The 25th December, 2010 that it was!!

Sometimes we wait for some event or occasion so hard that it is humanly impossible to enjoy the moments when it has actually arrived, because you already start visualizing the end of it!! That is exactly what happened to me a month ago, on 25th December, 2010 (when the world was celebrating Christmas of 2010). A sort of miracle was to take place that day, I was about to meet my friends from college after 4 long years. 

And boy, things changed since the 4 years. Some newer developments were - Me and Sowshee started talking to each other after a stupid fall out (but thanks to Sow, who chose to keep her ego aside), UP got married and now has a 2 year old lovely doll named Dhanya (who by the way was enjoying her first time out from her mom), Vinu and Sowmya got married (very recently and they do not have kids yet), Sowshee got engaged, what did not change much was our dear friend Sudi's slow motion lifestyle (who still takes longer than everyone to start talking and reacting to some situation). Sudi and me are the only happy spinsters left in the batch (as of today.. some one please update if otherwise!). 

In 2003 April, on a hot Sunday, after not so happy meal at the St. Joseph's ladies hostel in Chennai, just before taking the afternoon nap, "6 of us" (remember from the earlier posts?) started worrying how will we ever meet after the college gets over and bloody hell, we do not even have a single snap of ours to share with someone, huh!! So, we decided to go on a trip - Delhi and surroundings and the Himalayas - in the summer time and enjoy every moment of it and take some stunning photos which will remind us of our times for the rest of our lives!! Immediately a hand raised and rejected the proposal - Miss. VP (then Miss. and now Mrs.) was way too confident that she will never ever be able to make to the trip, which we understood. So we thought lest, 5 of us should meet!! What we did not realize was that, it might as well take a whole 7 years for that plan to work out.  

Coming to the present, here I was waiting in the Terminal 1 of Delhi IG airport anxiously (while revisiting the hostel days in mind) to see the rest of the 5 (as VP was in US). The new addition to this group was Ammu, Sow's kid sister (her actual name is Chandni, which I did not remember till I saw her). Ammu and Sow were coming from Chennai and the Hyderabadis were coming together and all of them were supposed to reach Delhi by 10 00 AM. Delhi is a bad, and I mean very bad place in winters but since, time did not permit us in a more appropriate way, we were meeting in winters (at its peek) in Delhi. We had plans to go to Jaipur, Agra and Mussorie (which I was not as interested because there wasn't anything new in snow to me).  Anyways, the coming 5 days were going to be exciting to me by all means, because I myself never ever had an outing in the past 4 months, life was dragging slow and with no desi colleagues back in Warsaw, I was actually alone!! Oh, did I mention the work was also getting stressful by each passing day (which was something new and rare for me although!!). 

At 10 30 AM, a phone call killed a part of the enthusiasm, the Hyderabadi flight had reached Jaipur and at 11 AM, I learnt that Chennai-ites were in Ahmedabad (believe me after this, I was not even interested in meeting them..just wanted to run away from the cold airport) Now, whatever happened in the respective delayed flights is something that should be narrated first hand (but I would definitely say, the Chennai air hostesses had the most pathetic flight experience, if I can recount correctly!). Also, guess whom I saw in the Airport - Nitin Gadkari (the BJP guy and that instantly reminded me of funny men Cyrus Broacha and Kunal Vijayakar, who never ever leave a single opportunity to make fun of him.. hahaha). After one of my longest waits of life, came the Hyderabadi flight from Jaipur at 1 00 PM ( I was in the airport since 9 in the morning :( ) and as I waited further, the Ahmadabadis also arrived at 2 00 PM, I told the Chennai / Ahmadabad batch to come out of the door and turn left and I am right there in front of the door. As me and Sudi waited, waited and waited, suddenly I noticed something. Someone in a bright yellow kurta and brighter yellow sandals with brightest Red Santa Cap was walking right opposite to what I had mentioned, which helped in figuring my dear, dearer, dearest Sowshee had arrived!!! 

As soon as I shouted and asked her to turn back, all of a sudden, there was warm wind blowing, with Sow running in slo-mo towards me and "Dil Chahta Hai" paying aloud in the background, which ended with a thunderous hug, shouting names and unbelievably weird expressions of love. I can't cherish the rest of the journey as much as those moments when I first saw my friends after 4 years in their new avatars. An instant rush of happiness and bewilderment overtook the restlessness which had occupied since morning!! 

Life was good for those 5 days, with some events which told me nothing had quite changed amongst us!! We were still the same as we used to be in 2003 (after that there was a hiatus in relations, which is why 2003 was the last time we spent some unforgettable moments!!). 

I will update the rest of the trip later when time and mood permits, but as I sat down to do some work and noticed that it was the 25th of Jan, I could not believe that already a month had passed since I met my friends. Not sure when again we will get a chance to meet, while we are all back to the routine, it was definitely a breather into our lives!!

Love,
Raji