Until We Meet Again - I

Chapter 1: We Connect

January & February 2012

All the school in Delhi had given their farewell, only our school was left, all of us 12thies were eagerly waiting for the Farewell and finally a notice came from the principal.

"All the 12hties are informed that their Fare Thee Well party will be held on 01st February 2012 in the school premises. The timings are 10:00 to 16:00. The students are requested to attend the farewell on time and please don't be late at your own farewell.

Principal"

The last line made all of us crack. Our batch was given the title of "Laziest batch of the School" as all the late comers were from our batch. Whether it was class 6 or 12, at least 4 of our batch students were in the late comers.

We were excited. The girls had already booked their salons, choosen their nail paints matching with their sarees and gowns, whereas, we boys were still trying to decide whether to wear a bow-tie or a tie.

My group of friends, me, Raj, Kabir, Suman and Uditi. We were the best of buddies, but as they say, after school's over, no school friends stay in touch, all our promises of always being in touch were gone in air. I hadn't talked to them since our board result party.

We were supposed to enter the farewell as couples, Raj was going with Aditi, Kabir was going with his girlfriend, Rashi and Suman was going with her one day boyfriend, Vicky.

And I was going alone, my crush had rejected my proposal and I was too heartbroken to ask anyone else, it was then, when my mother came to my rescue. She asked her best friend, Kalpana Aunty to send her daughter, Anaya with me.

Anaya Malhotra, I had seen her a few times in school, i always saw her with a novel and she was surrounded by her friends, wore big spectacles and her long black hair were always braided. Her rosy-pale skin, often became red in the sun. While i was this guy you will miss out in a crowd, she was the one, for whom you'd turn back and look for.

I accepted my mother's proposal, because I found her cute, I knew she was not like other girls, even though she looked a bit nerdy, I knew she had more class than half of the girls of my school. After all her dad was a an army person. I had never talked to her properly, just some hi and hello's, as she was my mother's best friend daughter.

My mother and Kalpana aunty shopped for us, they brought us fashionable and colour co-ordinated clothes, it wasn't a big thing back then, but now when I look at our old pictures, I thank god, for our mother's fashion sense, which was always ahead of time.

I have a big family, and we all lived together, until 2014, when dad's business got successful and we decided it was best if we live separately as none of my other family members supported dad in his business, but wanted to be a part of it only when it was successful. Even though we moved out, but we are still in touch with each other and whatever rift that there was between Dad and his siblings is now sorted. So back then my farewell clothes were shown to everyone, for their approval, my chacha (dad's younger brother) didn't liked them and so did chachi (chacha's wife), but bua ( dad's sister) who had came to visit us from Goa and grand ma loved them, and so did I.

I wore a 3 piece navy blue checked suit with same colour waist-coat along with a white shirt and black tie and pocket square and Anaya was supposed to wear a beige saree.

Finally the farewell day came, I wasn't expecting much. 'It is just for the entry,' I thought to myself as I got ready, 'after the entry we both would go our separate ways.'