In Contemplation

It is that time of the year when the Gods of Holidays have conspired with Singara Chennai and decided the city could do with one nuisance less. So they are packing me off to an Azkaban in Rajasthan, away from old friends and family. Which also makes this a time for contemplation, of the times spent together with friends and parents, and also of the times we didn't get to spend witheach other. When i go through these phases, i emerge empty with no thoughts running in my head.
This time around, i spent even lesser time than usual with my friends because of Practice School. Two months were too long for this drudgery to be endured. Of course, i shouldn't complain as mine was the saccest station available. But i will save writing about PS1 at Lasersoft for a different time.

Now, even though I went to work only for few hours a day, it coincided directly with the time i usually scorch the streets of KK Nagar in my Mercedes Zing with Viki, egging me on from the pillion. Naturally, this reduced my outings with Viki and the time I spent with him.

Slowly, but surely I can see contacts with old friends loosening. Not with my inner most circle of friends, but others who formed the "R Section" Gang , "E1" Gang , "Srimathi" Gang, the Quiz Team and various other gangs which gathered around a common place. Common place- maybe that is the answer. There is no longer the common place that united all, no more goin to school, no more goin to enrichment classes (as Srimathi Ma'm would put it), so it becomes more of a chance than necessity to meet these people.

Even among my closest friends, Nishanth is living in Trichy, so he could make it only for a day to meet up, though we made it memorable by watchin Sivaji - The Boss. Anerudh usually comes to my home the maximum, but this time around he came just twice i guess. But i have to see his face in college too, so that's OK. I was spending most of my time with Sunil and Viki, but realised Sunil's presence only in the absence after he left for NUS. Today he buzzed me half an hour before leavin for USA, and again it struck me that i would be seeing him only after an year.

Viki left last Friday, and we more than made the infrequent meetings by oor suthifyin n last 2 days, we even played cricket at Vadai's place for 2 days, but were kicked out of the house on the both the occasions. We also took a daring attempt to see Thullal, but God decided we had sinned too much so he didn't give us a chance to see that neorealistic classic :(


Now Viki is gone too. We were talking on the day he was leaving about how close we were to becoming classmates again in Eswari Engg College. The college is 8 mins from my place, 3 from his. We even fantasized how it wud have been if all of us were reunited as classmates. The disparity in a few enterance tests have flung us apart to different corners of the country-Trichy, Pilnai and Hamirpur. If u consider Sunil, it wud be "corners of the world" as he is in Singapore, rarher in USA now.

Of course, all of us have made new friends in our new place, and life goes on smoothly, but once I came home after bidding goodbye to Viki, the thought struck me: I ve only 3 more semesters left with Koba, Challa, Anerudh. 4 or maybe max 5 sems with the dualites.

After 3 sems, i might be blogging similarly about Koba or Challa, 3 years down the line, Upoo, Booboo, Jinglee, Brownie and S Ga and everyone and everything I met in BITS might be reduced to memories in photographs, reflections in thoughts. At this thought, i shivered: is this what life is all about, about making bonds only to know they would be weakened as time wears on and severed completely after many years. Is the purpose of life to brace these severances to the extent one becomes immune to it? Is to disregard the importance of life and the various bonds that get attached to one's life? Is it to meet the loss of bonds by making new ones? Or is it to know that there are people waiting for you in the life after death...In Contemplation...