Hmmm…

I reckon I’ve prolonged deciding on what I’ve to post next. I haven’t blogged. Quite clearly, I haven’t blogged for a long time and this gives me an unusual sick feeling that I haven’t blogged for years together. Yeah, literally and otherwise. I didn’t want to write. I didn’t want to update. And I didn’t want to take another look at this blog again. (This update was an afterthought, though.) I totally abominated the idea of updating my blog whining and cribbing about the mundane thoughts of the pathetic days I faced. The fact that my blog languished, only made things worse. There are some reasons, if not, some lame excuses which keep bothering me more often than not and that’s why I haven’t posted something here. Don’t ask me what!

On to the post now. On the 23th March ‘08, we, the final year students celebrated our farewell. Geez! Farewell?! Now that’s something many of us would have experienced only a couple or more times. And now speaking of farewell, I instantly cast my mind back to the day when I first experienced this leave-taking. But before I could start rambling about what happened that day, firstly I’d like to relate another incident on the same note.

Hastily, I got up from the bed one fine morning when someone shrieked into my ears Wake up! Wake up! It’s getting late for the farewell! As I was in more of a hurry, and even without having a rough idea as to where the rendezvous was arranged, I kicked off the day in a haste manner. And on the way I had to pick one of my friends, who at that point of time, was calm as a kid in a dreamless slumber. 10 0′ clock farewell and what on earth was he doing?! Kicked him on his back as hard as possible and with the pain on his face promised me that he’d return it back. What were we going to do reaching the place so early? Even after quite convincing me, I took him along with me and pretended as if I heard nothing. When we got there, not even a single soul had turned up. I could see the ire on his face. We were on time and waited almost for an hour there until everyone reached. After waiting for such a long time, I just thought “To hell with punctuality?”

Being the first experience to celebrate this occasion in School or elsewhere, the crowd gathered there was surprisingly great as a great deal of students showed up. Guess what? Not a single day in school have I seen all my classmates under one roof. Quite astonishing, I say. We were then ushered into a room, imagine a vast banquet hall colourfully lit with all that ostentatious showy chandeliers hung from the bottom of the roof. And not to forget a posh smorgasbord to the nook of the hall; a sumptuous meal was arranged. Meanwhile, the flashes and clicks of the cameras continued and it seemed interminable as the folks found it fun to be photoed together.

Everything went on considerably well and eventually after all the loquaciousness, it was time to face the music. Every soul, had to come to the stage and perform or compose something, especially a mimic, play, song, dance, or piece of music, without any preparation. I was in the soup when I found that I was the first one to be called out and I was asked to come to the stage. As I took a piece of paper from the lot, it gave me the creeps and my off-hand task was to sing the National Anthem. All of a sudden, I was in focus and without any delay I started “Jana gana…” Went quite nicely in the beginning but my voice came to an abrupt end when I almost forgot the lines that followed. I gagged and when I found myself in an awkward position, I started mumbling. At a moment’s notice, I could hear contemptuous laughter all around and my face almost wrinkled with their laugh of derision. What was even worse was the fact that the folks who thought that the National Anthem and National Song are one and the same, also started laughing. Now really, what was the fuss all about?

Just a couple of months back, a classmate of mine went through the same phase when our college symposium was conducted, I could see the embarrassment on her face. It was inauspicious when I found that she was yet another soul in the world who forget the lines of our National Anthem. But tell you what, it’s completely frustrating when you’re at the receiving end. One can’t even conceive of such a hapless situation happening in front of a huge crowd, especially when the dignitaries are seated in front of you. Ah! It happens! It just happens! Alas, it was an exasperating day! Now back to the 23rd March ‘08, I was in a complete dilemma whether or not to attend the farewell but in the 11th hour, I decided, I have to go.

This time while sitting inside the hall waiting anxiously for my name to be read out, visions of sights that would say ‘Will it be like the other farewell?’ danced before my eyes, but that just didn’t translate into reality. And as another farewell went by, the question looms large. Am I feeling nostalgic? No, that feeling hasn’t sunk in, yet.

P.S. If one might wonder if all these incidents would have taken place to the same person, I dare say no. An erstwhile compadre of mine who visited my place a couple of months back narrated this incident to me. I’ve just typed whatever he’s uttered and here it is, verbatim.