Tag: Reunions

Nostalgia And Reality.

While going through some old photographs, the widow of an ex colleague came across a photograph of mine and some other colleagues with her late husband in a conference in 1988. She promptly sent a copy of it across to me on WhatsApp reminding me of the “good old times.”

While she and her family are still in touch with me, they are not with the others in the photograph and so, I in turn sent the image to two others in the photograph via WhatsApp.

One of the recipients in turn sent me a photograph of a lunch party a couple of days ago, where some old colleagues along with their wives had met for a post covid reunion. I had known all of them thirty years ago, and it was a strange feeling recognising the faces after such a long time. The sender was curious and asked me if I recognised all of them and was in turn zapped when I confirmed that I had indeed.

The second exchange occupied my thoughts for quite some time as all the men in the latter photograph had stayed with the same employer till retirement whereas, I had gone my separate way. A series of “What If” thoughts kept me occupied for quite some time till my other activities changed my mood.

I wonder if this is normal for others too. Has something like this happened to any of my readers?

Comfortzonitis.

I did.

The last few days saw me going out of my home on a number of occasions for various reasons. First on the 28th it was to attend the reception, lunch and then subsequently the dinner that I had to attend along with my classmates for a reunion.

The 29th saw me going for lunch at a friend’s place, followed by a visit to two other friends in the other side of town to exchange some books and also to discuss another friend’s recent visit to Varanasi and Allahabad.

I then had two days of staying at home but on the 1st of February, had to go out for lunch again with some classmates. One of them and his wife subsequently joined me at my place to spend the afternoon before they caught a flight to Delhi.

The 2nd saw me off with a couple of friends to another friend’s place 30 kms away for lunch where I met some very interesting people besides having excellent food.

Yesterday saw me going off in the afternoon to have tea and snacks at another friend who is a on a visit to his daughter here.

The one common feature of all these outings was,  my eagerness to get back home at the earliest. I have decided to call this urge Comfortzonitis.

When earlier today,  I mentioned this urge to a couple of other friends of around my age, they too indicated that they suffered from this malady too.

Do you?

Emotions.

A young lad gets lost, goes into an orphanage and gets adopted by an Australian couple. After twenty five years he returns to India to see if he can locate his old home and mother and succeeds.

Here is part one of the story.

While growing up in a completely different environment to that of his childhood, prosperous and given an education, the lad still wants to connect to his past. Strong emotional pulls makes him strive to find details using modern tools and he eventually returns to India and finds his mother and siblings.

Here is part two of the story.

The reunion is far from what he expects and what does not come out in the story is the disconnect between his dreams and the reality of poverty and language problems.

The mother who had given up all hopes of ever finding her child is delighted and is devastated when he has to return to Australia.

The two of them go through all kinds of emotional upheavals throughout the story and I am sure, so do the parents in Australia who had adopted the lad. There is another element of the girl friend of the lad who too must have gone through all kinds of emotions in handling the disturbance of her boy friend.

There have been many Indian stories and films on such themes though they do not quite end the way this story has ended. Usually there is either pathos with one of the protagonists dying or a fairy tale ending that ensures that all the characters live happily ever after.

When I read the two stories, the first thought that came to my mind is that reality rarely reflects fiction when it comes to handling difficult emotions. Very rarely does one come across true depictions like this story and I do hope that someone will make a film out of it.