The Reunion - Dec 2009

Even at the risk of being frowned upon by English Pundits I would call the reunion of Batch 77 as an “exercise in “fruitility”.

Begun as almost for a lark in an idle nostalgic moment, this exercise gathered momentum and fructified in five days of pure, rip roaring unadulterated fun. Like my soul mate Harvinder put it

RARELY does one laugh oblivious to the surroundings or reaction of people
RARELY do you have people keeping relations with people from the heart
RARELY do find people without any agenda hidden or open
RARELY do you find such bonhomie
RARELY do you find that your pocket size or identity is least important to another
The common word used is “RARELY”
Truly we RARELY get to meet such RARE people.

Everybody had changed, some had moved on while some ambled caught up in their societal cares and obligations. But on those five days everyone was out to have fun. Notwithstanding the extended waistlines and receding hairlines, The grandchildren and newly wed children; those five days brought them back to their teens. The days of terylene shirts, bell bottoms, curly locks, drooping moustache and yes songs of Kishore Kumar, customized for Rajesh Khanna.

All these people who had completed half a century on this earth forgot all their multiple ailments and became teenagers. Drinking from Midday to midnight, even the odd teetotaler looked equally intoxicated at the end of the day ooopss night. It did not matter where they were, or who was watching them they lived life with the reckless abandon of a teenager for those five days.

At the end every body left and reached their homes, once again to quote Harvinder “safe and sad”. But all felt rejuvenated to face the chores of mundane, worldly, boring routine with a promise from the heart “we part only to meet again”