I woke up yesterday morning, gripped by a strange fear. I had spent the whole night tossing and turning, paralysed with the thought of our 50 year Reunion. Yes, it’s been 50 years since we did our school leaving examination – the ISC which has long been scrapped. Luckily, the school still exists as do most of my classmates. I haven’t seen most of them for over 50 years while I’ve been meeting some on and off and a few who are my dear friends till today.

School friends are a completely different kettle of fish. They know you almost inside out. They’ve seen you stumble through adolescence and probably helped you find yourself as you progress to adulthood. They can be brutally frank and honest, easily reverting back to the familiarity that existed in our schooldays.

Quite honestly, even though I managed to control my absolute fear, I am still a bit apprehensive.

Over the past month, I’ve helped in collating information about our classmates and compiling a ( for want of a better word ) Slambook. Seeing their photos and reading about the amazing things they’ve done since leaving school has left me dazed. Not only have they left the gawkiness of our teen years behind, but have been winners in the careers they have chosen.

Always the outsider

Growing up an itinerant Naval kid meant meant changing schools. Thus, I never felt I really belonged to any particular school. Even though I only went to three schools, I missed the closeness of my classmates who had shared memories of kindergarten, car pools, teachers who hadn’t taught me and events that I hadn’t participated in.

In January this year, I was invited by my classmates from class 4- class 7 for the 50th Reunion of their ( which would have been mine too ) school-leaving class at St.Mary’s School , Pune. This school still has a special place in my heart but I declined the invitation.

Coming to the present

I am not one for nostalgia because you can’t really turn back the clock. Over the years I’ve bumped into many of my school mates and it’s always been fun reminiscing about the days gone by.

But I prefer to look ahead.

So I’m off now to get set for the evening and hope that many of the photos of my classmates have been photoshopped !

Ciao