On the Occasion of My Old Students' Reunion
4th May, 2025
Dear friends, cherished alumni and my beloved students of yesteryear,
Let me recall all my teachers who shaped me with their invaluable knowledge on the anvil of time for them I pay my obeisance to their lotus feet before I start my talk.
గురుబ్రహ్మ గురువిష్ణు
గురుదేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురుసాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ
తస్మై శ్రీ గురు వే నమః ||
I always remember the immortal lines from one of my favourite poets Lord Tennison though I am sixty-four years old man and of course I am a retired professor but still inspired with the following lines.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
Forever and forever when I move.
It is an immense joy to me to be with you today, 25 years after we last shared those vibrant classrooms, filled with dreams, laughter, and the occasional dread of an impending syllabus completion deadlines. Now, when I look at you — each face tells a story; each smile is a confident testament to the journeys that you have undertaken. Today, we gather not just to reminisce but celebrate the indelible mark you’ve left on the world and on each other.
When I taught you, I saw sparks of enthusiasm but raw and unpolished, yet brimming with potential. Some of you were like poets grappling with English poets, some of you were like scientists wrestling with metaphors, and some of you were dreamers sketching futures in the margins of your note books. I told you then, and I reaffirm now: you were never just students but you were all architects of tomorrow’s nation. Today I have seen you how you have built the nation by accepting challenges of different careers and different paths of life.
These 25 years have woven a tapestry of triumphs and trials. Some of you have scaled corporate heights, others have nurtured families, and many have quietly changed communities with their kindness and courage. There are those among you who’ve faced terrible storms like loss, doubt, or detours – yet here you stand, resilient, radiant and remarkable. Your stories, whether shouted or whispered, are the literature of life, and I am honored to have been a footnote in your opening chapters.
As your English teacher, I often spoke to you with the words which could be to shape you, to heal you, to inspire you. Today, I ask you to remember those discourses anew reconnect with your classmates whose laughter once echoed in the class room halls. Share the wisdom you’ve gleaned from victories and scars. Inspire the next generation with the same curiosity and courage that you brought to our discussions on complexities of one of the Nigerian communities in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart to philosophical and inspirational lines of Robert Frost in The Road Not Taken like….
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Therefore, I believe the world still needs your voices, your stories and your kind heart.
This gathering is more than a reunion; it’s a renewal. Let it be a spark to rekindle your dreams, to pen the new chapters, to teach and learn from one another as we once did. You are not just the students I taught — you are the legacy I cherish, the proof that education is not a moment but a movement.
Thank you for retuning, for remembering, and for being the stories that make my life’s work worthwhile. Here’s to you, to us, and to the unwritten pages ahead.
With all my pride and love,
Your beloved teacher.
Mastanappa Puletipalli
mastanappa puletipalli
