Reunion almost 50 years in the making for NGSS alumni
Most of us were meeting again face-to-face for the first time after 47 years or more, and we didn’t know what to expect of each other even though the majority of us had been chatting via Facebook Messenger for over a year and we had bonded online.
It was on Thursday, August 4th that the first arrivals gathered at a meet and greet dinner at an Indian restaurant, Parathne Wali Gali in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. From the USA were Paul Bahadur and his wife Beena, and Shanta Sinha (Suroojanie Muldeo) from Florida, June James-Muehlner, of Texas, Joan Gomes (Williams) of Georgia, and from Canada were Valerie Yassin, of Ontario, Harry Ricky Booklall (Lomraj), of Calgary, Naraindra Prashad and his wife Zita, also of Ontario, Janice Perreira (Pieters) of Florida and Ontario, and there was me from Guyana.
We were awaiting Jennifer Joseph (Prince) and her partner Aubrey Hector from Connecticut, USA when we learnt that their flight was delayed. Initially, Jennifer, Naraindra and Harry were instrumental in getting the group of us North Georgetown Government Secondary School together and getting the chat going online. We were among the second intake of students in 1970 at what was then called NGSS, with the majority graduating in 1975 and some in 1976.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennifer met Naraindra in Toronto. The following year, she visited him at his home in Pickering, where they talked about school days and other students. In 2021, she posted on Facebook that she was in Guyana. I welcomed her and so she paid me a visit at my home. I told her I was in touch with Harry, learning then that their connection preceded high school and so I gave her his contacts. Harry created the messenger chat and as Jennifer said, “We realized we knew so many and so we reached out to them, hunting some of them along the way. After that I didn’t do anything else. The chat took on a life of its own.”
Dinner in Brampton was an extravagant affair as we savoured, among other South Asian cuisine, some of the finest curries, biryanis, naan and rotis. But it wasn’t the dinner that mattered. It was the catching up. The restaurant closed at 11.00 pm and we were the last set of patrons. Harry and Shanta danced their way out of the restaurant. After being ‘put out,’ we stood in the car park talking and Janice gave us each a loaf of sweet bread she had baked especially for the occasion. That sweet bread proved to be nourishment for us after some of the events that would follow. For Joan Gomes, it was nourishment after a theatrical show and a hot soca session.
Paul took the opportunity to distribute some signature reunion T-shirts he and Beena designed and produced.
On August 5th, we had ‘assembly’ at Dundas Square in downtown Toronto. We stood out. Most of us wore the reunion T-shirts for the occasion and our uniformity attracted much attention as we walked the town, rode the sightseeing tour buses and cruised on the boat on Lake Ontario that day. Thank you to Paul and Beena for our keepsakes.
Joan Jaundoo, Nayeen Ali and his wife Dale, of Ontario, and Jennifer and Aubrey joined us on day two. Aubrey recognized Joan Jaundoo from AME Fountain Primary where they were schoolmates over 50 years ago. Shanta, Harry and Jennifer, who had attended Bel Air Primary together over 50 years ago, reunited once again. Cousins by kinship and association, the three somehow managed to escape the wrath of a certain Chinese man in Bel Air village who chased them off his property for picking his green mangoes without permission. It was chat non-stop and reunions within a reunion.
We were due to meet for 10.00 am at Dundas Square to join the sightseeing tour bus but as always, like in school, there were latecomers and we missed that bus. We missed the second bus too because instead of waiting to get onto the next bus we went to get photos taken next to the Toronto sign but our view was blocked. Only David Sears, who subsequently joined us, got a beautiful shot by himself, and showed off on us.
Thinking we were running late, Naraindra told us to enjoy the moment and go with the flow. “We can’t enjoy yesterday, and let’s not think about tomorrow. Enjoy this moment, don’t worry about what time we are going home.” We did just that.
‘The gyaffs’
The Toronto city tour was informative and with several stops along the way but the highpoint was the historic Canadian castle and landmark, Casa Loma, having lunch in Chinatown for some and at Kensington market for others. The servings were large and we shared. We missed the 4.00 pm cruise on Lake Ontario because some of us were still lunching. Nevertheless, the cruise was worth the wait. We joined the 5.15 pm boat. The tour guide
was spot on with information and we took in the scenery, lapped up the coolness and freshness of the breeze as it skimmed the water and relaxed on the boat ride.
After disembarking we walked to the upscale Italian restaurant Mercato for dinner and Paul Gomes and his wife Vidya joined us. As a third former Paul had migrated to Canada so he hadn’t seen the majority of us for over 49 years. Asked to identify the past students, his face drew a blank. He knew Naraindra. They had reconnected years ago and they are now yoga buddies. He pointed at me, “You are Miranda”. Fortunately no one forgot Miranda, maybe, because of my Indigenousness, I stood out. As a journalist, I guessed that helped.
Apart from Shanta and Jennifer, who were with him at Bel Air Primary, none of the others recognized Harry, except me. Reintroducing himself, he said, “Most of you are meeting me for the first time because most of you don’t remember me. Some of you who I thought were my friends, to my surprise, have no clue who I am.” I remembered him. We both recalled my last day at school when he pushed his bike and walked me down Woolford Avenue to my then home in Albert Street, Queenstown.
That day, according to Joan Jaundoo was, “catching up on who did what in class, what we have done in the lifetime of not seeing each other and talk non-stop.” The exclamations, the applause as latecomers entered, the smiles, the laughter, the light banter, who skulked and who threw their bicycles over the fence to escape classes or to go fishing at Kingston Jetty or hang out at Luckhoo Swimming Pool. Of course the detentions and principals and teachers – Dr Daphne Persico, Mr and Mrs Ralph, Maylene Cumberbatch, Keith Carter, Mr Bradshaw, Carole Chan-A-Sue, Bernice Fraser, Arlington Bancroft, Maurice Agrippa, Nick Harewood, Mr Glenn, Randolph Scott, and many more were recalled. Unknowingly, we paid them tribute. The day ended on a high.
Next day, Saturday, August 6, the Prashads and the Alis were our hosts at their homes in Pickering. The delicacies provided by the baker, the pastry maker and the winemaker, set the stage for what was yet to come. Reminiscing on school days while viewing school pictures in the Class of 75 Wall of FrAME at the Prashads, someone questioned rhetorically, “How is it the girls looked twice the age of us boys, especially when we were forced to wear short pants?”
The upbeat oldies, soca and chutney soca along with the delicacies, sorrel wine and other beverages further tantalised the taste buds that carried over to dinner at Nayeem and Dale and then after to the ‘Quartet’ performance at the Herongate Barn Dinner Theatre.
The reception at the Prashads was spiced up with the arrival of David and his wife Hayley, who travelled from Vienna,
Austria and Aziza Rohoman (Bacchus) and her husband Zaman, of Ontario. With the class finally assembled, some with their ‘plush’ halves, the day was lit in every sense of the slang.
After a sumptuous dinner at the Alis and sharing anecdotes of our life’s journey in a timeframe too short to tell all, some of us moved on to the barn threatre unwillingly, not wanting to stop the ‘gyaffs’.
Nayeem, not a social media fan, was grateful to David and Shanta who convinced him to join Facebook and the chat. “At first I was hesitant about whether the reunion was actually going to happen. To my classmates who travelled to be part of the reunion, I appreciate you making it so easy for me. Having everyone at my home was the highlight of the weekend for Dale and me. It was an honor. I hope we do it again.”
Going to the barn theatre, Janice, Joan
Jaundoo and I joined Paul Bahadur and his wife in their rented car and decided to follow a vehicle we thought June drove. I don’t think anyone paid attention to the word ‘barn’ before the word ‘theatre’. Paul followed the car ahead as someone said it looked like June, wearing a white top, who was driving that car. I saw no colour and kept quiet. After heading out of the housing area into the country roads we started to worry because we were passing farms with crops and animals. We laughed at how we ended up in the countryside and wondered about the identity of the person we followed. Closer to a traffic light the white shirt became yellow like a shirt Naraindra wore. Paul called Naraindra’s cell phone and confirmed it was him. We laughed with relief.
Some of us could relate to ‘The Quartet’ performed by four senior actors who played the part of four aging opera singers past their prime, reliving their past, and displaying a sense of mischievousness through it all. Midway through the scenes, one of the actors, could not continue because of a high fever and the stage manager/director masterfully took over the role while reading from a script. The highpoint for me was the actors selecting with hilarity their costumes and skillfully dressing on stage to perform as The Quartet.
Seniors soca session
Now who says sexagenarians can’t party? Well when we left the barn theatre, Naraindra suggested going to a tea bar as he really wanted to prolong the moment a bit longer until we met again. Someone suggested visiting this club, the District Lounge, in Pickering. I wanted to go home but went with the crowd.
At the club we were bag-and bodychecked before entering. I only needed water. I had already sampled a glass of mouton cadet of Bordeaux fame at the Alis residence which, probably, caused me to feel more nimble and warmer than usual. While some women covered their shoulders with scarves I perspired in the theatre.
Anyway, back to the club, there we were - a group of old students past their prime that included some who had earlier complained about pains in the knees, hips and elsewhere. The music played and every now and again two young people took to the floor and swayed. By this time, some of us were ready to go home. Paul Gomes and Vidya bade us farewell and were about to leave when the deejay started a 30-minute soca session. Without any verbal communication, we just moved to the dance floor in one group and took it over completely. The young patrons just stood at the side and looked on as we jumped and waved, wined and ‘guh down’.
Naraindra summed up the reunion as the miracle of social media, “Strengthened by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. Many of us were able to rekindle friendships one by one. The key to success was keeping up the momentum, make it as though the reunion started not from the day of the physical meeting but from the day the idea was born.”
The task is now to get more 1975-1976 classmates involved and to find Desiree De Freitas, Carol Davidson, Wayne Griffith, Michelle Welch, Joseph Chang Soong, Donna Taylor and the Augustus twins, Phillipa and Phyllis, among so many others for the next reunion, hopefully, not in Karachi but in Guyana.