NORTH POINT REUNION in Sydney, April 11, 2008

The 2008 NP/LC re-union in Sydney on April 11th was held as planned with only a change of venue from Surjit's Restaurant to the residence of Piyush and Poornima Bhatt and it was the better for this change. Poornima put on a delicious spread which caused us to spread sideways; the wine and beer overflowed like the River of Babylon causing a huge flood in the Yellow (and Red) River. As the only sober person present, it has fallen upon me to report the shenanigans of the evening.

In the interest of remaining factual yet discreet, I shall not be reporting on the orgy which ensued after the more "mature" of us had departed for the more sedate and civilized companionship of their pet cobras and warm beds.

Joaquim DeSouza, class of 71, wins the prize for having travelled all the way from Milan to attend our humble party. He detoured to Sydney en route to New Guinea ahead of an Interpol task force trying to bring him in for war crimes against the Vatican. His contribution to the party were 2 bottles of French Bubbly, ($6.95 for 3 bottles at the local Bexley bottle shop) a Papal dispensation for drunkenness from Pope Peter the First, and Salute from Berlusconi and Namaste from Lallo Prasad of Bihar fame. He also had on an NP tie which earned him extra merit points. All Hail, Joki! Well done, old chap! Definitely a gilt card effort !

Then there was the contingent of our poorer relatives from down south, meaning from Melbourne, in the personages of Chun Na-Ranong (Adopted by Class of '68 as he had no class at all) and Ratna Das Pradhan and his better half Chris, who is proof that all the ugly guys get the prettiest girls, myself being the exception of being a good looking guy with the prettiest girl, of course! (Wow, got out of that one just in the nick of time - it could have been a huge nick with a razor blade instead). Chun is such a gasbag, we could hardly get a word in edgewise. Ratna of course left the party with promises to everyone that he is going to send them DVDs of the evening's photographic records - I hope no-one is holding their breath! I received the Darjeeling re-union DVD last month. After waiting one whole year, it was sent "Urgent! Next Day delivery." Areya???

Ivan Valenta, era early 50s came with proof of his association with NP in the form of the 1955 Annual. No-one was game to question him - he is a big man, though ever so softly spoken. They tend to be the most dangerous. But he laughed at the stories about Fr. L'Hoire, so he must have been from NP.

Milan Bohman and his ever-so-distinguished sister Mary, era mid to late 50's, graced us with their presence. All the Loreto girls paid due homage to Mary on bended knees - it was quite a wild act considering that most were on their fourth or fifth set of reconstructed knees themselves. Milan still looks trim and fit - like he could break the high-jump record again. He did let on that he wasn't familiar with Pole Vaulting - probably because poles were invented yet in his time. Obviously he hasn't heard of Alexander Graham Bellowski, the first telephone Pole !!!

Paul Zitek, class of '56, was there in full colour - NP tie and blazer complete with original badge - he swears he didn't pinch it from some poor student when he attended last year's Darj bash. It is thanks to Paul that we managed to round up the "Senior" gang above.

Loreto, era early sixties, was represented by Patricia Dayton, accompanied by her long suffering husband Chris, and Suvarnapha a.k.a. Pom, who flew all the way from Bangkok to attend - (all together now - boy, aren't her arms tired) which goes to prove what we in North Point have always known, that the LC girls will go through heaven and hell to get to us! I must report (only because they paid me to), that both ladies are looking absolute radiant and don't look a day over forty, thus proving the embalming attributes of 100 proof Gin. Marilyn Hyde was supposed have attended, but if she had, she must have been playing "Hyde and Sikh" because we could not find her.

NP 62 was represented by Mike Huie with his lovely wife Liz. Mike is famous for his Marathon performance - a bad case of the trots requiring extended visits to Kaventer's, Glenary's and many other bogs along the route which have since become famous tourist sites. I think this is the reason why Mike never bets at the Trots - too many bad memories. Frs. Burns and McCabe were sent on a gruelling search and rescue mission unaware that Mike had sneaked back through the Pearly "Twin Towers" to huge ovation by the dispersing crowd on the PD field. To this day, Mike's record, for the slowest ever recorded time to complete the 4.5 mile run, still stands, thus completely disproving the adage that only those who come first are remembered !

Then we come to the "Modern Era", The eldest of these was Maureen Windsor slash Howard, (Who else she has slashed remains a mystery) my dear sister who was responsible for dredging out all the Loreto attendees. She shall go down in the annals of history as the one with the courage to take on Joki for not attending the NP/Loreto Darjeeling Bash, making him wish he had given himself up to the Interpol as the lesser of two evils; at least they adhere to the Geneva Convention, unlike Maureen!

She brought with her the 2 delightfully decadent Roy sisters of early 1970s fame. Subhasree, the quiet one, was content to laugh her head off at the antics of her elders. Her sister, Debauchery (Debi for short), passed out in 1970, and every night since, entertained us with her total recollection of every single male student from NP, St.Paul's, Mt. Hermon, General Holmes and St. Augustine from 1967 onwards - a truly note-worthy talent, especially so for the adjectives - hunk, glamourous, gorgeous, handsome, beefy. etc. appended to each name she mentioned. I believe Debi is gamefully employed by the NSW Fire Department, but it was never established beyond doubt as to whether she was there to start fires or put them out. Her first words to me were "Jeez, Derrick, you are as handsome as you were back then", thus proving to one and all that, despite other organs failing, her eyesight remains perfect.

As for me, not being one prone to embelishing the truth, I remained my sedate, quiet, pensive self, venturing only now and then to interpose myself into the various discussion groups to correct a misremembered fact or to offer solace to my inebbriated fellow revellers, a tower of strength and solitude.

The classic of poor memory: Ratna Das swearing it to be an indisputable fact that the pre-Oct 1968 Singla Bridge stood 600 feet above the waterline. Had that been true, my dive off the bridge in 1967 should go down in the Guinness book of Records as the highest dive into three feet of water ever performed where the diver survived. The truth is that it was closer to 10 feet, but I will concede it might have been as high as 15 feet, if one had small feet.

Two things were unanimously agreed to - that we all had pleasant Memories of our time in Darjeeling, and that I remain ever introverted, humble and good looking, so much so that Poornima and Subhasree tried to slip me a "Blue Pill". I was made to promise, under pain of torture, that I will come out of my shell at Koh Chang.

The next morning, Joki, one step ahead of the the posse, departed post haste to Port Moresby, Chun flew off to Boston, Pom flew back to Bangkok, Ratna and Chris crawled home to Melbourne on a Virgin, and Piyush and Poornima were left to contemplate the consequences of their generosity.