All my life, I have had the experience of living in different cities, going to school in different cities, and making new friends. As time passed, either I relocated, or some friends did. We wrote letters, and we missed each other for a while and then, moved on with life.
As I grew older, I realized that there were so many memories, and so many people left behind. Some connections still existing, but passively. Some connections dissolved by the trick of time. I wanted all those memories to come back to me, and I wanted all those people to be a part of my life again. Those people with whom I probably went to elementary school with, played duck-duck-goose with, fought over food with, watched Scooby Doo every night at 8 pm with, talked about Enid Blyton's and Roald Dahl's books, played house with, cheated in class dictations with, twittered about like pixies with, laughed at the lamest of jokes with, played on the monkey bars and the slides with... Oh! The list just seems to go on.
I realized that no matter how naive I was, those days were still beautiful. They were beautiful, because we were all still unaware of what life would be like ahead. And that innocence was the best part of the friendship I shared with them.
Thanks to the advancing technology and the boon (or distraction) of social networking sites like Facebook, I set out to search for those friends, who at that time meant a lot to me. Because, they brought a smile to my face, they shared their lunches, they enjoyed the same cartoons, and read the same books. And of course, the gossips of how someone was being a bully, or how someone had been mean and hurtful.
And, I am thankful to my good memory, that I remembered the names and the last-names of all those I was hoping to reconnect with. And, I did get in touch with every single person who was an important person in my life, in the various cities I've lied in.
In December 2009, I met with four of my old classmates,after almost eight years, who I'd studied with when I was six till I was eight. Last December, I reunited with an old neighbor of mine. We lived opposite each other for just about a year, and knew each other for just exactly that long. When we met, we met after twelve years.
During both these reunions, I wondered how they looked (Facebook images are not always the best), how tall they'd grown, how different they were, and whether, I'd still be as happy to meet them now, as I was then. I had all sorts of apprehensions in my head, but when I met them all, all those worries ran away.
It was wonderful. I didn't want to leave them. Sure, they had changed. Well, of course, I did too. We were all grown up, and mature. But the most commendable thing was that even after all these years, we greeted each other with so much excitement and zest. We were really looking forward to seeing each other, and we were genuinely elated to. I could feel it in the embraces we exchanged, and in the smiles, that never left our faces.
Sure, for me, the connections had been revived, and the bonds had been reunited.
We still keep in touch, and we hope that the next meeting doesn't happen after eight or twelve years. And I can confidently say, that whenever that next meeting may be it will be as delightful, if not more.
