Spending time with school friends, for me, has always been like reliving my childhood. Few weeks back, I had a dinner with some close school pals. We had planned for a get-together as we were tired of our hectic work-life and office politics. At least I was!
Since my earlier planned trip to Dalhousie got cancelled just at the eleventh hour, I was badly looking forward to the get-together with the friends for obvious reasons. And boy...what an evening it turned out to be!
Though most of us were in regular touch with each other, there was a couple of friends we were meeting straight after completing our schooling....a good six years to be very precise. So, the initial awkwardness in the air was patatable. Well...considerable lapse of time and distance do bring about changes in people. But, with friends it's a tad different. They might appear a bit formal initially when meeting after a long time but scratch a little on the surface and they would come across as their same old selves. And this is what precisely happened with us.
Soon the formality in the air was replaced by the familiar banter. All of us took turns walking down the memory lane. We had a good laugh over recalling our foolhardiness during good old school days. Next we found ourselves updating each other on career graphs, setbacks, latest crushes, trends, work-life balance and so on and so forth.
Throughout the gathering, what was heartening for me to notice was most of the friends had grown up into a sensible lot with the passage of time. Intelligence, mixed with an appropriate sense of humour, has always fascinated me. So, I enjoyed myself big time with the bunch.
When grown-ups meet, can adult jokes be left behind??? Everybody joined in the exchange of deliberate ambiguous statements. Thankfully, we had a mature and lovely girl with us who made sure that we didn't go overboard with the same.
The evening reached to the final stage where a scrumptious meal was waiting for us at Nirula's in the vicinity of Defence colony. Kadhai-Chicken, Shahi-Paneer, Malai-Kofta, Dal-makhani, Butter naan and stuff adorned our dinner table. A foodie like me couldn't have asked for more. The lip-smacking food resulted in a subdued BURP!
Ice-creams followed our supper and before leaving for home, we settled for a group photograph not knowing that it would kickstart an elaborate photo-shoot. I am sure it must have appeared to others that day as if our sole purpose behind the gathering was to get a group portfolio done.
At last, we dispersed after making sure that everybody reaches home without any hassles. Having eaten my fill, I didn't feel like riding my bike. So, after biking for a few kilometres, I gave my bike (YAMAHA FZ-16) to my friend who was riding pillion with me and had expressed his wish to ride the machine earlier in the day. I sat pillion on the scooty of my another friend who was more than happy to let me have a ride back home with her. Considering that I flirted with her a lot and embarrassed her on few occasions during the day, I was thanking my stars that she didn't kick my arse to settle scores with me. Thank you lady for the lovely ride and the kind advice regarding my love interest.
And before signing off, I would like to say a big 'THANK YOU' to all my friends (Partho, Shraddha, Nitin, Tulika, Manish, Natasha, Girdhar, Shilpa, Deepak, Shukla, Ravinder, Manisha and Ashish) for turning up for the do and making my day. You guys had been really nice to me. I am going to cherish the sweet memories for a long time...Goodbye friends and I hope you will be in the pink when we meet next time!
Since my earlier planned trip to Dalhousie got cancelled just at the eleventh hour, I was badly looking forward to the get-together with the friends for obvious reasons. And boy...what an evening it turned out to be!
Though most of us were in regular touch with each other, there was a couple of friends we were meeting straight after completing our schooling....a good six years to be very precise. So, the initial awkwardness in the air was patatable. Well...considerable lapse of time and distance do bring about changes in people. But, with friends it's a tad different. They might appear a bit formal initially when meeting after a long time but scratch a little on the surface and they would come across as their same old selves. And this is what precisely happened with us.
Soon the formality in the air was replaced by the familiar banter. All of us took turns walking down the memory lane. We had a good laugh over recalling our foolhardiness during good old school days. Next we found ourselves updating each other on career graphs, setbacks, latest crushes, trends, work-life balance and so on and so forth.
Throughout the gathering, what was heartening for me to notice was most of the friends had grown up into a sensible lot with the passage of time. Intelligence, mixed with an appropriate sense of humour, has always fascinated me. So, I enjoyed myself big time with the bunch.
When grown-ups meet, can adult jokes be left behind??? Everybody joined in the exchange of deliberate ambiguous statements. Thankfully, we had a mature and lovely girl with us who made sure that we didn't go overboard with the same.
The evening reached to the final stage where a scrumptious meal was waiting for us at Nirula's in the vicinity of Defence colony. Kadhai-Chicken, Shahi-Paneer, Malai-Kofta, Dal-makhani, Butter naan and stuff adorned our dinner table. A foodie like me couldn't have asked for more. The lip-smacking food resulted in a subdued BURP!
Ice-creams followed our supper and before leaving for home, we settled for a group photograph not knowing that it would kickstart an elaborate photo-shoot. I am sure it must have appeared to others that day as if our sole purpose behind the gathering was to get a group portfolio done.
At last, we dispersed after making sure that everybody reaches home without any hassles. Having eaten my fill, I didn't feel like riding my bike. So, after biking for a few kilometres, I gave my bike (YAMAHA FZ-16) to my friend who was riding pillion with me and had expressed his wish to ride the machine earlier in the day. I sat pillion on the scooty of my another friend who was more than happy to let me have a ride back home with her. Considering that I flirted with her a lot and embarrassed her on few occasions during the day, I was thanking my stars that she didn't kick my arse to settle scores with me. Thank you lady for the lovely ride and the kind advice regarding my love interest.
And before signing off, I would like to say a big 'THANK YOU' to all my friends (Partho, Shraddha, Nitin, Tulika, Manish, Natasha, Girdhar, Shilpa, Deepak, Shukla, Ravinder, Manisha and Ashish) for turning up for the do and making my day. You guys had been really nice to me. I am going to cherish the sweet memories for a long time...Goodbye friends and I hope you will be in the pink when we meet next time!
4 comments:
"...They might appear a bit formal initially when meeting after a long time but scratch a little on the surface and they would come across as their same old selves. And this is what precisely happened with us"
ur articulacy behind ths paragrph hs filled me wd a similr emoton tht I acquainted wd whn I met sme of my very old friends aftr almost five lng years. Believe u me! all of us wre gazing at othr thngs to strt a good conversation. No matter hw brilliant sense of humor u possess bt everything seems stagnant in such a situation. It becomes more lke a wild goose chase fr a tool to brk a heavy ice among those whom u usd to know lke a back of ur hand. Literally, it taks a lot f patience to portray back ur true self in front of your old chums whom u meet after a long stretch.
'So near and yet so far'...were d only words that came to my mind after readin ur comment, my dear fren. M afraid u missed d point
the gist of my comment is same as wht u meant in the above said para.........."They might appear a bit formal initially" ....... this clearly indicates that little bit of hesitatin holds u back before sharing the same old kith an kin relation with ur friend for sometime.....but eventually u overccome this situation....read it deeply and u will be able to associate ur paragraph with my comment.........
"...little bit of hesitation holds u back before sharing the same old kith an kin relation with ur friend for sometime.....but eventually u overccome this situation." ----This statement was missin in ur earlier comment. Had u said d same earlier it wud hv conveyed ur feelings completely n spared me d trouble to butt in wid a remark :-)
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