The Meeting

As we leave school, we are very eager in keeping in touch with or class mates and we do that quite often. Some also attend the same college and keep alive the memories of the school-days. However, in my case, most of my class mates were from quite afar, some even children of army personnel. Surely but slowly, we all drifted away, lost touch with each other as we found new friends in college, new acquaintances, new faces new atmosphere; all new. The adjustments, the comprises and the new style of studying all occupied our time and soon with the flow of the sands of

Roorkee

 time, memories of our school mates drifted away.We kept in touch very little and with the job placements, we were once again faced with new adjustments, new faces, new environment, everything new. Yet at the back of our minds the school friends flitted in and out once in a while. Those we were close to, shared naughty tricks in school, bunked classes, talked about sex and girls, went for mass masturbation, cheated in exams; those we remembered more than others, We move from place to place and so do these memories. This is what happened with us Gabrielites of the 68/69 batches. It was the first English medium school for boys, hence we had attitude;and how !

The army was the in thing those days. The China War of '62 and the Pakistan war of '64 aroused a sense of patriotism in all of us and most of my classmates joined the Indian Army. The rest went into their family business; the farmer sons joined their fathers and so on. We all lost touch with each other; lost in the maze of life.
Then in the past few years came the computers, followed by the social networking medium. We did not realize the potential of this medium. Later,the importance of this medium of contact/communication struck us.

The Bullock-Cart of yester-years

 Rajiv Gandhi and R.L.Lakhina
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The computer was nothing new for most of us. We had been keeping tabs on this new and silent revolution happening across the globe. India was introduced to this during the rule of Rajeev Gandhi, he being the first young man to lead India into the modern age. We jumped onto the bandwagon. We are from that generation that had seen the age of the bullock-cart. The era when cars were a rarity in rural India. To get one, we had to book it and wait for maybe 5-10 years to get the dream-car which was either a FIAT or the good old Ambassador.The telephone was a luxury few could afford; one had to wait for a period of 5 years to get the connection ! and that too a land line. That was the India that my classmates and I grew up in. An India that was growing and shaking off the British shackles of slavery, though the hangover was still visible.
Time passed; marriage, kids followed. Still most of us hardly kept in touch with each other. However, only those who were close (geographically) kept in touch, like my classmate and a farmer by profession, Satya Kumar Tyagi and I. We were for the past many years in Roorkee and together for these years. The rest of the classmates were getting in touch with us now and then. The mobile was another medium which helped us to get together. Finally, we really started getting in touch with each other regularly.
A couple of my classmates I had not met for the last 45 years ! That was quite some time not to see each other. Shocking ! All had changed, all. We had grown older, faces were wrinkled, children were settled (most of them) and most of us were leading a retired life.
Then came the surprise of surprises ! My class mate Rajeev Berry, from Dehra Dun motored down to Meerut to meet me. Now, that's what I felt was the urge and the impatience to meet. That too after 45 years. Earlier, the other classmate Pradeep Singh drove down from Delhi to meet me. That was something. It was quite something. I have no words to describe the experience. We stared at each other (politely) hugged and stood back to look at the impact that age had on us. We jabbered and jabbered about that part of life we had missed, brought each other up-to-date on each other's lives.

This meeting long lost friends is a strange experience. One's mind races back to the days of childhood when we were young. We look at each other, trying to replace the last look with the look that you see now. The change is drastic. The sense of meeting is heightened, the loss in years is gained, and the years roll back when we talk about the life in school. Once again we are young and back in school. The years had passed and we were looking back upon our former selves, the remembrance of whose emotions had been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of the meeting. By recollecting the pleasures we had formerly, we renewed them, enjoying them a second time while we laughed at the remembrances of troubles now past, which we no longer felt now. Over a cup of coffee and sandwiches the three of us traveled into the pages of our shared history. The cool comforts of the cafe enhanced our travel. We delved into the antics of our batch, many names cropped up, many memories flooded back, revived by each other with some prompting from one corner or the other. This day was heavenly for us.
I am still wondering at the day even now. School mates, especially the batch mates, always hold something important. It is the moment that one forgets the huge gap of time and contracts time into a capsule, a capsule that can be expanded when and where one wants. Such wonderful memories; one that cannot be easily forgotten, ones that remind us that we were young once, ones that help us to make life more richer and meaningful.Such are these meeting with batch mates, school mates. It is truly said, "A child's learning is a function more characteristics of his classmates than those of his teachers." How true.  I realized I had grown old at this meet for I  became aware that "Middle age is when your old classmates are so grey and wrinkled and bald, they don't recognize you."
I shall always cherish this meet, always. Before I sign off, so go through the links below and as they say in latin: Vale donec deinde tempore (goodbye till we meet again)

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