December 26th, 2008
I am composing this on the evening after our school reunion. We have one every year, held on the day after Christmas. Every pass out of the school is invited. It’s one of those days we Nirmalitez wait for every year, cause all of us manage to get leaves for Christmas, wither we are working or studying.
But I must include my reunion with two of my college friends two days ago, before I can describe the reunion. On December 24th, I set out to meet Tomci and Shibon, college buddies , in the Ernakulam district. Yes, they have those strange , unique names you come across rarely. Most people after their first meeting with any of these guys ask again and confirm the names “So , is it Tom C or Tomci ?” They are two of those guys who never gave up on me when I flunked in college. They suffered a little too, but we all had each other at the end of the day. They are extremely talented guys, who came to the wrong college and ….well….didnt get what they actually expected, but they still have not lost hope.
I start from my house at 5:30 am. Reach Ernakulam at 8, and get down at the wrong stop. The Tamil bus driver obviously does not know any more than the usual limited stops and puts me down at Palarivattom instead of Edapally as I had requested. I chug back in an auto and there Tomci takes me home on his back. That was the worst looking Pulsar I had seen, but it serves its purpose. Tomci has literally turned his apartment upside down and shook it! Everything is where its not supposed to be,and junk everywhere. If you look, you can find the most unlikely of things hiding under it all.Shibon is deep in slumber, and it takes us 1 hour and a fight to get him up. It also breaks my spectacles! We catch up on old times , discussing our past and possible futures. Then Tomci remembers that Sherry Phillip, ex vice President of our student union, had landed home from Gelf !! We call him up, and a very sleepy and surprised Sherry is on the other side. Meanwhile, Shibon has found and old guitar from above mentioned junk (think of the odds),and is busy tuning it. Twaing ,Twaing!! Every tune sounds the same. Sherry sings of on the phone , cause he cant make out our talks from the noise and the fact that he was really tired.
My actual destination on that day was Shibon’s house, another 2 and half hours away in Muvattupuzha, and looking at the clock, we were obviously late. After a quick breakfast at the nearest hotel, we finally get starte at around 10:30. While waiting at Ernakulam south, Shibon nearly invites danger by foolishly checking the weight of a hawker on the street. The guy was using a lighter counterweight on his weighing machine, and didn’t like it when our hero found him out. Well, he started his bickering in pure Malayalam, I pray for the bus. Shibon sleeps most of the way home, and we arrive at Valagom close to lunch. His mom has prepared delicious food for us, and his younger brother tells me of his college. Seems like Bon’s ubuntu installation has problems with the mouse, and I try to figure it out. Throughout lunch, the folks enquire everything about me, its one of those things I miss in Chennai. After that, we have enough time to play some video games and listen to Bon’s art on the piano. I leave for home at 5 , but on the way back , run into an ugly traffic jam ,and reach home at 9:30 pm.
Well today, things were not that bad. I got up on time, but there were some errands to run before I could leave for the school. I drive straight to Ajith’s home, knowing for sure the old guy will still be there. You cant make Ajith run on schedule, specially on the day after Christmas. Just as I had guessed, Antony and Thomas were there. That starts of our day…blah blah..blahhhhhhhhahahhohohohehheheheh. This is what happens most of the time we guys get together. We finally entire school premises at 11:30, just in time for lunch. We have cleverly avoided the prayer session and actions songs part (don’t ask !). Let see….we are all there,with Neil, Simi, Mary and Elizabeth. David was caught up with work, and so was Sumesh (thank god). This is what’s left of the first batch to pass out of our school, almost 8 years ago. Everyone has the usual comments to say about us “Big people” , “Very busy to come back”, and in my case “Have put on weight”. A few teachers are there, and loooot of other ex students from other batches. Funny, I didn’t find anyone from the immediate batch below us.
Neil looked smart, and told everyone that his Russian ordeal had come to an end and now was a full time doctor. The others hadn’t changed much since the last time we all had met. Elizabeth had brought along her….mmm…neice (I think). A Gelf niece is very hard to manage, especially in the middle of a cacophony like the one we had that time. But she was doing fine. Jacob calls ISD after some time, and has a nice chat with everyone. Then we all proceed for the days specials : Lunch ! Some more photo snapping and chatting, and its time to disperse. The girls head home, and Antony to work, leaving 4 of us with 2 bikes and a loooooot of time. What do we do ? We head for a movie, latest release is Lollipop, anther one of those campus-youth-chocolate stories. There was nothing watching in the entire movie, it was plain waste of money. On St Thomas road, we decide to have some ice cream before breaking up our gang. Again the usual blah blah blah….hahahhhohhehehh. Calling David tells us that he and Jerry are meeting up, so we head there. Dr David Jose and Er Jerry Jolly are two of our school’s finest products. By this time, its near 6pm, so we head to Thope stadium with some drinks (soft drinks ! it’s a public place.) Antony joins us there, and we all go back to school days again, for the fourth or fifth time that day. The jokes we ran at school, the near death encounters at PC Thomas’s classes, our stories at and after school; it was all there. We could picture all of us strategically placed at 27 different reference points in the hexagonal class room of ours !! But not all stories were happy though, we shared the experience of Ajith and Jacob when they could not make it as most of the others had done. The fun thing about us is that we all have the same sickness; we all have the ability to recall all our past blunders and laugh out loud at them. 8 years from that day, nothing about our characters have changed, though our outer appearances had changed a lot.
We finally decide to call it a day ; and promise each other to meet soon. That soon may take another 365 days, so I pray it comes sooner.
Happy New Year !!!
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