Tuesday, February 5, 2019

HCL founder meets school mates after gap of 56 years
Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Trichy:05.02.2019

Shiv Nadar, HCL founder and chairman, met nine of his classmates of St Joseph’s college higher secondary school at a city hotel on Sunday many of whom were meeting after a gap of 56 years. He was adamant on meeting them during his visit here this time.

However, age had its natural impact on their memory and some of them could not recollect the fond memories of their school days. “We did manage to regain some of our memories by discussing about our teachers Rayappar, Arockiasamy and particularly Sundaram who was our Tamil teacher,” said A Antoine, 74, a retired school teacher.

S Arputharaj, another classmate who retired as secondary grade teacher from St Joseph’s school, was the teacher, Sundaram’s son, who seemed to have a slightly better memory . “I remember Shiv as leader of our Class 4th form (Class IX) section C. At that time, our classes used to be in Lawley hall, which is presently at St Joseph’s College,” said Arputharaj. “It is indeed a proud moment to see one of us in such a high position,” said Arputharaj who gifted Shiv a book — a collection of stories by Satyajit Ray — and wished him good health.

While Shiv Nadar chose engineering after school, A K Arif, one of his competitors in the class, went on to become a doctor. Even though Shiv was busy with business, he was keeping track of Arif. When Shiv came down to Trichy in 2011, Arif was one of the few he contacted. “It was nice of Shiv to take time out to organize such a get-together after so many years. It was indeed historic,” said Arif.

“Shiv Nadar had made special arrangements for all his classmates to be picked up from home, and interacted with them for over a couple of hours and promised to meet them again for a longer time,” said A K Hussain who coordinated the event on behalf of Shiv Nadar.



A REUNION TO REMEMBER: HCL founder and chairman Shiv Nadar (centre) with his classmates of St Joseph’s college higher secondary school in Trichy

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