The in-flight speakers beeped to life and a mechanical voice spoke up. “Welcome to
I turned around and looked at my wife. She gave me a big smile. I returned that smile and was soon absorbed in my own thoughts. After months of intense planning, the day had finally arrived. The college reunion had finally become a reality.
Making my way through the dense Mumbai crowd, I finally managed to hail a taxicab. En route to the venue of the reunion, The Taj Mahal Palace, I began thinking about my friends. It had been nearly ten years since I had graduated from NIT Hamirpur. I was still in touch with most of them but had not met them in a long time. Stepping out from the cab, both my wife and I were awestruck by the beautiful and the magnificent hotel. Standing next to the Gateway of India, with its back facing the
As I made my way to the entrance of the hotel, a familiar voice greeted me. “Yo junior! Look at the third button!” Our eyes met and we burst out laughing. I remembered the first time Rahul spoke that sentence. It was in our first year in NIT Hamirpur. As a freshman, one day, I was lured into room D-102(also called the club house back then) where my batch mates pretended to be seniors and took me for a ride. I was made to sing and dance and do other weird and embarrassing things. After about five minutes or so, they confessed that they were my batch mates and had a hearty laugh. I was disappointed that I had been fooled so easily, but cheered up considerably as they found the next scapegoat.
Another voice called out to me. “Kk ccha? Tero Katie ramri ccha!.” In English this translated to “How are u? Your girl is beautiful!”. My sophomore roommate greeted me in Bhutanese. I introduced my wife to him, they exchanged a few words and she went in to join the other ladies. As I looked across the grand majestic hall, I realized that I was in the presence of great and eminent people. From entrepreneurs to DRDO scientists to consultants, there were certainly a wide variety of people present.
Carrying a glass of wine, Vivian made his way towards me accompanied by his wife Kumkum. Vivian now was the deputy managing director of a prominent software company that produced software for Linux. None of us could ever forget Vivian’s (ahem!) interesting ghost story in the first year at NIT Hamirpur. It went something like this.
After his tenth standard, his friends (two guys and three girls) decided to go for a drive with him. Driving the ambassador, they started talking about ghosts. Someone apparently made a remark saying that he didn’t believe in ghosts, and if ghosts really existed, the car would stop immediately. Believe it or not, the car broke down at that very instant! Seeing no one for miles, they made their way to a nearby empty mansion (typical ghost story!). As night approached, the front door started creaking and one of the girls started weeping. Guess who comforted them? YES! It was Super Vivian to the rescue. They started praying, the car repaired itself and they carried on about their way! Later the group learnt that the mansion was haunted! As soon as he completed this story, Reddy spoke up.” Hey Vivian! Which movie is it from?”. We laughed till our ribs cracked. To this day, I still remember the details of his story.
Vivian and I started talking about our college life in general. From crushes to interesting people, we discussed all the experiences we had in our college life. Vivian remembered the manner in which the festival holi was celebrated every year. Shirts would be torn and the students (guys) would dance, sing and move towards the girl’s hostel, encouraging them to join the festivities. The entire hostel would be wet with jets of water flying off in all directions. The subject of teachers came up and we remembered the illuminating and unique characters who taught us. We had had characters who pointed to wooden objects and asked “What is my name?” Thus the topic of teachers was never a dull subject.
I went around talking to my other former college mates, laughing all the way. I was very happy to see them. They had definitely changed a lot.
Dinner was served and the violinist started playing melodious music. I soon found myself drifting away and was lost in a deep reverie. As I began recollecting my experiences, I realized that it was the smallest details that I remembered the most. It was the subtle exchange of words ten years earlier that still had an impact on me. I knew then that the small and the simple things which people generally ignore would turn out to be experiences that they would cherish and treasure the rest for their life. May it be a short walk on a moonlit night or a conversation that took place over a cup of coffee in the canteen, these experiences last a lifetime. I remembered a movie I had seen when I was a teenager. It was called “The Butterfly Effect”. It was based on the chaos theory. It is based on the fact that small things in life eventually translate to bigger things which govern the working of the entire planet! I thought of a simple example to refresh my memory. Had I got one mark lesser in AIEEE (qualifying exam in those days), I would have been in another institute, taken up something else, would have had a different set of friends and would certainly not be attending this reunion. The one mark, which seemed so unimportant then, is what ultimately governed my entire life!
“You were always a daydreamer! Snap out of it!”. My wife was hovering over me, smiling, and squeezing my hand gently. Time certainly had flown and the much awaited reunion had come to an end. Along with Vivian, Kumkum and Reddy, I made my way to pose for the reunion pic. A copy of the photo was distributed to everyone present. I was due to return to work the next day and I caught my flight back as soon as the reunion got over. Bidding farewell to my friends and their families, we got in the taxicab and made our way back to the airport.
As soon as I reached home, I framed the photo and placed it next to the photo taken ten years ago when we had graduated. I began to wonder where we would be ten years hence. I also began to think about ‘the simple things’. I am sure that my thoughts on ‘the simple things’ (during the party) is one of those simple things that I would certainly remember for a long time to come
No comments:
Post a Comment