That time back in 1986 when I enrolled in DPS, NOIDA was just rearing its head as an alternative residential cum (no pun intended) industrial satellite town of Delhi, with a few sectors developing here and there. It was a respite from a crowded and increasingly polluted Delhi. I was far from worrying about the environment then. The very first day, my eldest brother wished me well, left me at the deep end of the school and promptly left. He did his brotherly part and in my torturous swimming lesson of new school life, I began to drown and flail my hands wildly.

This new school was daunting. There was the *house* system and I wasn't assigned to any house. Naturally, I got lost upon reaching the morning prayer grounds and snuck up to Ganges house and stood among strange faces for the most terrible half an hour of my life till then. Next day, I found myself in Ravi house, having followed a bunch of classmates there. A week later I arrived at Sutluj house, my final home. Five years later, there was no more sneaking but leading the house holding its flag. I believe, Chenab was the only house that escaped my attendance that first week.

I missed my previous school badly. I could clearly see that this new torture house would drive me nuts in no time and all work and no play will definitely make Jack a very dull boy. Puberty hadn't set in by then. It was going to be another year before my teen hormones would make me see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I am not going to name any names here. Algebra variables like x, y and z should do just fine. So, there was this girl…

Come on, you don't really expect me to narrate all that?! A co-ed school is any day better than an all boys/girls one. It took me about a year to get used to the girls. It had been just four years since the school's foundation stone was laid. That stone was supporting more and more of construction weight of the school building with every passing year. I saw the development of the swimming pool, the new Kinder Garten block and the multi purpose hall. No one new where Sector 18 was and nobody cared then. All the good things seemed to be concentrated in the Pizzas, Burgers and triple sundaes at Narula's. DPS was fun.

All through my years as a student, I don't reminisce an iota of academics that I crammed into my head. What I remember fondly are the people I met and the fun I had.

I have exactly one photograph of my school days at DPS NOIDA with me. Unfortunately, it does not feature all the people. I wish I had my digital camera with me then. Well …

I shot this photograph with my old camera on the Teacher's Day in class 12^th. That must be 5^th September 1991. In row major order (left to right, top to bottom):

Ritu Puri, Pranab K Kar, Shweta Goel, Gaurav Sharma, Maneesh Gupta, Nidhi Luthra, Sachin Bhatnagar, Sonia Katyal, Tarun Jalali, Anupma Bannerjee, Aman Khanna, Ashish Sharma, Yours Truly, Sonal Goorha, Priti Mehra, Gitanjali Nanda, Puja Uberoi, Shipra Malik.

Other people from my class: Chandna Pahalashwal, Himanshu Sharma, Hemant Bisht, Leena Jacob, Munish Chadda, Navneet Chauhan, Neeraj Bassi, Parag Jain, Puneet Manatala, Rohit Krishnan, Ritika Bhatia, Sachin Garg, Shankar Deb, Shweta Goel, Sugandha Chibber, Tejpal Singh Rai, Vishal Dar.

I remember Ambar Malhotra, Ashu Arora, Chandramouli Guntur, Deepali Srivastava, Ekta Mahindroo, Gaurav Bajaj, Gaurav Huria, Gaurav Jai Phookan, Gaurav Khanna, Harshvardhan, Munish Mam, Nandita Paul, Nitin Gupta, Paromita Dey, Pooja Nayyar, Puja Garg, Rahul Chugh, Rajiv Mahajan, Ritesh Garg, Rohit Luthra, Shibani Leekha, Siddharth Shankar, Siddhartha Tyagi, Soma Chatterjee, Sonia Sundaram, Vibhav Gupta, Vikas Anand, Vikram Chaudhary and many others from other sections.

The list won't be complete without mentioning some of the school faculty from my time. I remember , Mrs Kiran Gera, Mrs. Kiran Soni, Ms Mridula Khullar, Mr. P.K. Aggarwal, Mrs. Reema Dewan, Mrs. Sarita Madhok, Dr (Mrs) S. Minocha, Mrs. Sudha Raghav, Mrs. Sushma Raina, Mr. Tondon, Mrs. Usha Kiran and Mrs. V. Sital. Needless to say, this list is hardly complete. Expect to see more here as I recollect more. My next efforts would be directed at adding stories along with names, just to brighten things up.

Of about ninety odd people, I am in regular touch with just a few of them. I have underlined above, the ones that I have been in touch with off and on. I have also provided links to personal webpages that I am aware of. E-mail addresses are best kept away from prying web spiders. Should you need any information on the above blokes, simply contact me. I hope that people will at least type their own name on the google bar if not mine and will end up here. I will be very happy to renew the old ties, pick up the old threads and spin a new yarn.

I have collected a few online links and resources that I am sure will be useful to people looking for old dipsites or information on the alma mater. In case the links don't work, please let me know. I will be glad to update the information. The information appears in no order of importance and merit. The perspectives/views presented are my personal ones. You are welcome to disagree.

• Batchmates.com

  On my last visit, there were around 772 odd people registered under Delhi Public School, NOIDA. You may be lucky to find your old pal there.

• classteacher.com.

  By far the best website I could find on google. The folks here have done a good job of providing all the pertinent information. Looks like other sites have copied over from here. My only grudge is that there is no way I can contact anyone here, not even the webmaster!

• learning.IndiaTimes.com.

  This is definitely better than the batchmates.com alumni list. One would find school trivia here along with alumni list, school management, contact information, etc., here. I don't think these guys update the information they provide on a regular basis. Nevertheless, something to get started on.

• alumni.net.

  There might be some information on DPS NOIDA here but these guys won't let me surf unless I register. I get plenty of junk email already. Yeah dil doesn't maange anymore. Their site sucks anyway.