college reunion

I hadn't met most of my old college gang for almost 14 years now, till yesterday that is. In fact, I need to rephrase this, and say, till facebook!

Actually after ten years people are going to look back and remember these times like a miraculous new wave. Something like the time man went on the moon, or the first super computer came into being, or the internet happened, similarly facebook and other similar social networking sites are blowing quiet little winds of change into our lives. Suddenly you come face to face (or book!!!!!) with people you have not seen for the past few decades. And there is this sudden buzz, euphoria, reunion, recap, nostalgia and you have this compulsive desire to connect with people whom you had (to be honest) totally forgotten about!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, back to the reunion, there we all were after so many years suddenly in a bursting crowded restaurant with very bad food, and rather bad service, looking across the table and screaming, "Eiiiiiiiiiiiieee".

So how did it go? Apart from the fact that we all have managed to give in to gravity, cellulite, grey hair, blah blah, people hadn't intrinsically changed all that much. And, while we all reminisced about the old days, I felt that some way we had lost those old threads that bind life together. Each had gone through those old life changes; marriages, children, change, loss and gain,without each other. Everyone on the table had lived another lifetime and added more dimensions to their personality.

And yet, as the minutes passed and the food warmed us up, and defences went down, we all went back for a while to those old days when we really were all still waiting for life to happen to us. Yes, there were glaring holes and blanks in terms of the life paths that we all follow, and we have all grown into our own people, found our own niches and grooves. What I took away from there was pride...that everyone had reached somewhere on the goals they had planned, even after stumbling around a bit. And, what hit me was that I could still reconnect with them as adults................on a new platform,.... aside from the fact that we all spent three or in some cases five years of the most formative years of our lives together.

In fact, in some ways facebook has helped us all reconnect with each other's lives. Its nice to see the kids of my old school boyfriend, or the birthday party of an old college friend. You suddenly share each other's lives (maybe a bit too much...like do i care if someone sent virtual flowers to their sister? maybe not!)........you find a common page to connect with old friends, share memories, abuse each other and generally comment in life. Later post porteming the entire episode with a good pal....who had gone through a similar expereince a night before, we both sat and shared a very profound thought........as life patterns get more turbulent, ever changing, and as Delhi schools change children's class sections every few years disallowing them from ever having a solid base of chaddi buddies...maybe networks like facebook help us garrulous evolved primates keep the tribe and clan in place.

Long live reunions, vurtual or otherwise, who knows you might even meet yourself as you were fifteen years ago!!!!!!!