A lone squirrel was snacking on the just about to bloom Gulmohar seeds. Like appooppanthaadi those fibrous mass drifted towards my balcony. I was tracking the drifting white mass while taking my 20-20-20 screen break. Just about then, my WhatsApp buzzed!

My class teacher Priya Ma’am’s message. It read – An invitation to Vivekodayam Higher Secondary School’s Silver Jubilee Alumni meet and possibly honoring me as one of the 25 standout students from these 25 years! After my memorable 2003 graduation, I had visited my school just a couple of times and wasn’t in touch with most of my classmates. After a few unsuccessful excuses, I reluctantly agreed realizing the awkward moments this 2 decades of gap may bring!

Gazing back, I realized the busy squirrel had scurried on to the next branch, but my mind had not. Strong winds on the early autumn leaves reminded me of Thrissur’s gusty breeze, my long walks cutting across Thenkinkaadu maithanam, evening bus ride on the ever-faithful private bus to east fort, listening to the popular songs inside those buses on loud speakers and woofers placed under the seat, gasping cycle rides from paying guest house to bus stop and back, early morning entrance classes, and then my favorite 7 to 8 hours at school.

Surprisingly, I don’t have any pictures from those two whirlwind years. 2018 floods destroyed our class picture as well. Hence, my mind shuttled between the inaccurate memories and inadequate documentation as in the book – The Sense of an Ending, stitching its own version of events. They flashed like jumbled postcards from a distant past, moving like the retro View-Master reel with its own seasons and scenes – some vivid, some smudged, some short, some long, some loud, some quiet!

‘Having to explain why my accent doesn’t sound Chalakudy-ish, listening to my friend sing Ennavale for the umpteenth time and still liking it, amazed when he had ‘byhearted’ the entire attendance register and repeating it on demand, another friend who was our google and shazam recalling popular lyrics from memory, hating to sit on iron tables with missing supporting rods, bench mates constantly falling asleep, lending axe oil so that they can keep themselves awake, trip to Veegaland, dancing to Meesha Madavan songs, changing classes for second language, searching for the movie actress in commerce batch, interesting conversations by the staircase, getting bullied, the ever late classmate and his hero cycle, magic show from a classmate, another one’s constantly sweating palms and his ever present handkerchief on the table, famous dancer, sharing lunch boxes when I get frustrated with the same paying guest menu, healthy competition with the toppers in the class, racing to solve mathematics problems jotted on the back of our notebooks, losing a lot and learning from them, helping folks with vector algebra, missing oscillations in pendulums and pungent Chemistry lab, frustrating record writing, winning a lone quiz competition, evening snack time smell from the nearby houses, forcing friends and teachers to read my numerous immature poems and essays, heartbreaks and patch-ups, and more and more and more..” We were all a quirky bunch of impressionable minds!

2001 admissions – I never had a plan to come this far from home and study. The idea of daily entrance coaching was a late decision. We all had to write board exams and be part of a regular curriculum but beyond that, most would admit, the right school never mattered. It was meant to be a 2-year halt station while we prepared for engineering entrance. My parents and I recall meeting Rajagopal Sir and Sathar sir. They made it a point to mention about the committed teachers in Plus 2 and that I wouldn’t regret joining Vivekodayam. I came from a large school with huge facilities; perhaps they sensed our hesitation. The most interesting bit was my uncle did his 1^st standard there. Certain connections are beyond explanation! I realized quickly that this school had an aura about it. It was small yet I felt it had a big, honest heart. Joining Vivekodayam, proved an enlightening, awakening, and stimulating experience, just like its name. Situated in the center of Thrissur, where the old and the new buildings jostled for room, Vivekodayam operated in its limited space, integrate the old infrastructure to the new plus 1 section, a new computer lab and a rickety bus. Despite the limitations, this very space became for us Chinmaya, pure knowledge, like Vivekodayam’s famous student and his awakening. My first gift after joining the school was the book – Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation. How apt! Our school has come a long way now with its Mathematics labs, new rooms and solar powered facilities. Modern yet its values intact.

2002 – When everyone was busy spending every bit of their free time working out entrance exam questions, I was browsing literature books in the empty school library and attending Yuvajanotsavams at school, district, and state levels. I attended my first state level event in the most crucial years of my academic life. Years later, much greyer, balder, and wiser, I realized the importance of this nurturing ecosystem of teaching and non-teaching staff, and my friends. For one, this welcome distraction took the pressure off me and indirectly helped me excel in exams.

2003 results – Being one of the four Kerala state toppers, trailblazing to create a lasting legacy for our school, receiving first prize from then chief minister AK Antony, getting an award presented by the legendary Yesudas, name on the walls of the school for years to come, basking in that never again moment, showing a new academic pathway for many to follow, this is a past that I often don’t talk about much. All I have is gratitude to my alma mater, teachers, friends, and family. I often attribute this fortune to my marks in English and Hindi. We always had superlative and brilliant students in Computer science stream. Most of these stars scored centum in Mathematics and Sciences. My love for languages, being a polymath, Yuvajanotsavam experience and the like helped me differentiate among the stars, if not by size by color. We were lucky to have teachers who loved their job. They saw the whole of us. They invested in us students when there wasn’t a need. They magically struck the right balance as a friend, philosopher, and teacher, right from our class teacher Priya Ma’am to our Mathematics Sir Venu to everyone else. Some of the teachers eventually became family friends. Right from their personality, their honest and humble self, their tone, their wit, the appearance, the beard or lack thereof, their dressing style, and the like, each of them manifested as walking textbooks and universities that we wanted to emulate.

20 years later, inspired by our teachers, some of us are intelligent engineers, super coders, dedicated doctors, brilliant researchers, enterprising entrepreneurs, knowledgeable teachers, inspiring public servants and what not. I know that the moment we enter our school gates, we will all be those aspiring singers, dancers, magicians, physicists, mathematicians, authors, builders and dreamy teenagers, remembering moments and resonating, like the shared memory of that surprise summer rain we all got wet together.

Petrichor – The smell of the first summer rain is often evocative and nostalgic. You don’t know what triggers nostalgia, how long it lingers and what it brings! The postcards it sends from the past to your present self are like flowers in a “Pookkalam”, many colors, many fragrances – some odorless, some pungent, some weak, some overpowering, some short, some long lasting, yet all organic. To me, Vivekodayam is that pleasant smell of the first rain on warm earth!