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Sunday
the 27th of
October - (Courtesy Daily News)
St. John's Jaffna cricketer Lavendra Pathmanathan has been picked as the
Schoolboy Cricketer of the North, while St. Patrick's Selvin Lloyd Gnaneswaran
is the runner-up. Both cricketers are allrounders, with Pathmanathan
making 362 in seven games. He also captured 35 wickets. Gnaneswaran made 301
runs from six games and he too has captured 35 wickets. (Full
Details from Daily news)
Saturday the 5th of
October - BY ARNOLD
A cold but mercifully dry evening, about 25 of our
classmates who now reside in England gathered together, for the first time at
the All Hallows church hall.
It was organized at a short notice by Chrishanthan, with the everyone responding
with enthusiasm. Almost all are married with on average 1.66 children. Ladies
looking their best and chatting and kids running around playing were having a
great time.
The event started with a silent remembrance of those who have sadly departed
Pirabaharan - at his recent funeral that we got this desire to hold such a
reunion - Nirmalan, Inparajah, Kanthan & Ratnarajah were those brought to
mind.
The announced program was
7.00pm Lighting of the Traditional
oil lamp by Cindy Crawford
7.15pm Opening song by A R Rahman
1:00am The College Song
"Decked with shady palms"
2:00am
?????????????????????????????????
Cindy Crawford sent her apologies, she wanted more of gentlemanly services from
Chrishathan in return and he flatly refused to oblige.
AR Rahman didn't show up, his throat was out of action, now I don't think we can
blame Chrishanthan for that too!
In the absence of our more glamorous guests, we were lucky to have with us
T.Vignarajah of BBC, IBC, SRR, TTN,DTV, CITV, STV, and soon to be CNN,
FOX,ABC & EFG. We welcomed him and he gave a small recollection of our good
old days.
We benefited from a recently recorded video tour of St Johns College. It showed
the extensive damage to the buildings, in particular the lower school looked
totally destroyed, Panchalingam masters house & the adjoining buildings
looked pathetic. The toilets which we all would have voted for renewal even back
then, looked like death traps. Some of the old hostel buildings are in a state
beyond recognition. Principal's house which miraculously is still standing seems
to require attention.
On the positive side, the new admin block is sparkling, the church seems to be
in good repair, the new science block is impressive and the grounds looked good.
Nevertheless, it was a deeply moving experience to see the video, which was
supposed to have been recorded by a former principle's son who had visited
Jaffna a couple of months ago. It was so shocking and graphic description of the
immediate needs of our Alma Mater.
We have been usually receiving still photos of the new blocks from those who
visit St Johns and we all were under the wrong impression that all is very well
at St John's and that it is flourishing. We were thinking in terms of collecting
funds for projects such as swimming pool, tennis courts or even to maintain turf
cricket pitches. May be one day in future.
We had earlier contacted Thanabalan master, the current principal, informing him
of our reunion and our aim of collecting funds for sports and/or gym
equipment. He wished our reunion well and suggested that the funds we collect
could go towards the lower school rebuilding project and that if we raise
100,000/= plus we could get one class room dedicated to our 83 batch.
A list was passed around amongst the guys and with their extraordinary
generosity we are already on track of raising a good amount. In order to include
all the other guys from other parts of the world and at home, we will keep
the fund open for a while. We had some games to entertain the kids and adults,
some dance session and ended the day with our college song.
It was a spontaneous event of emotional reminiscence
which left us all wowing
to meet again in December during Xmas holidays.
Sincerely, Arnold.
PS: you may keep in touch by email in our - johnians83@yahoogrups.com,
vist
Pradeeps site and/or by phone with either one or all of us.
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