Something wonderful happened on December 19th. Thirty-two years after passing out of school, the class of '76 of Railway Mixed High School, Madurai had a re-union.
To me, it was a miracle. I had studied there between 1972 and 1975, leaving half-way during Class X. I had not met any of my former classmates since then, and my earlier attempts to keep in touch through letters petered out soon. Thirty odd years later, out of the blue, one friend calls up, and soon it is an avalanche of phone calls, mails, and messages. It was as if a door had opened, and they were all back in my life. It still is a wonder to me how they found me, for I did not expect them to remember me at all!
It was wonderful to go for the reunion and meet everyone, especially because we were all looking so different! Almost everyone had grown(in girth!) but some of the "boys" were un-recognizable!! We had so much fun laughing at the "Then & Now" slide show and catching up with the lost years.Suddenly, it was as if we had re-discovered a lost slice of our own selves.
I have often read about the inter-connectedness of things in the universe - that we are all connected in so many ways by invisible threads of connectivity. The reunion brought this to me very forcefully. Looking around at the happy faces and listening to each one's story, I realized the truth of John Donne's assertion - "No man is an island". Each one of us there was connected to each other through our common experiences in our old school, experiences that had shaped us and guided us through life and brought us back together.
8 comments:
It was a wonderful thing indeed. When Radha suggested a meeting with us when she visited India, I didn't imagine a wee bit that this meeting would bloom into a formal reunion of bathchmates. I'm still dazed about the whole thing. Never imagined this would happen. All of a sudden I have a lot of 'close' friends again!!
Yep, we're all connected in many ways. May we never get disconnected.
Quite true, Joshi, and I must thank you, Mano,Selwyn and Nazeer for organizing it. You are right about the 'close' friends. I suppose it is because we first met as children, long before we put on our adult masks and learnt to face the world.
Meena, that must've been a very heartwarming occasion(and it comes out so beautifully in your expressions)! Meeting old friends and wondering at the changes in them, in their lives is always fascinating. And how true--that we're all interconnected in some way or the other, and 'No man is an island'.
Vishwa,
Thank you. Indeed it was a joyous and heartwarming occasion.As you said,meeting old friends is always interesting.We are all connected, and finding our old friends is like finding parts of ourselves, a journey towards wholeness.
Dear Mk,
I wasnt fortunate enough to attend the reunion meet,thanks to the Rly Dept, the train was delayed for over 10 hrs.After reading ur blog i could imagine how profoundly the meet has created an impact on all those made it.yr observation on the inter connectivity is by & large true.All we have to pray to the almighty is that the connecting thread should get stronger & stronger as days pass by, for we do not know how long each of us r going to live aleardy most of us r in late 40s. I may be a stranger to u, i know u very well,on seening some photos i m of the view u havent changed much. Regards Ashok.Im working as a Sr Intelligence Officer DRI, Coimbatore.Hope to catch up sometime in future.But one candid admission, i havent read much about mystics, invisible things& stuff of that kind. After reading ur blog i understand that u r a great scholarly person.I can b contacted @ 9486034430. Ashop
Ashok,
Thanks for the comment. I wish you could have made it that day. Never mind, there is always another opportunity in June. I think we are as young as we feel, and meeting our old friends and reminiscing about our school days will certainly make us feel young again. I do come to Coimbatore often and will contact you then.
It was an amazing event uniting all classmates around the world. It has left unforgettable memories in my mind. I felt I was in my teens amongst my batchmates. I am so proud in saying that I took part in organizing such a great get-together. I have started counting the days for the next REUNION in 2010.
Regards ,
Nazeer
Nazeer,
You are right.For those few hours, we became young again, almost as if we were teenagers!It is so wonderful to meet old friends again, and to realize, as Joshi said, that we have so many 'close' friends.I am looking forward to the next reunion too.
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