belgaum-sambra visit

Belgaum visit

This was a much awaited and much planned affair. This was also a momentous occasion to be amidst most of your school friends after a long long time. It was in 1992 that we passed out ( graduated ! ) from KV Sambra from the 12^th class. Since then, circumstances have changed, contexts in professional and personal lives have changed. Life moves on ; but never seemed like 14 years since we played volleyball in school ( with a English or a biology class going on J ). It just seemed like last year ..

We reached Belgaum by afternoon , 2 PM to be greeted by Rama and Akshay who were just checking in into the rooms. Sanman classic is an extension of the very popular Sanman hotel but is owned by somebody else. Its just unfortunate that our stay at classic sanman started with a fight with the manager/owner.. Its not my desire to pick up a fight but I cannot resist if someone wants to take me for a ride. The issue was on the checkout times, which the owner of the hotel was claiming to be at morning 8AM despite we checking in at around 2 PM. This was eventually resolved the next day. The fair part wins the war but not always !!! This time we were lucky ..

We had lunch at Sanman hotel, where I was unable to get the Puri-Bhaji that I wanted to taste. After the lunch, we went roaming in Bogar Ves just to recollect our memories. Akshay and Rama went to meet somebody else. These were memories for most of us including Vaiju, myself, Arti and Sangamesh. Vaiju also has some Belgaum memories when she was in second class. It was city exploration for Karthik and Niti ..Later, we drove through the cantonment area, Green hotel, KV Belgaum, Staff quarters where we had stayed earlier and then had the evening tea at Sangamesh’s house. The School and the quarters looked deserted because of the Christmas vacation. Later, we all gathered together at the hotel rooms. Ajit had already arrived by then. Rama seemed to drive the discussion towards fitness and diet and it just revolved around that. We had a late dinner and had the times had passed on into 2007 !!!

The next day seemed to be a very tight and unfortunately we left our hotel slightly late and our first visit was to Ajit’s house.. We then made a quick visit to Jyothi’s house which is near to Ajit’s house. Before that, we had a very sumptuous breakfast at Sanman and I got the Puri-Bhaji, which I had sought earlier.

We then drove down to Sambra, which I was awaiting the most ..My times in Sambra were the defining moments for me where I did my schooling from 4^th till 12^th class. I’am sure Sambra has a lot of influence on my life..

I wish to thank all my buddies with whom I studied, played and spent a lot of time together. Some of these were the ones who were with me in this new year ..Thanks Guys/Gals ..Thanks a lot for being( and continue to be ) such good friends. I also take this moment to thank my teachers in primary school and secondary school who shaped my aptitude, attitude and gave me sense of competitiveness in life.

Well, I went down the memory lane in the previous paragraph….Let me bring the context to the present ..We drove down to Sambra and myself/Ajay were on the bike while rest everyone were in Ajit’s Alto ..We were planning of our entry inside the campus because of the strict security, which we were all aware of….I still remember the time when we had to stay outside the gate for close to 1 hour at the time when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, because we were not carrying the ID card.. However, on reaching the guard room, I requested to be let in to see our old school and the guard obliged..

We spent close to half an hour in the school going to the different classes where we had studied, to the different places where we had spent some special moments, the stage where we used to have our daily assembly, the labs where we did some interesting/not so interesting experiments, the places where we had played cricket, volleyball, kho-kho, kabaddi, football and “Gallery”. Apparently, the school is in a very bad state because either it is going to be demolished or is going to be relocated. However, I’am just fortunate to have captured some moments there because I’am not sure if the same buildings will exist later. We later went walking to the house where I had stayed near the primary section and got to meet our neighbour ( Panicker ).. We managed to take some pictures ( which I was not supposed to because of the security restrictions ) ….We later reached Belgaum and had lunch at a new hotel, which has come up. There were hardly any staff because of the previous night celebrations. However, we managed to get something to have as lunch…

Later, we checked out of our hotel rooms and dumped our luggage in Ajits car and visited Shaila madam’s house where we had delicious snacks and a good time. She, later escorted us to the station from where myself, vaiju, arti, karthik, diya and adithya boarded Kittur chennama express back on our way to bangalore.. bidding bye bye to Ajit, Ajay, Rama and Ribhav..

Ribhav ...Aditya ..& Diya ...