Bees Saal Baad

What happens when people meet after 20 years? Wonderment (hey, is that you?), glimmers of recognition (I was thinking...), reminiscence (hey, where’s so-and-so?), fond old memories (remember the Alibag picnic?)....

And now imagine what would happen when not one or two, but more than 35 people meet after 20 years....

Which is what happened last Saturday (10 days ago) when our class of ’89 met for a reunion. Some of us were meeting each other after more than a few years, some us after a decade and some of us met each other for the first time since our graduation!

A couple of people had come in from other cities just to meet others for a couple of hours, and a few who are now abroad had sent in messages.

And the icing on the cake was some of our professors joining in – some of whom have retired and came especially for the function.

It was overwhelming, to say the least! When asked to introduce themselves, one could see some people choking on their words, some holding back tears that were threatening to brim over, there was a sense of elation in some, while others remembered all the joyous times we had spent together.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? Now when my rational mind remembers it, all the time we had spent all those years ago was not paradisiacal, but when we met after two decades, all we remembered were the good times we had spent together. It was as if the negative memories were wiped out from our minds, leading us to remember the utopian world that existed, as it were.

And now it is time to start reconnecting with people – to chat, pick up lost threads, make new connections with their spouses, sometimes even with them.

After all, twenty years IS a long time!