A Reunion to Remember!!

What do you do when you meet your long-lost friends after a score and a decade? How do you react when you meet your classmates, all fully settled in life now and whom you remember to be just young ladies? It would be a truly overwhelming and interesting experience! My mother had such an experience last saturday. She met about 20 of her classmates of undergraduate class during a reunion.

Her college had planned a reunion among old students and my mother took charge of her department and other departments related to management studies. She started collecting all the details about various alumni and started tracking them down one by one. She started reminiscing about her college days and all the people she met then and the fun they had. It was a very different experience for us because she usually doesn't tell much about her college days except the fun that she had with her close friends. We know a lot about her close friends but almost none about her class in general and other students forming a part of it. She was on the phone day and night and used to get calls from all the places(except heaven and hell, of course!!) As the day drew near, she was gripped with excitement about meeting her friends after such a long time. She and a few of her friends made plans to give surprise gifts to all their friends. They also fished out their batch photograph and got it enlarged and renovated and ready. Then the D-Day came!

She was so excited that she could hardly sleep the night before. Somehow, she managed to sleep and get ready the next day. Being in-charge of her entire management studies, she went early to ensure everything went well. We went later at 10 and saw all her friends and classmates and their families. It was a truly amazing experience! Imagine meeting people who remember your mother as a young college student and hearing them relive the experiences and the fun they shared in college!! My mother now leans to the stricter side and expects us to finish work first and then play. I used to think that she was the same in college. But, back then, she seemed to have had a hell lot of fun, in fact, more fun than work :) Her friends and her, from their recounts of the past, said that they had put up a "Pala palaa Jilu jiluu Kulu Kuluu" Circus. They had done it for some skit where they had to fight out to get a coveted prize. All of them participated in the skit and even managed to bring in real animals into the show, like goats and horses for authenticity. Two of them dressed up as clowns and kept the audience in uproar. Finally, they won the first prize. Nowadays, it might not seem like a big deal but imagine having to be able to do something like that, what with them being girls and in a conservative college(more than a convent) and from traditional families!! We were awed by the effort that they had taken and were in splits when we heard other fun things that they had done in their days. I couldn't imagine that the staid lady(my mom's friend) standing by my side with thick glasses was once the same person who used to have maximum fun in the hostel :) We also had fun trying to match the person in real life with those in the photo taken years back. We were amazed at the transformation in each of their lives. Even they were amazed! But then, they were able to find out the right person very quickly(well, three years of friendship is not for nothing, right? ;))

It was an eye-opener in more ways than one! I got to know my mother in an entirely different light. I have known her to be an adult who is kind but strict, who thinks that I have to finish my work in order to have fun (but whether I do it is an entirely different matter!), who has kissed my tears away, who has taken the roles of a mother, a teacher, a confidante, a friend, a fellow shopper, my critic and my guide from time to time as the situation warrants. But, from her friends, I found that she was fun-loving, casual with studies (none of her students would believe it) and had even a gang and a unique gang name. Finally, the day came to an end and my mother brought back loads of sweet memories and renewed promises to keep in touch with her friends. I’ve already started dreaming about my college reunion. But, that is still a long way off! (I hear my mother say that Time runs very fast and that we would be ready for our reunion soon.) But, I guess we wouldn’t have that many shocks because we are all connected to one another through internet and mail and orkut and what not! We would be sharing our details with friends. It would be easier to gather everyone for a reunion but we would miss out on the fun of trying to identify our classmates. So, it is a gain-loss situation. Anyways, lets wait and see! It would be interesting, no doubt!