Purani Jeans

Yesterday I met up with my college friends after ten years, before you start calculating my age based on the aforementioned ten years, let me clarify that I am thirty, graduated in 1998, I was put one year early to school you see, which means that I started kindergarten at the tender age of three and play school or nursery at two!!! In her defence my mom say, "you should not have been the hyperactive kid you were!!!" But I digress, now where were we, ah yes, the reunion!!

It began with an innocent call from this friend with whom I have not spoken to since we left college, we shall call her Pallavi (names have been changed to protect identity), we got talking, exchanges gossip, who married whom, who is still single(ready to mingle??), where is the rest of the gang, who is in touch...etc...etc..etc...

Then we rang off with the usual line “We must meet someday”... “yes sure, we must, lets meet next Sunday” responds your truly...the date is fixed and I hang up the phone knowing that this plan will never materialise next week... it will go up in smoke like such plans usually do...so it was a pleasant surprise when within five minutes another college friend whom we shall call Sagar (name changed to protect identity again) calls. “Hey Sen, it’s just seven thirty, why don’t we meet today ??”, now I am in a dilemma, thing is I have a curfew, you see...Cinderella’s godmother allowed her to enjoy the ball till 12 midnight but I need to be home by 10p.m....latest by 10.30p.m....but the joy of meeting old pals won and I set off...we decided to meet at a central location, Inorbit Mall, Malad, I reached half an hour before time so spent the time browsing through some books at Crossword, Do I see Sanjeev Kapoor quaking in his boots...Sanjeev, relax, I did not buy any more cook books..Your recipes are safe...for the time being that is!!!

Finally they arrived at nine, after the usual “you have put on so much weight,... but it looks good on you”..."you have greyed...but it adds character to your face” kind of remarks we settled down at Cafe Coffee Day,... and shared some more gossip, the kind that required more of a face to face kind of setting!!!

One thing led to another and soon we were calling the others in the gang who were still in Mumbai to see if they would like to join us...we called Kiran (name changed to protect identity)...he lives in the vicinity and said he would join us in fifteen minutes...then we called Jay (Name changed to protect identity again)...as luck would have it he too was in the same area... so by the time it was 10 p.m. all five of us had downed some good cappuccino, talked about old flames, new flames, fiancées, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, jobs, taking nineteen to a dozen and made future plans to continue with these meetings.

Even though each had changed over the years, I am glad to say that each being well settled in life, one is Account manager at an Insurance Major, another a well-known photographer, the third looking after the training and development needs of a Software giant, the fourth in the Pharmaceutical industry and yours truly in Finance. It was as if we have never been apart, the years just dissolved, we were back in college, sitting at our adda, bunking lectures, talking about Guptajis (this place has the best vadapavs in Mumbai), the canteen, the Khandar, the professors, how we celebrated birthdays, went on picnics, competed with each other to get better marks, our fights and patch-ups, facing the world and standing up for the other member of our “group”.

The memory of these few stolen moments with my friends will remain with me for a long time. The past is History, Future is a mystery and Today is a gift that is why it is called the Present. I have learnt that this Present, this precious time, is much too precious to be wasted; I really feel that I have lost ten years of my life by not keeping in touch with my friends. I should have reached out, talked to the people I care for sooner, I should have realised that it is not worth pandering your ego over a small misunderstanding which nearly ruined a great friendship!!!

But as Omi said in OSO, “Happys Endings, picture aabhi baaki hai mere dost”...All is well that ends well, we are back together and that is all that counts in the end!!!

Next we plan to meet at Jays’ wedding !!!

Yipiee...am I looking forward to it???...You bet I am !!!