The scorching sun and shady lanes and the endless chatter were beginning to fade. The memories were also going to grow dimmer and dimmer as the rushing time would carry us far away from one another, into distant unknown lands where we had to build our lives. They cried, sobbed and wished they would never part. They never wanted it to end. Nothing could be done. They knew it. It was all over now. The moist eyes were everywhere, in whichever direction you turned.
And I… I was apart from them all. Not a single tear rolled down my cheeks. Nor a single drop filled my eyes. Only a handful of people felt like I did, felt nothing. No overwhelming sadness nor too heavy a heart at our last day in college. I looked forward to the future. I saw nothing of it. Still, the future was good. I made new friends. Fell in place in new surroundings. Had new experiences and savoured every one of them. Soon, there was nothing new. Nothing new happened. All that was new became old. In fact I don't miss my college. I had never loved my college but I made a few friends there which I cherish for the rest of my life.
It was then that the winds of change blew my way. They were winds from the long forgotten land. They held a promise. They would carry me back in time. Back to a passing phase that I had left behind once and for all, nearly two years back. The winds carried with them the scents from the past that brought back memories. The memories closest to my heart had not dimmed a bit. They were as clear as ever. The memories made me expectant. It was not that college failed to touch the heart.
We arrived in droves. Chatted, caught up, smiled, laughed, wore long, shiny black cloaks, graduated, did all those mischievous things, posed, clicked and thought not of the certificate in hand. I valued only the moments, the return of that time when I, as part of the batch of Electrical engineering batch of 2009, once called the place, my college, my own. New places, new people and new experiences had widened my horizons and given me more wisdom. In the few hours spent there, I experienced the feel of all the words that were spoken, the deeds that were done and then all of those unspoken words and unfinished deeds. All that could have been and all that should not have been. Those wonderful friendships that were unconsciously born and consciously strengthened, all those nameless games played and the endless times spent together. Now I miss all of my dear friends Thommi, Damu, Rohan, Sree V, Tension and Abdu. The old and wise salty winds from the ageless and vast sea, the winds that had witnessed the ups and downs of that phase of my life, whispered into my ears cherished words from my past and carried, also, all those unheard melodies. I had rubbed onto them some of my past life, all that they had witnessed when I walked the lanes and sat under the trees, through those four years. It was my last chance to relive those days, in this cycle of the turning of the wheel of time. I shall wait for the wheel of time to turn past my age and then long after my age, come back to it, so I can live it all over again, with the wisdom gathered in this age. A rush of nostalgia and a sense of longing filled up my heart for the next three days. Now work has occupied my mind and put a leash onto the wandering down memory lane.
Now everything flashed in front of my eyes with the leisurely defined precision of images from a slow motion film. Life is strange and so are its ways. Man is emotional and so am I. If ever I happen to go back to that college of my past, all alone, on a no occasion day, I shall wander the lanes and sit with eyes closed under the same old class of ours, and the wise old winds from the sea will whisper into my ears and caress my memories...
