Watch: Former students, teachers reunite for first time as school in UAE turns 45
Sharjah Indian School’s first alumni meet sparks nostalgic trip down memory lane
Sharjah: A message about a Sharjah school’s alumni page online that read “will be updated soon” sparked a movement to reunite students and teachers for the first time in 45 years.
Indian expat Oommen P. Oommen, who was the head boy of Sharjah Indian School (SIS) in 1999, was surprised when he found out some months ago that a page dedicated to the alumni on his alma mater’s website carried the message “will be updated soon”.
“I found it very strange,” Oommen, who now works at a cloud services provider, told Gulf News.
He contacted the school’s Vice Principal, Rajeev Madhavan, and the duo took up the matter with Muhammed Ameen, the principal of Juwaiza branch for boys, and Pramod Mahajan, the principal of the Ghubaiba branch for girls.
The idea of establishing an official alumni group then started and received the backing from the Indian Association Sharjah (IAS), which owns and manages the school.
IAS President Nissar Thalangara said the managing committee decided to take this up as a special mission as part of the celebrations to mark 45 years of the school.
"While different batches of students have their own WhatsApp groups and many have met separately over the years, this is the first time that the school management decided to have an official alumni group titled Sharjah Indian School Alumni Association (SISAA) to bring all the former students and teachers under one umbrella," he said.
What followed was a series of efforts to reconnect former students and teachers. An official Instagram page was launched and alumni members and several former teachers living across the world were contacted.
“The core committee, comprising Anna Joselin, David Varghese and Chaithanya Divakaran and I, was supported by many alumni members in making our dream come true,” said Oommen.
Finally, when the alumni association was officially inaugurated recently, the event titled ‘Viraasat’ (Legacy) turned into an emotional reunion.
The event also saw the former teachers and the senior most ones currently working at the school being honoured by the students.
Oommen said the alumni group now aims to come up with a formal body, including an advisory board and a working committee, to contribute to the alma mater and its student fraternity. “Once we have a system in place, we will roll out different initiatives and hope to get the website updated soon,” he added.
Doctors, engineers, teachers, actors - the former students from various walks of life - gathered at the IAS auditorium and went back to their school days, participating in various programmes. While catching up with childhood friends and renewing relationships, former students, along with some teachers and managing committee members, took a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Symbolising UAE-India friendship
Youseph Sagheer KS, a senior managing committee member whose children, nieces and nephews studied in SIS, recalled: “In the 1970s, not many Indian expats had families here. A group of community members with families formed the association and got the permission to begin a school under the leadership of V Damodaran. Later, the Ruler of Sharjah allotted land for the school. Now, it remains as a symbol of India-UAE relationship.”
The school that started with 280 students and 13 teachers has grown to more than 15,000 students and 600 teachers across both campuses.
Meeting after decades
Sibu Siddique, who enrolled as a KG student in the first batch in 1979, was thrilled to reconnect with his batch mates Vishnu and Jijesh.
“I knew they were in the UAE, but we hadn’t met for nearly 35 years. I had left the school before completing Grade 10 as my family went back to Kerala,” he recalled.
Returning to the UAE in 2007 after completing engineering and two stints at work in India and Saudi Arabia, Sibu is now the vice president of a multinational corporation. “I vividly remember my first day at school — I cried as I was forced to board the bus.”
From porta cabin to two campuses
K A Abraham, one of the senior most teachers who attended the event, recounted joining the school at its Ghubaiba campus in 1984. “Initially, the school operated in porta cabins in some villas, but by the I time joined, it had a new building in the ‘1,000 Villas’ area where we had boys’ and girls’ sections with separate shifts,” Abraham.
Over time, the number of student numbers surged and so did that of the faculty, leading to expansions.
“As we increased in number, another building was constructed and boys and girls had their own buildings. Now, those two buildings are used for the girls, while the boys moved to a new campus in Juwaisa over a decade ago.”
Abraham, who retired as a middle school supervisor in 2016, recalled: “It was a challenging time managing discipline. Now, things are different. As a teacher, I feel today’s students are much smarter and they can benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the alumni members. It was wonderful to see old students coming together to give back to their alma mater. Everyone was overjoyed to reunite.
Many former students travelled from India and other countries, and I could see that some living here are now parents with children attending the same school.”