Meeting Old Friends

Almost a year back my friend Veena called me up from Chennai and told me to add her as a friend and connect with all our other school friends. I connected with all my friends and also visited the wall of our Old School where we studied. The photos of my school brought back many memories both good and bad.

We were a group of 6-7 girls in Holy Angels Convent in Chennai, a boisterous group who had a lot of fun without any regrets about the past or anxiety about the future. All of us were not of the same bent of mind. We did not share the same interests. Still we were always seen together laughing, joking and jabbering away.
After school some of us went to the same college for higher studies. One friend pursued medicine course and is a doctor attached to a Charitable Hospital. A couple of them branched off to other colleges. There were occasional phone calls (emails were yet to be discovered then) from them and invites for their marriages or the marriages of their siblings. Slowly and gradually the frequency of contacts reduced and petered out. My contact with Veena alone continued since she was a tenant in my house in Chennai after her marriage for a couple of years.

After FB was introduced it never occurred to me that I could try to connect with my school friends. I was busy reinforcing the existing contacts with my relatives and colleagues at my present work place. This call from Veena to connect with others was a thrilling experience. It was 35 year since we have completed schooling. A lot of changes have happened in all our lives. Each of us have achieved to the best of our abilities in our careers. My friends’ children have all grown up and are ready to spread their wings and fly high in their spheres. They are ready for marriage also! Gosh have I become old now! Since I have children I am growing old through my neighbors’ kids. At one stage the kids used to call me Akka, a respectful term for an elder sister. A few years later I was graduated to the status of auntie. And now my friends’ grandchildren would soon be calling me Patti, the tamizh term for grandmother.

When I saw my friends’ photos on FB it was a pleasant surprise-none had changed beyond recognition. Perhaps I may have been the only one to have put on a lot of weight. All others were looking the same as when I last waved them goodbye 35 years back. Even more surprising was when we spoke over the phone. A couple of them have settled in the US for the last 25 years. Surprise, surprise- no American drawl! It was the same jabber which I last heard 35 years back. It seemed that all these years had vanished and we were meeting after a short break when I spoke to each of them over phone.

I had an opportunity to meet them in Ranjini’s daughter’s wedding. The bond is the same. The laughter was the same. The jokes were the same. The natural process of aging has not dampened our spirits or enthusiasm. What is it about school friends that bring out the most natural traits in us? Is it that we spent the growing years of our lives with them? Or is it that this bonding came into our lives much before the cruel world outside could engulf us into the whirlwind of Samsara Sagaram?