Thursday, May 28, 2015

THE YEAR OF THE SPRINGDALIAN

2015 has surely lived up to the title of my blog till now. So I dedicate this write-up to my Springdalian school friends of the 1984 batch with many of whom I reconnected after more than thirty years in February, 2015. And I cannot believe that I have become so young all over again :p. I must say that school friends are the only beings on this planet with whom you can mingle in a matter of minutes even after a very long time and communication gap without any inhibitions. People change over time but certain characteristics and idiosyncrasies never do atleast in the case of school buddies. It feels as if you never parted ways in the first instance. In a moment, the school days just flashback before your eyes. You get a feeling of déjà vu and its just so magical and ethereal. I am reliving my school days all over again and having the time of my life. I don't want this feeling to sink in just yet. It has brought in a different kind of enthusiastic energy within me and I am sure in my friends too.

The stepping stone for this reunion is a Whats App (WA) group created by a couple of friends from my 1984 batch in late September, 2014. I just wish that one of our dear friends who also happens to be the main initiator of bringing all of us together rejoins our WA group. Through this blog, I just plead to his wife (if she happens to read this) to allow him to remain in the bad company of his school friends. I assure her that we will not take much of his valuable time and not spoil him anymore..haha (pun intended). Anyways continuing further, I became a little active on this WA group only after the actual reunion happened in Feb'15. I just could not get going without connecting the dots and the missing years with my school buddies. To me some sort of real connection is any day more valuable than a mere virtual one. And now the bonhomie is to be seen to be believed. I would say that the recent reunion of 2015 was more important to me than the last big one in 2009 because thanks to WA many of our batchmates from all over the world are now in constant touch 24 hours a day, 365 days a year despite our geographical limitations. After the 2009 reunion we had again drifted apart. But not anymore as you would soon find out.

Many of us have made a conscious effort to meet frequently over the past few months since February. Personally, I have already met my school friends four times with our spouses in tow over the three D's (drink, dance and dinner) though in smaller groups. And I am already loving the bonding as we do not part without deciding the date of the next party. Mind you, I have never partied this much since school/college and that too so frequently as I am doing now. Many of our '84 batchmates got so peeved and jealous à la school kids after looking at our party pictures posted by me on Facebook to the point that I had to give a small clarification on our WA group. Only after that, the temperatures might have dipped a bit, so I believe :p.

Now a little more about our WA group. During the initial days of the group, it got so addictive that my eyes would constantly be wary of the screen on my phone desperately waiting for the next notification from the group. Many a times the total posts in a day had started touching 500-800. This left many disturbed and miffed thereby defeating the purpose of the group for which it was formed to the point that some of them exited the group and some formed smaller WA groups. With passage of time, only a handful of friends (including yours truly) are active on it on a regular basis with their contributions and posts. I though am a little sporadic with work pressures and "Her Highness" around at times..haha. But I am pretty sure that all of them who are not active are definitely reading and viewing all the posts silently. I have ample proof of that :p. The group has seen all kinds of misunderstandings, bickering and fights akin to school kids to the point that even our school and college going kids would be ashamed of us..haha. 

"A Ritual": Some of the friends start the day on the group by wishing each other Good morning followed by Good afternoon, Good evening and finally Good night with a lot of religious posts to such an extent that someone rightly named the group as the most Sanskaari (meaning God fearing/religious) and the GM/GE group..LOL. Then there is also a lot of shayari (read hindi poetry) happening on the group. On my part I try to post some naughty ones apart from my Monday Funda (an inspiring post each monday) so as to keep the group young, alive and kicking. Most of the posts (quotes, jokes, pics and videos) are forwards from other groups and some can get repetitive. But alas all our friends are hitting 50 :p and hence cannot remember that their posts are often repeated and stale. On this issue, I make it a point to avoid being judgemental and never offend any of them in the group. I owe this to my upbringing and Springdalian school manners..LOL. Maybe they will get a hint now through this one:p. We even conducted a WA awards night à la Bollywood awards for the group which was real fun. Lastly, I am glad I made a list of Birthdays and Anniversaries of most friends on the group so that it becomes a close knit one by wishing each other on their special days. Till now I have received a very positive feedback about this gesture. I must admit here that I really appreciate this and would like to extend my sincere thanks to each one of my friends.

Finally, CHEERS🍻 to more hang outs and clubbing with my friends and may GOD BLESS each one of us and our families!

PS: Thanks Sapan for inspiring me to write this piece after a very long time!