“We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us,” penned Rumi.
Life is as beautiful as we make it. Memories are like pearls, strung together on the thread of time, build through relations. That’s what makes humans feel looked-for, liked and loved.
It is natural for us to drift away from our childhood friends when we enter adulthood. That’s a way of life. The past year has taken us beyond our normal lives. The losses are heavy and weigh upon us, but each dark cloud has a silver lining. The way we all reached out to friends in school, college and former workplaces was amazing.
The moon shines on the memory lanes
Recently, the alumni chapter of our engineering college organised a tribute to the legendary singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam called “Isai Nila” (The Moon of Music). Of course music can bring music aficionados across generations and genres to the same table, only difference was it was made possible through a zoom concert. These times of social distancing have opened the doors of technology and given us the means to connect with anyone across the globe from within the confines of our cosy homes.
Nothing short of magic is created when SPB songs fill the hearts, but there was another enchantment that delighted us all. The charm of getting back together with old college friends. For a brief period in time, like Rumi said, the universe became us. We walked through the musty corridors of our grand old engineering college, singing songs, boys enticing the pretty girls, the daring ones singing songs to the young guest lecturers even.
We went back to the days of Art Festivals at the college and we were all, 17, 18-year-old, undergraduate students in crumbling college auditoriums, enjoying and swaying to music. The hearts were thrilled and the mind was filled with joy.
The singers were fabulous, the music was divine, and the technical strength was unparalleled so far. But true magic was about the feelings. “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you,” said Rumi. Being transported back in time, when life was simpler and more fun was the best gift offered by the musical evening.
Capturing memories in Polaroid frames. Is there a term called growing up parents? Life teaches us so.
We were a kindergarten mothers’ group. The mother of a child invited all the children in the class to a birthday party and five of us stuck together through the years. Before long it became a family group, the men made a close friendship, we began to travel on trips together and the relations were cemented. The Kids, no doubt to say, had a rip roaring time whenever we met.
Suddenly grown up
Now our children are adolescents. We marvel at the speed at which time has gone by and now these same children have suddenly grown up and take over from us as we gather. They set the mats, chairs, chips and juices while having the same fun they had over the past decade.
Now they’re nurturing us. We sigh for sweet memories and enjoy creating new memories together. We wonder how these young people will turn out to be in the next decade and look forward to it. We wonder what we are all going to be like after another ten years. They are the kids who grew us up!
As we connect with our college friends through events like ‘Isai Nila’, we are paving the way for our kids to bond in the future!
We all are connected. Together, we are definitively stronger. A butterfly of care can flutter its wings in your heart and know that it can create an avalanche of love in millions of hearts!
Let’s reconnect with old friends and keep creating memories. Who knows, we may be able to do as William Blake wrote, ‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour.’
Feby Imthias is a freelance writer based in Abu Dhabi. Twitter: @Feby_Imthias
