College Reunion- 1

Together

We all once more.

After twenty summers.

After twenty winters.

After twenty monsoons

Had poured themselves

Into the seasons of our hearts.

We met at the same place.

At the canteen

Near the lawns

Of the same college.

The same spot,

The same benches,

The same cups of tea,

The same camaraderie,

The same spirits,

The same witness,

To our loves and anguish.

Where once

The freedom of youth,

The carefree abandon,

The buoyancy of hopes,

The power of youth,

That does not see

Its impending mortality,

Once blossomed

By the wayside

In the forest trails of our hearts.

  

That same spot,

The same benches,

The same canteen,

The same lawns,

The same cups of tea

(Uridu shai Elti)

The same beautiful faces

The same expectant faces

Many settled faces

Some unsettled faces

Furrowed by the sorrows

That were their lot

More than of others.

Now all poignant

At meeting

At having parted.

Now all missing

The invisible presence

The quiet presence

Of the ones not there.

The ones there

But not quite.

The loves they had left behind,

The friends that had strayed behind,

The lives that had trailed

In the smoky mists of memory.

There were some

That led then

And some lead now.

There were some

That cried then

And some cry now.

Tears lost

In the burning sands

No light in sight.

There were some

That waltzed then

Through the rooms

The corridors

The lawns

The grounds.

There were some

Whose faces lit up

The passage of time.

Now all together

Yesterday

Had never a night.

The day

Never seemed more bright.

What is this

Elusive thing called time?

Has it really claimed

The days, months, years

The certainty of our lives?

Today is just that—

It is yesterday.

And yesterday—

Is today with all her might.

So, we walked to the same places,

The same haunts

We spoke with the comfort

That comes with lives that once lived together

That comes with hands that once held each other

That comes with the need not to speak

Not to say the unsaid,

The beauty of the seen

The promise of the unseen.

No words are ever needed

When it is the heart that laughs

When it is the soul that cries

 When it is love that tries

To reach out

In joy

In unison

In friendship

To those dreams

That never die.