gathering at Eagleton Golf Resort - 1

It was more than two years since my friends from St. Charles School, Bhadravati had met which was at Arohas Eco Resort near Sakaleshpur. Chatter of another meet was heard towards in July and August 2021. Finally on September 4th the plan was announced. I'm sharing a part of the message...

Hi all,
It’s official now..
The buddies of 86’ are gonna meet yet again..
After a memorable Get-together at Aroha’s Eco Hill Resort in May 2019, we have chosen Eagleton - The Golf Resorts at Bidadi, Bangalore as our destination for the Alumni meet this time. 
Kindly click the below link to know more about the resort:
www.eagletonindia.com
As planned we will have an overnight stay at the Eagleton on 25/26th of September 2021, & also we have sent an invite to the ladies of our batch to join us for the lunch on Sunday the 26th.. still awaiting their reply.

Cheers,

- Bala, Balu, Srini, Srinath, Meda, Vasanth & Venky. 

I was in no mood to travel to Bangalore, so I had no plans to attend the gathering. However, Srini's follow-up calls followed by more calls from a few friends motivated me to agree with just a week before the meetup. One of our friends, Shivaprakash, was a resident of Hubli, he booked train tickets for Sept-24th. The week flew by, I was set to meet my childhood friends again. I met Shivaprakash at Hubli Railway Station for the first time. We got to know each other as we waited for the train. The next morning at Yeswantpur Railway Station, we were planning to take Metro to Kengeri and then hire a cab to Eagleton. A call from another friend Nandeesh changed our plan, he would be picking us up and we three would be traveling together to Eagleton.

The route we took was a mess with all the construction works going on. I was happy not to be driving but felt bad at drivers' plight. Anyway, we drove on, by 9-30 AM or so we reached the resort. A fine looking eagle perched on golf ball welcomes the guests here.

Another view of the eagle. The resort is about a kilometer away from main roads on any direction. Its silent and there are small & medium sized trees to make the place look green.

We were the first to check in, remaining 30 members arrival was pending, most were on the way here. All suites in this aisle was booked for our group. The suites were comfortable. 

Our suite had a view of the swimming pool but the pools were off limits to guests due to Covid-19 restrictions. The huge Peepul tree made our suite special, no glaring sunlight and it was cool. By the time we freshened up and bathed, some more members including a few from the organizing committee had arrived. Along with them came the refreshments... solids & liquids.

We assembled in one of the suites, greeted each other and, the celebrations were initiated by Vasant aka Kaka. His name is a synonym to spontaneous quips. His presence is essential to our gatherings.

A few more members arrive. The bonding of this group is simply amazing.. warm smiles, affectionate greetings and all. Though I was out of touch since II standard I gelled into the groups easily. I guess its magic of the chemistry of small town childhood.

I was meeting a few of them for the first time, the ones who had missed the gathering at Arohas.

The flock grew, more intros. These guys spoke like how we spoke during school days. Absolutely no inhibitions. A very lively bunch.

The session was paused and we headed down to the reception area to greet our friends.

The reception lobby is spacious. At the center of the lobby is a life-size statue of Lord Krishna, standing on a pedestal. The multisided pedestal depicts each of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu i.e. Dashavatar.

This is Srini, one of the chief organizers. Their planning is meticulous, down to the smallest detail.

By lunch time 31 members had gathered. The two missing were Balu and Nagaraj, they were expected in the evening. Lunch was at the spacious dining hall with a view of the golf course. Food items were good, of course I normally have a few items and skip desert altogether. We decided to rest and charge up for the evening. We gathered on the terrace... this is our hero Deveram, the silently jovial guy. This time he had a mischievous smile all the time.

A group picture before we dispersed. Members of this group are into different professions... engineers, businessmen, doctors, lawyer, realtor, employed with private organizations, employed with government, and more. Also, here are two poets... Srini and Vinod ...poetry is their hobby.

I don't know if these guys had their own little group in school.

Srini and Deveram ...brothers in arms.

This picture was shot from the upper floor. Check out the look on Deveram's face, looks like he was scheming something.

I'd missed much sleep because of the journey, I turned into my suite for a nap. Around 5-00 pm I got out. Shivu and Nandeesh were still resting. I couldn't find any of the other guys, so I went for a walk right till the main gate of the resort.

Landscaping is basic but well maintained. These are Singapore Daisies. Apparently its considered as a weed. Yes, weeds grow easily hence it's been adopted into landscaping. In fact this is one of my favorite flowers. During my student days, I used to keep a flower or two in a little vase on my study table.

Some of the older trees have been left as is, like these Ficus which have created tunnel like effect.

I head back to the resort and run into the group at the dining area. It seems they were playing cricket close by. I missed some action and pictures! Anyway, we have tea and head back to our suites to get ready for the evening party.

To continue reading this article, click on gathering at Eagleton Golf Resort - 2.
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