The Facebook Of life

First Daffodil
Daffodils, the flowers symbolising friendship, are one of the most popular flowers exclusively due to their unmatched beauty

An email had arrived  from Geetha  saying that she was coming to Bangalore and wanted to visit me. My excitement in anticipation of her visit knew no bounds  and my mind, at once  swirled with mixed emotions.  Geetha and I had been together in school in the early seventies in a convent in the coal city of Dhanbad, where every girl knew each other very intimately because we were such a small class .  But thirty- five years down the road, how would we react to each other? Would we warm up to each other or would be stiff and formal with each other? As schoolgirls, our affection had been unrestrained and unreserved; now life’s turns and twists had mellowed us. Yet, there was so much to talk about, so much to catch up with...... one meeting after three decades would not be enough!
    Geetha came and in an instant, adult ice thawed to school-girlish warmth as we hugged each other.  Time flew as we talked about this and that, about dear friends in distant places, about pranks played and prizes won, about favourite teachers, about our work and about our families. We held hands and walked down Memory lane;   sharing memories of a past that now lives in yellowing class photos. Geetha left with a promise to look me up whenever she visited Bangalore. We exchanged tokens but the  greatest gift was the nostalgic journey that we had jointly undertaken into a golden past. We had built our lives apart but the spirit of the Old Boys still egged us on. As Geetha remarked, “ Today we have met at a time when our children are taller than you and me ever were in school; yet our bonds are eternal and forever”.
    True, Age may have placed a wrinkle on our brow but  we are still young in spirit and soul. School-friends may live continents apart but they will always live in each other’s hearts.  Every generation posts scraps and souvenirs of its school-life  in Life’s Facebook, which cannot be  electronically deleted  or trashed.
           
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.