When to use 'The' (as in thee) or 'The' (that sounds similar to "duh")

This was one of those unforgettable lessons from JP, my school principal at Vana Vani.

When I went to meet her in November last year when she had come to Chennai for her knee cap surgery operation the didactic nature in her might have triggered to ask my son something. I couldn't believe she would ask him the usage of the article "the".
What surprised me even more was my son coming up with the correct answer. I might have told him but don't know when.

Anyway here is how you use "the" correctly.

The article "the" sounding as in the word "thee" is to be used before words that begin with a vowel i.e a, e, i, o and u. The as it sounds in "duh" is to be used before words that begin with a consonant.

An evening to rememeber for a lifetime

Red Oak, The Checkers hotel and 24, January, 2010 are going to be etched in the memory of everyone who attended the 1985 VanaVani batch re-union. The previous night I so exicited I couldn't go to bed till 1.00 A.M in the morning. From a class of 120 we were still able to manage 30 attendees, and many of them, who left school in the X standard or earlier. I am still reeling from the event that took place last night and I am not sure when I'll be out of this hangover. Who cared for the Shankar Ehsaan Loy concert at Saarang. We were talking so much that it was only when I went home I realised I had taken just 10 pics and one video. I even missed out covering everyone adequately. It was incredible to imagine how time had brought changes in us in 25 years. One person in particular was unrecognizable. The evening went so quick I thought we didn't have time to finish talking and sharing experiences. I did go there prepared to jazz up things and I could have, given some more time. There were identification games and people recalling past events which honestly need probably a day or more to complete. In the little time we had we even planned a strategy to make contributions to teachers and staff of our school, some of them who needed immediate help. The event concluded with dinner and drinks. Whether we will be able to meet again, stick to our plans and fulfil our goals, only time will tell, though this time the group looks more committed. However it shouldn't take another 25 years for that to happen. Some of our classmates and our teachers are already gone. We could have certainly helped them in some way or the other had we met earlier.

The pics can be viewed at the following link on Facebook

Re-union pics

Below is a small video I made. Should have taken more videos but I was so occupied with several other activities that I couldn't keep my camera busy.

VanaVani friends, how many could you identify in the pic or the video?

Honestly I wish everyone, all over the world could have a day as this with their old school classmates.