One fine Tuesday as the clock was
about to strike midday, I gathered myself with my coffee mug and the day's
newspaper when suddenly my phone whistled to a ping on WhatsApp. It's not the
group chats that I am keen to check as soon as they ping, they're all in silent
notifications. Nevertheless, my phone does whistle when individuals ping me. At
least this ensures I can respond if am not engaged. So this was an unknown
number and as per the protocols of networking, the sender ensured she
introduced herself. Thus affirming two engineers were on either side of the
communication channel!
The call sounded formal. It was probably the years between the calls that tried to distant the conversation yet amity turned the time's wicked intent down. The dialogue ended in an informal note zooming across the time defeating it by connecting the hearts! It was an invite for a college reunion! And the prompt response was a big "Yes, am in!".
This was not a regular event. We had
not met since we passed college. It has been over a decade that I've been in
Bengaluru, my acquired home town. I wasn't born or brought up here. My origin
lies in the foothills of the Himalayas! 'Namma Bengaluru' as we call it is
where I started my career, settled after marriage, birthed my daughters and
explore what parenting holds for me with each passing day. The city keeps us on
our toes and has turned us into a constant planner scheduling and rescheduling
our days according to the traffic! Alas! What a catalyst! Since 2006, many of
my college mates shuttled between the Silicon Valley of India and the rest of
the world. I had been in touch with most of them. Yet meeting as many of us
as possible together had just never
occurred! This was it!
There's this concept of Priority
Scheduling in Operating Systems, Computer Science. If a high priority job
enters the queue, all the other tasks wait for it to complete. This was exactly
our attained state of mind by now! Come what may, we were to meet. And we had
to do so at the earliest. Thus followed a series of pings, buzzes, chats,
calls, mails and posts. Good to be living in the era of technology. We were
sorted! The following Saturday was our date! Just three days away!
Saturdays are Karate mornings for me
and my daughter, a busy one. Succeeding which I had to depart for the
venue where we planned an 'Only Friends' Meet'. No, we were not on a secretive mission! Our intent was to re-live
our college days all over again at luncheon with a noble thought not resulting in boredom for anyone. Hence, no families this time.
While I was still battling my way
through the mean traffic congestion, thankfully not behind the car wheels,
which allowed me to check the WhatsApp message, the 'Ms. Punctual' announced
her arrival at the venue. Butterflies fluttered in my gut and I shifted from
one end of the car seat to the other, breathing deeply trying to relax and
travel patiently. This happens with me every time time runs ahead of me! My
chronic condition! The chat looked very tensing with the others pinging their
respective arrivals soon. New ideas are born just at these testing times! I
pretended to be too ignorant on the chat to believe that the meeting was
scheduled the same day, and I bluffed that I missed remembering the date!
Emojis assisted the melodrama. Thus triggering a bullwhip effect that
lasted for quite a while leaving me with spurts of laughter!
Finally, we all were there!
Hugs,
Kisses, Hellos and Hi were just the onset of what was to unfold! Now that's
what an enduring friendship is. The twinkle in the eyes, the beaming smile, the
everlasting chatter! No matter how many years pass when you meet, you're
brought back exactly to that moment you were together with flashes of fond
memories taking a hold on their rightful share. And then you want to narrate
and narrate again and you don't mind telling the same story umpteen times until
all at the table are aligned to what is heard! This is interleaved by the
cackle with the mouthful . Manners have no room today! You speak in all your forms.
The maiden that you were, the grad that you became together, the mother, the
wifey, the employee, the athlete in you! Your pompous speech tells it all and
everyone relates to it with a dash of their own experiences.
We
were all at our high with no pegs down! Credit to 'Our Spirit' and none to any 'Spirit'. Our seating arrangement was aptly chosen. We were all by ourselves,
the noisy corner table. What was the menu? I'm not the right person to jot that
down. Something I don't remember at all! Yet, if someone asks me to review the
restaurant, I'll rate it high. The four hours that we spent there were
enriching, jovial and would have certainly released a high level of endorphins
in our systems refreshing us to the core!
Such
was our beatitudes that we didn't check we paid one head extra in the bill
until the restauranteur approached us with an apologetic note highlighting the
error in their cheque.
For
us all that mattered was the priceless Saturday afternoon very well spent! And
I returned home with a souvenir for my dolls that adorned their doll!
