Class reunion in Dubai marks 30 years of friendship

Dubai - The group of around 30 engineering students of the 1986 batch of PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore celebrates reunion.

They flew in from different parts of the world - from California to New Zealand - to celebrate the New Year holidays in Dubai.
But, for this group of Indians who turned 50 in 2015, it was not just a trip to celebrate the arrival of 2016. It was a celebration of friendship that has kept them bonded for 30 years, right from their college days.
The classmates, who now have top-notch jobs in various fields, chose Dubai to cherish those good old memories and make fresh ones.
And they are not returning after a mere New Year bash with friends and family. The group, comprising around 30 engineering students of PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, also made sure they left an everlasting impression of their special reunion by releasing a book on their life stories.
Sharing their story with Khaleej Times, the leaders of the team said it was their first overseas get-together.
Venkat Raghavan, one of the three Dubai-based classmates who coordinated the meeting, said the long-lost friends were also celebrating the 10th anniversary of their reunion through the Internet.
"Only a few us had been in touch after we graduated in 1986. We all got connected to each other once again after our friend M.L. Ashok created a Yahoo group in 2005."
Ashok, now a business magnate in Tamil Nadu, said the group soon had some 165 of the total 250 engineering students from different streams in that batch.
"We have exchanged some 45,000 mails in that group in these 10 years."
Apart from their personal details, the group chose one topic a week for discussion.
"That helped the members to learn about people's expertise in various fields and benefit from it," said Bharani R, an IT professional from Boston and one of the three women classmates who made it to the Dubai meet.
The virtual interaction of the group has since gone many steps ahead with vlogging and various social media platforms.
Sudarsanam Suresh Babu, a top researcher and global expert in 3D printing technology from the University of Tennessee in the US, said the online group stood in good stead when friends needed guidance in making right decisions in careers as well.
"I have personally experienced that....I have also seen how the group has reached out to some of us in difficulties," said the former IIT postgraduate.
First reunion after 30 years
While most friends had been in touch at least virtually, Krishna Kumar, a heavyweight in the IT industry in California, who had kept himself as a silent observer for all these 30 years, surprised the group by coming over for the Dubai meet.
"I'm really overwhelmed after meeting them after all these years. I have realised how much I have been influenced by these 'boys and girls'," said the global account group director of Cadence Design Systems.
D. Nandakumar, president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Coimbatore, said: "Some of us had met for our 25th anniversary celebration in Coimbatore. Now, we have had a great time in Dubai and our friendship has just got stronger than ever. We hope our story will go on to our next generation as well."
Tracing the trajectory of life
"Tracing the Trajectory", is the name of the book released by the class of 1986 of PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu during their 30th year meet in Dubai.
The book narrating career experiences from around the globe has been aptly dedicated as a gift to their alma mater and its present and future students.
The editor of the book, Surya Kolluri, managing director, policy and planning for Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions group, said the book was inspired from the online conversations of the classmates' group over the past decade.
"When we were out of the college, we were not at all aware how much the world was changing and what we needed to do to navigate this world. Now we are all around the world and we have navigated reasonably well in multitude of careers. So, we feel that our experiences may help the next generations."
The book has 20 chapters on various fields with contributions from 50 members of the class.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE