A day with an old friend

Now that MBA is done, its time to look back at life, meet up with old friends or at least catch up with them over the phone, learn and be surprised about the relationships that have sprouted between a few well known people, sit at home and do nothing, eat, drive the bike that has been abandoned for two years, watch TV, go to the grocery store nearby, get snacks for mom & sis in the evening, go meet friends during the weekend, watch a movie if possible, go online for a while and not find anything interesting, ping a few people and get no response as they’re probably busy, wait for the offer letter that never seems to be coming, give suggestions to juniors about summer internship, visit old colleges, collect certificates, visit temples, pray to lord for a bright future and for the early arrival of the offer letter, call up people in the company to find out the reason for the delay and always end up getting the same reply – “we still haven’t finalized the location.  We’ll be sending u the offer letter in the coming week.  Be prepared to join at a short notice.”

Was that a good enough snapshot of whats been happening with me off lately?? I guess so.  Nothing really great to describe, nothing really adventurous except for the extensive sleeper class travel in the burning heat that I carried out during my visit to pune for the commencement ceremony, to shirdi and back. 

One incident I find worth writing about is probably the visit to my engg college.  The best part is that in the process, I met up with a very old school friend of mine.  Would you believe we were meeting up after 12 years?  Yes, it is true.  We were together in school for just one year.  Sixth standard.  Then both of us parted ways.  She left school and I stayed on.  Given the lack of advancement of technology during those days, we couldn’t stay in touch even if we wished to.  After so many years, a few months ago, I was searching for some of my old friends, including her, in the social networking sites like orkut and facebook expecting them to be registered in one of them.  I couldn’t find her.  This woman used to be too good at math during school.  So I had this belief that she would’ve landed up in one of the IITs and all.  Naturally, you’d expect IITians to be tech-savvy and well verse with the internet.  So I was kinda surprised to not find this woman registered anywhere on any site.  But I didn’t give up this search.  I accidentally happened to search for the same name a few months later and was extremely surprised and happy to find her.  I left her a message.  She got back to me after approximately 2 months with a one line reply.  Yes, just a one line reply.  I felt bad.  I was thinking “was this effort worth it?”  And guess what, the reason she gave for such a short reply when I later asked her – “She was bad with typing.”  How funny! 

A few more months later, I found her online and that was the first time we were talking after a long gap of 11 odd years.  The first thing I asked her was “Which IIT are you currently in or have passed out of?”  Surprisingly, she said she was doing MBBS!  I was completely stunned by this answer.  Later on I realised she had taken up this path purely because of pressure from her parents and that her passion for math still existed. 

Well, enough of the past.  Let me tell you what happened during my visit to Vizag.  Obviously, we met up and she hadn’t changed much.  Especially the height!  I think this happens with a lot of girls.  They simply stop growing at a very early age.  Both physically & mentally! ;)

It didn’t really feel like we were meeting up after a really long gap.  We were at ease with each other.  Well, don’t think it is just my feeling.  She told me the same thing too.  The next day she came to my college along with a friend of hers.  I showed her around.  Our college campus is really pretty.  Everybody would like it during the first visit.  And then I had to catch a train back home the very same evening so we bid adieu to each other not knowing when we would see each other again. 

This short visit to vizag was followed by a trip to Pune along with my parents for the commencement ceremony.  We set off to shirdi from there and then headed back home after the darshan.  The journey was pretty much uneventful but extremely uncomfortably and tiresome. 

And by the way, I voted this time.  Yes, this is the first time I voted.  It was a thrilling experience I must say.  All those of you who have a chance to vote and haven't done it yet, please do so.