Old Pals & Their Everlasting Magic!

Sashaying down the curvy stairwell at my champagne cocktail for Zoya Delhi, over a Ballet evening, all bouffant-ed in a Karl Lagerfeld gown styled by Yogi Sharma of Ministry of Fashion- Emporio, I was trepidations. I was meeting school and college friends after years. Hosting a champagne cocktail in Delhi also means a walk down memory lane. I am surrounded by friends who look the same from high school and college, and yet I feel so different. I remember an introverted and brooding girl, that was me. So different to the exuberant person that people see today. Those I grew up with
are the mirror to my metamorphosis. 
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I am looking at the girls from school, lovely , attractive and assured gliding through the evening-they act like a meter to my change, through them I realize how much has happened, and how many lives I’ve lived through the journeys that mark my life. Here I am, with friends new and old, enjoying the warmth of one of the more enchanting evenings I’ve ambassadored!

 A successful celebrity singer had this to say "my real guru is life; the realisation that you are alone in this world came very early to me." I'm momentarily stumped by the cynicism, but on second thoughts, I AM hearing enough of the same in different expressions, to, well, have second thoughts on what were earlier known as “friends" family'   neighbours' et al .Neighbour? Opines someone? There's not even a nodding acquaintance. Relatives? The best you can fathom is mutual tolerance, and wariness about being drawn into the quagmire of their problems. This is the most aired view wherever the mildest reference comes up on the subject. So, is there some big social change transpiring? Is the day around the corner when every 'friend' will be weighed in the scales of 'use' or worse, profit & loss?

 Even as I shudder at the thought & thank God  for the friends I  have and love, I tell myself to 'think positive' & behold", the mind gets a cheerful turn-about as  I remember some warm and wonderful friends that have made life special.

And yes that evening in Delhi thronged with high school friends and college friends from back then at an 'old times 'school' lunch. It all started with trepidation- made me think that it might turn out to be an afternoon worth a great deal over the social 'mwah mwah' do's that are so hankered after by many. As transitory and superficial as the smiles & epithets of love & endearments. Something has gone askew in our priorities and perspectives that to me, if not addressed, would seem to threaten the very wellbeing and joy that we so seek in our pursuit of meaning in life.

 But what transpired this week has a lingering memory of being special. We were meeting after years, and had moved over time into such varying occupations. Some had gone up in life and some were home makers. We'd change somewhat in appearance. A waif had developed girth and what looked like a faint moustache. But did any of these criteria rob any of the old bonhomie. Not a whit! It was as if time didn't exist!

We laughed and ragged each other with old barbs, and laughter ruled the roost as we held forth through a rambunctious lunch that prolonged into tea and an afternoon as carefree as i had in a long, long time. We lent support to unhappy tales, felt proud of achievements, wanted the tiniest of details of the lives and as I write I exult in the affirmation that the Dodo & friendship are not interchangeable words

Written by Nisha JamVwal

nishjamwal@yahoo.com

Written for & Published By Deccan Chronicle & Asian Age