​​​​​​The 4th of May witnessed an extravaganza at Udaipur. St Paul's School, one of the city's oldest and premium schools, organised the regions largest ever Alumni Meet to celebrate 70 years of the school's establishment.

Students from as far back as 1953 till as recent as 2023, got together to celebrate their Alma Mater, which witnessed a whooping 500+ Alumni get together at the school premises on Saturday, 4 May. Old and new students travelled from across India and other countries to take part in this one day, once in a lifetime event. The event was coordinated and managed by the St Paul's Udaipur Alumni Association.

70 Years of Experience

Principal Father George KK shared his experiences with the alumni about the 70-year journey of St. Paul's School. He expressed happiness that the students passing out from here have brought respect not only to their families but also to the country and the school.

He said that on July 16, 1953, St. Paul Senior Secondary School was established by two French priests, Father Edgar and Father Victor and Brother Regier. Since then the school has never looked back and has progressed rapidly. Today it is included among the respected educational institutions of the country. Started with two students, the school currently has more than 3000 students.

Engineers, Doctors, Armed Forces Officers, Lawyers, Educatonists, IAS Officers, IPS Officers, Real Estate magnets, Property Brokers, Information Technology experts, Cyber Experts, and businessmen from almost all domains, and from India as well as abroad formed a part of the grand meet and celebration.

Dr. Anand Gupta, President of the SPUAA said that the event was made possible due to the untiring efforts of Nitin Mathur, Saurabh Siroya, Manish Godawat, N K Jacob, Karan Garg, Jayant Gupta, Himanshu Gupta, Sulabh Dharmawat, Chris Jacob and many more who were working untiringly in the background and needed to be applauded wholeheartedly.

Dr Anand Gupta, of the SPUAA (St Pauls Udaipur Alumni Association), informed that apart from the students from across these 70 years, more than 20 retired teachers of St Paul's Udaipur, nearly 50 support staff, took part in the event that was held in the school premises from 8am till 10pm on 4th May. The participants, coming from across decades, remembered their teachers and Principals, especially Father Coutinho, the most revered of the educationists in St Paul's and Fr Joseph Anickatt, among others.

Many students of  St Paul's have been instrumental in giving the school recognition at the domestic and international level, due to their contribution in a vast domain of professions. Some of them include CP Talesara of Pyrotech, Udaipur; Vinay Rathi of Tempsens, Udaipur; Rajendra Bhatt, the Divisional Commissioner of Udaipur; PS Talesara, Nisar Farooqui, (Retired Inspector General of Police); Lt General Anil Singh Nandal (Retd. Indian Army); Sunil Chugh (State President IMA); Hemant Chauhan (Industrialist); Shekhar Bhandari (Chartered Accountant); Chand Chawat (International Sportsman); Rajesh Chaplot (NRI and Presidential Medal awardee); Nirmal Singhvi (Social Activist); Vinod Kumbhat (Industrialist); Ankur Sood (Indian Army); Virendra Siradhna (Senior Advocate); Anshu Mahindra (Cricket Umpire); Mukul Murdia (Chess), etc.

The felicitatation of the retired teachers of St Paul's, moved everyone to tears. A few of the teachers included Prem Shankar Trivedi, SK Tandon, Shambhu Dutt, KV Jose, Ajit Mahaver, LK Trivedi, Ashok Soni, Mcdalen D'Souza, Veena Juneja, Geema Bariyawal, Ellis Jose, Birgette D'Souza, Kusum Goswami, Vandana Kashyap, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Anita Garg, Nancy Sharma, Nilima Acharya, Madhu Kushwaha, etc.

Earlier, the day began as early as 8am with a Student's Interaction Session, with 4 breakout sessions moderated by Nitin Mathur of the 1996 batch, followed by a workshop on mental health by Siddharth Pandey of the 2009 batch. This session was held at the Father Coutinho Hall.

The first panel of events from 8am till 8:30 am was about understanding national security challenges, where the speakers discussed the current national security landscape, the role of defence and police forces, importance of community engagement and collaboration in policing. The workshop was conducted by Brig. Vijay Saxena (Retd. Indian Army) of the 1965 batch. Brig VIjay Saxena is the recipient of the Dintinguished Service Award from the Indian Army and is a counter-terrorism expert. He was joined by Retired IGP Nisar Farooqui from the 1970 batch. 

The second panel discussion was on Art, Technology and Culture and participants included Subastou Daksh Paney of the 2001 batch, Creative Director and recipient of Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival Award and Mayank Wadhwani of the 2010 bathc, who is a stand-up comedian. The discussion revolved around how creativity manifests in different forms of content creation, whether its a film, literature, visual arts or digital media.

The third panel discussion was around Money matters, which was led by Shekhar Bhandari of the 1990 batch and President at Kotak Bank and Ashish Lodha, of the 1997, Investor and co-Founder of Indira IVF. This was followed by a panel discussion on Start-ups and Entrepreneurship led by CP Talesara, student of the 1968 batch and founder of Pyrotech Electronics, Sanjay Singhal of Secure Meters from the 1970 batch and VInay Rathi or Tempsens and President of TIE Udaipur from the 1991 batch.

Wall Mementoes were given to each participant, in what would become a lifetime memory for each of them.

Photo Courtesty: Abbas Mavliwala