It was an event too good to miss; fortunately I was in a position to make it to the Kedi's (Rowdy's) Day out - an alumni of JHSS 10th class batch especially for the D section gang with a couple from other sections too.When the day was organised, in my hearts and hearts I wanted to go. But my personal situation had constrained me until the last moment. But things turned in my favour and I booked in Air India and flew to Chennai. It was a short 8 days trip with jam packed schedule. In addition the alumni event was also packed with a strong agenda.
When one expects so much, something is bound to go wrong. You may have guessed it right, if you had paid attention to previous para - I booked my trip with Air India. The dinner was horrible leading to a food poisoning to a few passengers. For some reason just after a mouthful of that dinner, my gut instinct warned me. I too fell sick with a bad headache. Luckily, I stabilised and more to my surprise landed half-an-hour early. I pranced around happily with a confident feeling to reach the event; but I was greeted with a delay message by 3 hours, that meant I had to spend 6 hours at Mumbai, more importantly, my plans were going to go astray.
It was painful, but I decided not to get frustrated. And just on a day like this, everything worked perfectly. I was the first person to clear immigration checks, one of the very first to get my baggage and someone assisted me in transferring my baggage to Chennai. So with all those tasks complete in less than 30 minutes, I went around an almost empty Mumbai airport (as it was 4AM). Then I found a nice food-court, ate Idly (just to be safe); I got a free internet log-in for 30 minutes, but alas only 30 minutes. Ha there were lot of free daily newspapers. I read same news from different dailies; tried even spelling out each syllable and read a Hindi daily (Dainik Bhaskaran). How else do you kill time? I took a quick shower, changed my clothes, tried a bit of hustle with Air India to put me on earlier flight - well nothing worked.
Finally landed at Chennai, visited a couple of close friends (due to a particular situation that I cannot share it in the blog, I prioritised to meet those friends first), then went over to meet my family.
At last, onto the highlight of the day/trip to Kedi's Day Out!!
Not many would have reflected this view. I think one is too naive to be fake (aka Matured) in their first 12-14 years of life - especially if one grew up in a remote town like Neyveli. So meeting such friends is always special with so much hype and expectations, It was exciting. What if they judged or rejected me, worse didn't recognise me at all? What if there was an awkward silence - then in a split second, I realised, I am not judging anyone and I was going there plain simple, so they would be the same - coz' this friendship was built on foundational days - so nothing would be judgemental or awkward. I can be myself.
As these thoughts resolved, I exited the lift and there was a hurrah when they saw me. It was hugs, pats and kicks that I gave them a pleasant surprise to everyone and a great feeling. As usual the Kedis started chitt-chatting about yester-year mischiefs etc. Interestingly we remembered most of our teachers (even though we were notorious) and their impact on us.I was one of the last guys to leave. It was close to midnight and as I walked back (nervously - mainly because of the street dogs), I reflected the day. We had shared our personal stories, a few friends came on line via Google hang-out and it was truly a global get together. One thing stood common, some of us were top scorers, some like me were all over the place, some average rank holders. But today we were all accomplished or to put it exactly - satisfied with what we are! all of us had hit some or other stumbling roadblocks; but we chose to work hard to overcome those challenges and difficult phases in life.
That presents a perspective, life's experiences and one's approach to take on those situations makes you who you really are. We still haven't figured it all, there were few more hurdles to be removed. One thing was sure, we may have 'matured' to world's expectations, but the Kedis were all about fun. It was better than American Pie reunion. It is real!
They say if you are friends with someone for 7 years, then it is a friendship for life, so in my case these guys are friends in this and next life! This is a special post to my Kedi friends. I am proud of you guys!
