Now this was a school reunion in true sense. Even our school teachers had come to the same place for a get together.It was so nice to meet them after such a long time. As though the friends (who are all now at different places pursuing things which are differentiable in some ways or the other) coming together was not enough, the teachers were also there to bring up all the nostalgic moments connected to school life on the surface of the consciousness(the teachers arriving there was a co-incidence). The first thought when I heard of the teachers being there, in the same restaurant, was....Arey yaar...ab shor kaise machayenge..(the same nagging school kid wala thought). Still we all went and touched their feet, the traditional Indian way of revering elders. Then the quizzical moment started, about our whereabouts, colleges, futures plans and stuff.
But I must say, teachers have this wonderful quality embedded in themselves of being able to boost you up in whatever state, good or bad, you are(thankfully, by His grace we all are pursuing courses of our choice in some of the premier institutes of the country). And somehow, even today, the luster of studying in an IIT sets you apart from rest of the people in the group, with "Waaahs" and "Kya baats" coming straight from the heart. Well, St. Stephen's draws the same reactions to some extent too,,, thanks to my predecessors!!
Moving on, we all met, pulled each others' legs to our hearts content; or rather no, I didn't; I am game for yet another Get-together if someone else can co-ordinate it this time.
We all had chosen different paths three years back, to pursue the same common goal of cracking the JEE, some went to Kota, some cleared the entrance for VMC(and thus leaving others to the chidings of their parents by setting up a live example, which was to stay on for two whole years...!!!!) and the left overs joined FIITJEE, I being one of them. Many of us had little knowledge of what actually we were set upon to do, and thus eventually, some of those many landed up choosing the unconventional path, like I did and Akhand might just do the same. And yes, Naman was the only one in today's gathering who did not study for IIT for he took Commerce right after 10th standard.
Some really good things happened today, like Shrey and Samarth exchanged each others numbers, after a long period of cold war(Okay guys...sorry for bringing it up in public). Abhinav was a diplomat at his best and its thus proven that he is perfectly suited for Civil services and so, Sahil and Tanmay, you can very well exploit your friendship with him in years to come(Sahil and Tanmay were encouraging Abhinav to go for Services inorder to get favours:P). So, Abhinav made full use of this opportunity to hone his social skills.:P
Whenever it came for food, Shrey would sweetly poke his neck out and would gesture at me!! I agree that I was the unappointed co-ordinator of today's gathering but then, our boys started suspecting in the middle of the meet that I had come there only to eat and thus I restricted my reactions; as I grew conscious of this sentiment rising in those seated around me!!
We skipped the main course, no where did it seem to be like a youth Get-together if you were to go by the appetite. I felt somewhere at the back of my mind that some of us were either saving money or had already had food before coming(which also would amount to saving money, and Akhand had, in fact, eaten already)!! I guess the teachers ate a lot more than we guys did for our main focus wasn't food but to sit, gossip and chit chat with each other.:))And yes, we did FOCUS!!! :P
All of us missed girls in the gathering, especially guys from IITs. Sorry guys, but I am sure next time we shall invite girls; Kartik's idea of having Sophians(Non Marians, please note that Sophia was a girls school very close to our school and we had very friendly relations with them) in the Get-together, can also be incorporated.
And Somil, for all the information on Yes!+, you can direct your browser to either or all of these:
www.yeplus.org
www.wayeonline.org
www.bawandinesh.name.
I got to know recently that Yes!+ is now a credit course in 43 US universities, Cornell and U-Penn being some of them. So now you can well judge the relevance of Yes!+ in the life of a youngster.
Its even happening regularly in all IIT's, IIM's and XLRI's !!!
Thats all for today. I was so enthusiastic about this post that I forgot to switch on the fan upon entering the room.:)
BBye
As I leave, I cannot resist the temptation to chuff in another pic from today's collection. And this reminds me of the urgent need to carry my cam around places, and thus to buy one!!
Do drop in your comments. I love to read them.
