This year - or rather, to be precise, last lunar year - i had my Reunion Dinner at London. I had it in an Indian restaurant near Brick Lane. I had garlic naan and chicken vindaloo. I had it with people who were not related to me - a Polish, an Indian and a Greek!!! Not very Chinese, you must say. Not Chinese AT ALL, I would say!
But it was a special time that we spent together. Sachin came all the way from Cambridge. Michael from Colchester. Tom was in London itself but had to drive all the to Central London. Being the weekend, there were the usual engineering works all over. So the entire Circle Line was out. The train from Colchester was affected and Michael had ti use alternative routes via bus and tube to reach our rendezvous point. Signaling problems also halted the Central Line. Still, we all made it in the end!
We had a good laugh at Sachin who can never keep his eyes opened for a photo!!!!
Second try and his eyes were still closed!!!!! Glad that some things dun change! Lol!
Right! Finally! This time, it's so obvious that he is forcing his eyes open!!!
A group photo! :-)
It was the first time since Tom left Rayleigh Tower in 2006 that the 4 of us have met together. These people were my 'family' members during those days. We lived together, cooked together, ate together, went to Tesco at 2 am together in the winter, laughed and joked together, shared our lives in that flat on the 10th floor for those 10 or 11 months.
It's strange how a bunch of strangers from different parts of the world studying different subjects can come together and touch my life the way they did in such a short period of time. These are my friends. These are the people who would tell me off when they think i'm wrong. Yes, they would laugh when i fall but they would also cry when i hurt. Most importantly, these are the people who accept me for who i am. I do not have to put up a show or a faced, act out a performance as someone whom they will like. When i'm with them, i can be just who i am. For i too accept them for who they are.
As we learnt during YAf last Sunday, "...friendship is about knowing and being known, loving and being loved, serving and being served, and celebrating and being celebrated".
I can truly say that i got to know them, i loved them, i served them and i celebrated them and with them. In the way, i had been known, i had been loved, i had been served and i had been celebrated too.
You can't really blame me then when i say that in times these days when the pressure overwhelms, when the pain really hurts, when the loneliness cries silently, when the frustrations mount, when the world gets that extra bit more cruel than usual, that i quickly and quietly run back to Flat 10 and hideaway for a while.
So it was a very important reunion for me. It was made all the more important cuz we realised that we do know when all of us can ever be together again! It's gonna be a long while before i finally grace the shores of England again. Tom might also be returning to Poland. So this reunion was also in some weird way, a goodbye.
*The song which was a huge 'crossover' hit - hitting no. 1 on both the pop and soul charts.
3 comments:
that's very nice. I hope I'll be able to do the same thing with a group of friends 10 years later.
well, it hasn't been 10 years with them yet.
but i did have a reunion with another group of mates - now we've known each other since we studied together in London more than 15 years ago!!! it was really good - and really nice to be in contact after all this while.
good for you Sir ! There's this line from an actor from a show which I don't really remember... that says if you are making good friends in your life, and in your case I'm sure you have plenty XD, you must be doing pretty well in your life.
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