Driving my son to his school everyday is definitely a trip down memory lane for me.
Its a long drive, through various places of my past. We drive through an old neighborhood where I grew up, through the same road I used to cycle to school as a teenager, past the tree where a group of us used to park our cycles on our way back from school and chat for a while before we took separate roads to our individual homes, pass my school…
The list is endless.
The other day I saw my history teacher waiting for an auto. I stopped, reversed and picked her up. Chatting all the way to school about good old days. I filled her up what’s happening with the rest of my batch-mates and she on what’s happening at school. Which old student stopped by school in the recent past, etc.
Suddenly it occurred to me that I was indeed, very lucky! Most people long for a glimpse of happier times, esp their childhood and here I am, driving through it every day! ( except on weekends!)
So many memories come flooding back after all these years.
Of the lech who used to look from his window when the group of us used to chat on the road. And when he emerges out & literally hangs from his gate, we hastily said our good byes & pedaled away as fast as possible…
Of all the good times we’d had at a friend’s place when I drive past her house. (She now lives in another continent & her family shifted from there years ago)
Of all the Goldspot I used to drink from the pottikkadai, just opposite my house…( We drive past my old house too! And I still have a pic of my brother and me with a friend who was relocating to Canada, just outside the closed shutters of that pottikadai)
Of the afternoons we bunked school to watch movies at my place when my parents were away…
The bus-stop where I used to wait impatiently to go to college when I miss the ladies’ special (again!)
I’m surprised that I can still feel the energy of my youth in those places…
I feel happy & vibrant by the time we reach my destination…
Feels really good.
I just hope this post doesn’t tempt fate and I find myself relocating to Alaska or Argentina in future!
Padmajav's Weblog 
maami said,
December 21, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Lucky you!
rekharaghav said,
December 21, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Yes.. Lucky you! I spent my school days in Hyderabad. We moved out of there, about 10 years ago, and since my family doesn’t live there anymore, I really dont have a reason to visit Hyderabad during my already short India visit. Some of my friends visit school and write to me about the changes, and the teachers they met. I feel bad I can never make a trip to school and to all the places that I cherished as a school-kid.
lakshmi said,
December 23, 2007 at 12:11 am
just hearing you talk about those times makes me feel good. My india visits are unfortunately too stressful to enjoy it anymore. The road I used to ride to school has changed quite a bit. But I was able to recognize the bus terminus. But luckily for us, our classmates seem to be just as close and just the same as in good ole days..
padmajav said,
December 23, 2007 at 4:50 am
Thanks Maami & Rekha! Touch wood! Life has this uncanny habit of taking you to places where u most dread to go! Well, being uprooted is one of my worst fears!
And Lakshmi, Chennai has changes a bit drastically in the past few years… And I’m glad that after growing up together, all of us are growing old together, despite the distances!!
lakshmi said,
December 25, 2007 at 12:40 am
who old? not you with a little one following around! amazing how the web has changed our lives for the better..
lakshmi said,
December 25, 2007 at 12:44 am
too quick on the submit. amazing how you chennaites stayed close too all these years in spite of such different personalities.
10yearslate said,
December 27, 2007 at 10:59 pm
One thing I remember with clenched teeth from my school boy-hood was waiting sleepily and grumpily for the school bus, tie askew, eyes still cheesy and have the retirees walk past for their morning constitutionals going
‘Ee beLagivana jaavadalli murali-gaana keLodhu esht sogas-antheera?’
(it is so nice to hear the murali-gaanam at the break of dawn isn’t it?’)