and only chance we would ever get to take pictures of the old students once again.
By the next morning exactly in the next compartment which was the 3 tier air condition we heard there were a couple of guys there. So, Dr John and myself headed out that way only to find none other than Sunil Noronha and Domnic sitting down and chatting. Sunil the same good guy, smart ass remembered him back in school. He and Noel D'Sa use to hang out at the brother's cottage handle the bee hives and the pigeon enclosure they had there. Btw we use to call Noel D'Sa (granny) back then.
Abu Road, 25th September 2004
Around 10:30 am we arrived Abu Road. Took a Jeep for Rs 250/- and headed for Mt. Abu. As we headed up Dr John pinpointed a tree on the way up. He and Ashley Rodrigues had spotted a Golden Oriole's nest in, had come back to take the eggs out. Of course they bunked school to come all the way down there. As we hung on the jeep we stopped at a couple of places to take out photos and headed right up to Toll bar. Took the hotel exactly there which was closest to the school. Although the hotel wasn't good just thought it would be a quicker walk to the school. The entire toll bar area had moved much up ahead and now this didn't look like the Abu we lived at back in 1977.