thebengali.com

Lately I have been remembering faces and some names – not necessarily connected. And I was reminded that memory is a quaint phenomenon. Of course you can train your memory but the charm’s lost then.

I bumped into an old schoolmate a couple of weeks ago and trust me when I say that ‘bumping into’ anyone is just not the same any more - it all happened on facebook on the internet to my utter disappointment. But then how are people supposed to bump into me if I decide to stay a social recluse for years?

Anyway, so I bumped into this schoolmate and it was great because he looks the same (more or less) and I don’t. So I felt a bit robbed because if we had actually bumped into each other in Delhi (where he lives), I would have recognized him and he would have had no clue who he was staring at.

But the point of this particular bit of drivel is that memory is such a beautiful thing. I read his name (Shashikant) in my email box (got a messsage to connect) and immediately, my mind flashed back 25 years to 1984 where I first met Shashi in Union Academy School, Gole Market, Delhi.

Now this is no mean feat and it astonished me because in the past 25 years, I have met 7 Shashikants, and 2 of them were pretty good acquaintainces. But when I saw that name in my email box, the image was clear: a lean, smiling, jovial boy in grey slacks and blue shirt raising his hand to Roll Number 7 after Dutta Madam had hollered his name for the third time. 

In school, Shashi was athletic and sporty, with a great sense of humor, and mischief (but never on the wrong side) but he was balanced enough to pay enough attention to books so he stayed competitive in the Top 10.  

I remember that he stayed on the top floor of an apartment bulding, which was part of a colony very near our school. 

So is there a point to all this apart from a trip down memory lane? Well, the trip itself is the point for me but yes, there is another more important and sobering fact: when I get an opportunity to look back, I can’t help but thank God for giving me such a wonderful set of schoolmates, friends, family, who were mostly well-balanced individuals. And I needed them because I was an extreme person by nature and I did not need an invitation to explore unknown paths. It was the balance of the people around me that kept me this side of the edge. And Shashi was part of that balance, so thank you my dear friend.