From canteen fare to tryst with Nehru, LU alumni meet offers dollops of nostalgia

Nostalgia overflowed at the Arts Quadrangle of Lucknow University on Saturday as former students came together to be part of the alumni meet.

Their reminiscences ranged from student politics, last-minute revision in the arts quadrangle, gossip and the canteen food.

Some of the alumni were senior enough to have even seen freedom fighters delivering speeches. There were others who had only passed last year. All were bound by love of their alma mater.

They recalled the days when they savoured chola samosa at the LUMBA canteen and remembered the professors who had taught them.

The alumni present on the occasion included former student leaders and people associated with them who discussed memories of their protest, detention and victories.

Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak and Rajya Sabha member Dinesh Sharma, both alumni of the university, were also among those present.

Dhirendra Varma, student general secretary from 1955-56, shared how he had invited former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the university.

“I got to know that Nehruji was visiting the city. I took my bicycle to the airport and, dodging the crowd, I invited him to the university. He was in the city for an event at the zoo. So, he said he would come some other time to which I satirically retorted that he had time for offspring of animals but not for children of human beings. That was when he promised to visit the same day around noon. That was the first time the prime minister visited the university,” Varma recalled.

Pramod Tiwari, a former students’ union president, said as soon as he entered the gate, he was reminded of a protest in which he had participated. That protest was led by Brijesh Mishra ‘Saurabh’, general secretary in 1989, against an order passed by the university authority asking hostellers to empty their rooms.

“We went to the then chief minister’s residence who heard our plea but soon after we came out, we were arrested for breaking the protocol. Saurabh had already left with the chief minister for his office, so he could not be arrested. But on being asked by the cops, I informed them about him leading to his arrest. It is one of those memories which remains etched in my heart, and we still laugh at the incident,” Tiwari said.

Many such memories were discussed while alumni warmly met their friends, seniors and juniors.