I think it was 2004 summer. There was an article in the Hindu about “women entrepreneurs” and there was a mention about a team of women, who were ex-employees of Citibank starting a business. Those names sounded very familiar. Particularly Uma.
I & Uma studied together from 6th to B.Com. Even after we finished our studies, we kept in touch. We attended some of our friends’ marriages together and I had attended Uma’s wedding too. I once in a while I called her on her office phone. After a while, she left Citibank or rather India and went abroad. I came to know this through her office when I called her to greet her on some festival. I lost touch.
With great optimism, I called the number mentioned in that article to check if the referred “Uma” was my friend Uma. Yes she turned out to be my friend Uma. V.Uma at school.
Uma, who opted for a voluntary retirement scheme at Citibank went to US for a while with her husband and returned.
She was in touch with R.Hemalatha, whose neighbour was Rm.Sivagami . She was in touch with Sudha Ranganathan also, who settled down in Gulf after her wedding. When Sudha visited India in July/August that year, we had our first get-together at Woodlands. We exchanged our phone numbers and email ids. None of us had a mobile phone then. It was on that day, for the first time I heard the term “Facebook” when Hemalatha mentioned that she was in touch with our friend S.Lakshmi on Facebook.
K.K. Usha is one person who has never lost touch with me I should confess. A year after our college, she shifted to Delhi and after a while, her parents too went to Delhi, lock stock and barrels. Still she called me once in a while, particularly on my birthday. She never forgot my birthday because it is her parents’ wedding day. When she came to Chennai for a bereavement in late 90’s, I visited her in a relative’s house too. After that meeting, for a few years, she wasn’t in touch. In 2007 or 2008, again on my birthday, she called my residence and my parents gave her my mobile number. ( I got a mobile phone in 2005). We had a long chat and she gave her new email id to me.
Before Orkut, before Facebook and before WhatsApp, it was just emails and we started exchanging a lot of mails. I almost forwarded a mail to them every day.
In July 2009, I opened an account with Facebook and Hema was one of the first few friends I made on the social networking site.
S.Lakshmi, P.E.Uma and T.A.Geetha, Uma Maheswari (not exactly in the same order) found us on Facebook.
B.S.Sailaja too found me on Facebook and sent friend request and after acceptance was incommunicado for a very long time. Still, I posted a greeting card on her wall, which was liked by her brother. I got in touch with her brother through messenger, who in turn, turned her on, on Facebook.
Facebook too has been evolving and started giving a lot of suggestion of friends. One of them was “Sujata Mohan”. I don’t know why the suggestion came. My profile was and is incomplete and those days, there was no mention of my school/college/office details. I was curious to know who that Sujata Mohan was and peeped into her profile. OMG! It is none other than N.S.Sujata aka Sujata Soundarrajan. Her son had opened an account for her and probably she was searching my name and so Facebook suggested. Till date, that is a mystery. I immediately sent “friend request” to her and established contact. Such a sweet darling, she came all the way to Chennai enroute Salem and met me and Uma in our respective offices. She also specified a date of her next visit and requested, I organize a get-together.
In the meanwhile, Hema met M.Padmavathy in some supermarket and got her contact. Of course, I had interacted a few years before, as a distant relative of ours happens to be an ex-colleague of Paddu and her husband. However, after Hema gave her mobile, I re-established contact with her and invited her for the get-together during N.S.Sujata’s visit.
Padmavathy was in contact with Kota Santipriya, Rajasri and Renuka and they were brought into the fold.
Kota brought in Bhama and Vanitha.
Vanitha brought In Tamarai Selvi
Tamarai Selvi brought in Gitanjali, V.S.Chitra and Zeenath.
It was Vanitha’s idea to have a grand get-together in the school to commemorate 30 years of completion of 10th Standard. We could not do it as all of us could not join at a given time.
Platinum Jubilee celebrations were being planned at school and Tamarai Selvi was in touch with the organizing committee of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of our school and was constantly updating us.
In the meanwhile, we have all been meeting every time some guest from Bangalore (PE Uma and NS Sujata) US – S.Lakshmi, Delhi – (KK Usha and TA Geetha) Sudha from gulf were visiting Chennai. (We had lost touch with Sudha Ranganathan after our meeting in 2004, but rediscovered on facebook.)
During every meet, we were discussing all friends and wondered where they were and how they were. KK Usha said, she has found that there is a lady by name “Chitra Palakodeti” on Facebook, whose profile was matching with our V.Chitra. I too found that profile and saw the few photos she shared in it. But no contact details were available and there was no activity. But I saw her friend’s list in which her husband also featured and found that he was working in Pondicherry. Also I googled her name and found that she was an office bearer in an association called “Palakodeti” clan or something like that. I passed on this information to Padmavathy, who in turn called Chitra’s husband and got her contact and she is part of the gang again.
P.Sudha was in touch for a few years after her marriage in early 90’s, but then lost contact. After several years, when her brother was getting married, she posted an invitation, hoping I would get it. Since there is no change in my address, I got it and I got her too.
Uma Maheswari was in touch with V.Lakshmi and R.Padmavathy and she brought them into the fold.
Veda happens to be a neighbour of Hema and so, Hema brought her in.
Though both H.Viji’s parents and in-law’s houses are in our locality and I meet her extended family members once in a while on the road, V.Lakshmi, brought her in.
T.A.Geetha’s husband was in touch with Sundari’s family and so TAGs introduced Sundari.
I met Sujatha Shunmugam’s mother in a shop and got her contact.
V.S.Chitra introduced K.Gowri and V.V.Srilatha, who were her classmates at Ethiraj College.
Nagalakshmi and V.Lakshmi had a common friend and when I tagged a photo of V.Lakshmi on which Nagalakshmi’s friend commented, she had access to the photo and so she got in touch with me.
Nitya Kalyani, who was both Nagalakshmi’s and PE Uma’s friend, came on board.
Soon afterwards Nagalakshmi was on board, she was referring to a “Namagiri” who happens to be her relative and also her classmate at a later stage, I searched for our classmate Namagiri Lakshmi and saw her profile. D.Abhirami was in her friends’ list. I sent a friend request to Namagiri Lakshmi and messaged to Abhirami. Both didn’t respond.
During the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, I found someone resembling Jayanti. I approached her and checked if she is Jayanti’s sister. She is indeed her sister and she informed Jayanti and within half an hour, Jayanti was in school. She was excited to know that, so many of us were already in touch and wanted to know the whereabouts of Abhirami. I told her about the message I have sent and that I was waiting for a reply. She wasn’t convinced. She visited Abhirami’s maiden house and spoke to present occupants and learned that the property was leased out and the remittance is being made only in Abhirami’s favour, but her whereabouts not known.
During the celebrations, I had approached Sarada teacher, a distant relative of Prasanna and enquired about her. N.S.Sujata was very particular that I somehow find Prasanna and R.Usha for her. Sarada teacher wasn’t sure who Prasanna was, but felt that I was asking about a girl who joined Navy, but knew no other details.
When I went to cast my vote during elections, I met a college mate. On seeing her, I remembered that she happens to be a cousin of Sudha Ramanujam. I got her contact from her and soon she was on board.
I received a friend request from “Bhanumathy Shivakumar”, but there was no profile picture. As a matter of principle, I don’t accept friend requests from unknown people and since her identity wasn’t clear, I did not respond. It was pending and in the meanwhile, she changed her profile picture and immediately I accepted her friend request.
Abhirami responded to my message and also prompted Namagiri Lakshmi to join. She also gave Prasanna’s contact. (N.S.Sujatha's treat for finding Prasanna is still pending)
When V. Uma attended a function in Mumbai, she met J.M. Lakshmi and she is included.
Prasanna got B.Sukanya’s contact and she joined.
H.Viji, gave G.Rajalakshmi’s contact and she was included.
“Whenever you see colour, think of us” claimed an old advertisement of Jensen & Nicholson. But, every time I saw a paint advertisement, I used to think of N.Gowri, whose father was working for Jensen and Nicholson. Several years ago, when she finished her PhD, there was a congratulatory advertisement with her photograph. But I missed noting the contact numbers. I realized she is Gowri Sundaresan and so was searching for Gowri Narayanaswamy and Gowri Sundaresan in all permutation combinations, but failed.
G.Rajalakshmi’s sister and Gowri’s sisters were classmates at school and luckily were in touch and through that link we got Gowri’s contact.
Gowri who is settled in US, is in touch with M.S.Sujatha and Subha Bharati and so they are brought in.
During a recent Bandh, S.Bhavani, who generally travels by Bus, took a suburban train and so I was fortunate enough to meet her.
I got an idea for this blog when my friend Subha Bharathi asked me how I managed to get in touch with so many friends.
Thanks to technology, particularly Facebook and WhatsApp, we are all together after so many years.
P.S. Dear friends, all of you are precious. The process of inclusion of a friend is elaborate wherever we got them with great effort and not based on the importance assigned to them.
I & Uma studied together from 6th to B.Com. Even after we finished our studies, we kept in touch. We attended some of our friends’ marriages together and I had attended Uma’s wedding too. I once in a while I called her on her office phone. After a while, she left Citibank or rather India and went abroad. I came to know this through her office when I called her to greet her on some festival. I lost touch.
With great optimism, I called the number mentioned in that article to check if the referred “Uma” was my friend Uma. Yes she turned out to be my friend Uma. V.Uma at school.
Uma, who opted for a voluntary retirement scheme at Citibank went to US for a while with her husband and returned.
She was in touch with R.Hemalatha, whose neighbour was Rm.Sivagami . She was in touch with Sudha Ranganathan also, who settled down in Gulf after her wedding. When Sudha visited India in July/August that year, we had our first get-together at Woodlands. We exchanged our phone numbers and email ids. None of us had a mobile phone then. It was on that day, for the first time I heard the term “Facebook” when Hemalatha mentioned that she was in touch with our friend S.Lakshmi on Facebook.
K.K. Usha is one person who has never lost touch with me I should confess. A year after our college, she shifted to Delhi and after a while, her parents too went to Delhi, lock stock and barrels. Still she called me once in a while, particularly on my birthday. She never forgot my birthday because it is her parents’ wedding day. When she came to Chennai for a bereavement in late 90’s, I visited her in a relative’s house too. After that meeting, for a few years, she wasn’t in touch. In 2007 or 2008, again on my birthday, she called my residence and my parents gave her my mobile number. ( I got a mobile phone in 2005). We had a long chat and she gave her new email id to me.
Before Orkut, before Facebook and before WhatsApp, it was just emails and we started exchanging a lot of mails. I almost forwarded a mail to them every day.
In July 2009, I opened an account with Facebook and Hema was one of the first few friends I made on the social networking site.
S.Lakshmi, P.E.Uma and T.A.Geetha, Uma Maheswari (not exactly in the same order) found us on Facebook.
B.S.Sailaja too found me on Facebook and sent friend request and after acceptance was incommunicado for a very long time. Still, I posted a greeting card on her wall, which was liked by her brother. I got in touch with her brother through messenger, who in turn, turned her on, on Facebook.
Facebook too has been evolving and started giving a lot of suggestion of friends. One of them was “Sujata Mohan”. I don’t know why the suggestion came. My profile was and is incomplete and those days, there was no mention of my school/college/office details. I was curious to know who that Sujata Mohan was and peeped into her profile. OMG! It is none other than N.S.Sujata aka Sujata Soundarrajan. Her son had opened an account for her and probably she was searching my name and so Facebook suggested. Till date, that is a mystery. I immediately sent “friend request” to her and established contact. Such a sweet darling, she came all the way to Chennai enroute Salem and met me and Uma in our respective offices. She also specified a date of her next visit and requested, I organize a get-together.
In the meanwhile, Hema met M.Padmavathy in some supermarket and got her contact. Of course, I had interacted a few years before, as a distant relative of ours happens to be an ex-colleague of Paddu and her husband. However, after Hema gave her mobile, I re-established contact with her and invited her for the get-together during N.S.Sujata’s visit.
Padmavathy was in contact with Kota Santipriya, Rajasri and Renuka and they were brought into the fold.
Kota brought in Bhama and Vanitha.
Vanitha brought In Tamarai Selvi
Tamarai Selvi brought in Gitanjali, V.S.Chitra and Zeenath.
It was Vanitha’s idea to have a grand get-together in the school to commemorate 30 years of completion of 10th Standard. We could not do it as all of us could not join at a given time.
Platinum Jubilee celebrations were being planned at school and Tamarai Selvi was in touch with the organizing committee of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of our school and was constantly updating us.
In the meanwhile, we have all been meeting every time some guest from Bangalore (PE Uma and NS Sujata) US – S.Lakshmi, Delhi – (KK Usha and TA Geetha) Sudha from gulf were visiting Chennai. (We had lost touch with Sudha Ranganathan after our meeting in 2004, but rediscovered on facebook.)
During every meet, we were discussing all friends and wondered where they were and how they were. KK Usha said, she has found that there is a lady by name “Chitra Palakodeti” on Facebook, whose profile was matching with our V.Chitra. I too found that profile and saw the few photos she shared in it. But no contact details were available and there was no activity. But I saw her friend’s list in which her husband also featured and found that he was working in Pondicherry. Also I googled her name and found that she was an office bearer in an association called “Palakodeti” clan or something like that. I passed on this information to Padmavathy, who in turn called Chitra’s husband and got her contact and she is part of the gang again.
P.Sudha was in touch for a few years after her marriage in early 90’s, but then lost contact. After several years, when her brother was getting married, she posted an invitation, hoping I would get it. Since there is no change in my address, I got it and I got her too.
Uma Maheswari was in touch with V.Lakshmi and R.Padmavathy and she brought them into the fold.
Veda happens to be a neighbour of Hema and so, Hema brought her in.
Though both H.Viji’s parents and in-law’s houses are in our locality and I meet her extended family members once in a while on the road, V.Lakshmi, brought her in.
T.A.Geetha’s husband was in touch with Sundari’s family and so TAGs introduced Sundari.
I met Sujatha Shunmugam’s mother in a shop and got her contact.
V.S.Chitra introduced K.Gowri and V.V.Srilatha, who were her classmates at Ethiraj College.
Nagalakshmi and V.Lakshmi had a common friend and when I tagged a photo of V.Lakshmi on which Nagalakshmi’s friend commented, she had access to the photo and so she got in touch with me.
Nitya Kalyani, who was both Nagalakshmi’s and PE Uma’s friend, came on board.
Soon afterwards Nagalakshmi was on board, she was referring to a “Namagiri” who happens to be her relative and also her classmate at a later stage, I searched for our classmate Namagiri Lakshmi and saw her profile. D.Abhirami was in her friends’ list. I sent a friend request to Namagiri Lakshmi and messaged to Abhirami. Both didn’t respond.
During the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, I found someone resembling Jayanti. I approached her and checked if she is Jayanti’s sister. She is indeed her sister and she informed Jayanti and within half an hour, Jayanti was in school. She was excited to know that, so many of us were already in touch and wanted to know the whereabouts of Abhirami. I told her about the message I have sent and that I was waiting for a reply. She wasn’t convinced. She visited Abhirami’s maiden house and spoke to present occupants and learned that the property was leased out and the remittance is being made only in Abhirami’s favour, but her whereabouts not known.
During the celebrations, I had approached Sarada teacher, a distant relative of Prasanna and enquired about her. N.S.Sujata was very particular that I somehow find Prasanna and R.Usha for her. Sarada teacher wasn’t sure who Prasanna was, but felt that I was asking about a girl who joined Navy, but knew no other details.
When I went to cast my vote during elections, I met a college mate. On seeing her, I remembered that she happens to be a cousin of Sudha Ramanujam. I got her contact from her and soon she was on board.
I received a friend request from “Bhanumathy Shivakumar”, but there was no profile picture. As a matter of principle, I don’t accept friend requests from unknown people and since her identity wasn’t clear, I did not respond. It was pending and in the meanwhile, she changed her profile picture and immediately I accepted her friend request.
Abhirami responded to my message and also prompted Namagiri Lakshmi to join. She also gave Prasanna’s contact. (N.S.Sujatha's treat for finding Prasanna is still pending)
When V. Uma attended a function in Mumbai, she met J.M. Lakshmi and she is included.
Prasanna got B.Sukanya’s contact and she joined.
H.Viji, gave G.Rajalakshmi’s contact and she was included.
“Whenever you see colour, think of us” claimed an old advertisement of Jensen & Nicholson. But, every time I saw a paint advertisement, I used to think of N.Gowri, whose father was working for Jensen and Nicholson. Several years ago, when she finished her PhD, there was a congratulatory advertisement with her photograph. But I missed noting the contact numbers. I realized she is Gowri Sundaresan and so was searching for Gowri Narayanaswamy and Gowri Sundaresan in all permutation combinations, but failed.
G.Rajalakshmi’s sister and Gowri’s sisters were classmates at school and luckily were in touch and through that link we got Gowri’s contact.
Gowri who is settled in US, is in touch with M.S.Sujatha and Subha Bharati and so they are brought in.
During a recent Bandh, S.Bhavani, who generally travels by Bus, took a suburban train and so I was fortunate enough to meet her.
I got an idea for this blog when my friend Subha Bharathi asked me how I managed to get in touch with so many friends.
Thanks to technology, particularly Facebook and WhatsApp, we are all together after so many years.
P.S. Dear friends, all of you are precious. The process of inclusion of a friend is elaborate wherever we got them with great effort and not based on the importance assigned to them.
