Catching Up

I met three friends from my college gang of five yesterday. One of them had come down from Bangalore and that had initiated this reunion. The other two stay in Delhi itself and yet I was meeting one of them after a year!

I was the last to arrive (maid cleaning home, noone else to supervise, so couldn't leave on time). We met at McDonald's in South Ex. My turn to create a scene. Hence, my Bangalore friend and I did a bollywood ishtyle slow motion run towards each other and hugged. :D

The college I studied in creates a strange compulsion in its (her?) students. Everyone must within two sentences of their greetings remark how you have lost weight since they last saw you (even if you met them just yesterday OR have gained four kgs since you last met them, as was my case). And remarks on the size of your ass are considered absolutely natural and part of the conversation. So I was also asked to turn around and oblige them so that they could decide if I had indeed gained weight. Not sure of their conclusion.

Had a nice time catching up with them. But if you are imagining scenes of four nostalgic women remembering idle times spent in a college cafeteria bunking classes, I would say....Nah. Not too many emotions. Not too many memories infact. Maybe its because it has just been a year. Maybe its because we just aren't a typical college gang.

As one of them put it, the reason we all are friends is because we respect each other’s need for distance. None of us could have possibly belonged to any other group. We are all individuals who are different from the crowd, in good and bad ways, and it is this difference that is our common thread.

Parting lines:
Bangalore friend: " I will see if I can spend a night at your place...just too many people and too few nights you see :) "
Delhi friend 1 (met her few months back): "I will try and meet you before I leave (for her MBA degree to Pune/Ahmedabad which will start sometime July I guess)"
Delhi friend 2 (met her after a year): " See you next year!"

I hope we stay friends for a long long time.

***

Background music when I started running on the treadmill at the gym this morning,

"Arre ruk jaa re bandeh, arre tham jaa re bandeh, ke kudrat hans padegi..."