Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Old friends and book ends

I went to Hyderabad last weekend. And I have decided to finally make productive use of office hours by reporting on the events of those 3 days - of trying to please everybody and trying to spend enough time with eveyone. I now know how heroes of Telugu movies feel when the 3 or 4 heriones keep pulling him in all directions. And add to it an overwhelming feeling of somnolence and the unbearable heat in Hyderabad...well, that gives you an idea about how the trip went, doesnt it?
Well, it wasnt really that bad as I got to meet up with a lot of friends who I would'nt be meeting again in a very long time. Now all my friends are at a very crucial stage in their lives. Shruti, Shilpa and most of my other friends who are passing out of engineering colleges this year are taking up jobs in IT companies across the country (rather mostly Hyderabad and Bangalore). A few like Sunil are taking up GRE. Then those who have studied with me in college seem to have spent the past year in a vacuum. Trisha and Swetha are working in a call centre. Lalith leaving for Delhi for Civils preparation.Kiran training for the military. Ravi has set up a consultancy with 7 others. Abhishek taking up a course in journalism. Pramod and Nikhil doing MBA's.
Everyone is now moving on, finding a direction. That proverbial fork in the road stage of life where everyone has to make a decision about where they want to go and what they want to do in life. And so it was like old times when we sat on the grass at our usual 'adda' on Necklace Road last Sunday night. We started off with the usual dirty jokes and double entendres for a long while. And then we discussed issues we were facing. One friend spoke about her troubled relationship. Lalith about his feelings on going to Delhi, Kiran about his experiences in training - somewhere down the line, we had shifted to serious talk, problems - something we never did before when we met up at Necklace Road.
And then, we started talking of college days. Its been just a year since I passed out but it already seems so long and that warm nice feeling one gets when one thinks of pleasant memories accompanied by a twinge of sorrow that one can never get them back - thats the feeling I get of my three years at Hyderabad. We went on a 'remember when...' trip that night and it made us laugh like crazy. There was a sense of smallness about the world then - for most of my friends Hyderabad was the world. And there was also a sense which can be interpreted either as being carefree or irresponsible - most didnt have any concrete plan for the future- everyone dreamt of making it big but few knew how they were going to go about doing it. And in this one year we had shed our judgemental selfs - I noticed that all of us were more willing to give a person a chance before forming an opinion on him. We didnt pass comments on every person who had the misfortune to pass by us. And we had better things to talk about than the latest controversy in college - and trust me, we had more than enough of them.
There was also this urgency to having fun- we wanted to spend as much time as possible together, we wanted to stay out for as long as possible - it was as if we had a very limited span of time together and we wanted to make the best use of it. It drove our families crazy and we got into a lot of trouble for this madness. We also so wanted to be 'cool' and 'in' - we'd walk the walk and talk the talk, so to speak. We would buy and wear everything which was considered 'in'. From glass bangles to short handle bags to extra large flare faded jeans to belts to periparallels to lucknawi kurtis- all these became the rage when I was in college. And my friends and I faithfully bought them and wore them.
It also feels good that we know each other so well, even the small things. That Swetha likes anything blue, that I get mad when someone litters the place, that Lallu becomes real silent when he is hungry
It felt good to relive those memories - a kind of assurance that however far we might move on, there will always be time to catch up with old friends and laugh.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

choo sweet! reminded me of my old college days..n boy did we have fun..we can make an entire movie out of it..me bein the hero ofcourse n just about 4-5 heroins.. cant write the entire story here but to tell u the truth, just whn the movie ends everyones made to realize tht life had just begun..it had for me n college days r just a sweet dream now!
btw wot did u have for lunch today??

Anonymous said...

ummm so mushy musings,it's worth remembering these moments, coz before we know reality(for which read domesticity) will cause a creasing on our brow. and now to complete the song-:
time it was and what a time it was, it was a time of innocence, a time of confidences, long ago it must be, i have afford to grab, preserve ure memories, they're all that's left you.bye

Anonymous said...

ummm so mushy musings,it's worth remembering these moments, coz before we know reality(for which read domesticity) will cause a creasing on our brow. and now to complete the song-:
time it was and what a time it was, it was a time of innocence, a time of confidences, long ago it must be, i have afford to grab, preserve ure memories, they're all that's left you.bye

Anonymous said...

I have afford to grab

Uh... I think it's "I have a photograph"

Anonymous said...

i did check some sites and none of it has the "i have a photograph bit",though i am tempted to believe u( makes more sense and is grammatically correct) i think paul simon wud agree that if he had hit upon the idea of "i have afford to grab" he'd stick to it, sounds better that such a lustreless admission as "i have photograph"....watsay?

Anonymous said...

hi aadisht, i dont know u, hell but i've been tryin to check different sites to find out and yet none of em have the "i have a photograph bit", though i am tempted 2 believe u( makes more sense and is grammatically correct) i think and paul simon wud agree that if he had hit the idea of "i have afford to garb" he'd stick to it cuz i think it sounds better that such a lustreless admission as "i have a photograph"....watsay?

Anonymous said...

it is "i have a photograph".......and it is rather silly to debate on what paul simon would have liked.....he isnt as utterly senseless as to write "i have afford to grab"

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