Wonder years

Nostalgia – a feeling of longing for something in our past. Sometimes we must have found ourselves drowned in the thoughts of yesteryears. The whole feeling of visualizing ourselves in that place again is just so awesome. We all would have enjoyed our Wonder years. The best time of our lives spent in a most amazing way that we still think and feel nostalgic about.

Few days back I was taking a stroll down the street, alone just by myself. This was probably the first time I was alone in my thoughts, right under the stars, under the dark sky. Since I joined an MNC, I had been longing for some time for myself.

As I walked I could feel the breeze on my face, it was so dulcet. Suddenly I saw 2 young guys racing on their bikes and as they sped I too could feel myself speeding down the memory lanes. My friends and I use to race each other here in this street. The looser had to buy a drink for the whole gang. It was fun. As I kept walking, I came across a small rickety shop. It was the same place where I and my roommates used to have parathas and lassi. The lady here used to make awesome lassi and I couldn’t resist having a glass or two. My roommates and I used to fight about the place to sit our asses, the nearer we were to the lady the faster the serviceJ. She had a daughter who used to serve us. She was pretty and you could feel her eyes piercing down your soul. That was an amazing feeling. I bet you would never find the parathas and lassis which could take you so high anywhere on this planet ;)

I was just so happy thinking about all this that there was an evident smile on my face. As I walked a few meters I saw a billboard of a movie. As I saw the guys in the poster standing next to each other, I remembered my good old days. We too had such a cool gang of friends. We were so much in our own world that we hardly cared about anyone else. They were friends I could always rely upon. We guys used to have code names for every pretty girl. Some chick was called pataka, someone as gulabo and so on. That was crazy, I know. But it was amazing and fun. No one was able to understand our chats because of our highly cryptic code words.

We guys use to watch all possible movies we could lay our hands on. Be it English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese – languages were never a barrier for us. We would enjoy anything running on our PC as long as we were able see the visuals. Music had a completely different definition that time. We wouldn’t hear songs because we liked it but rather because listening to Rock was cool. I swear none of us understood anything that was sung or yelled but we still were the best group of headbangers in our college. We were COOL or at least that’s what we thought us to be. I still remember one of my friend preparing halwa for us late in the night because I wanted to have something sweet. Though what was served was not even close to halwa at all but all four of us had it with such a delight that it now seemed to be one of the best dish I tasted till date. We were a group, who might have looked crazies to others but were the best of pals and simply superb. We were 4 idiots J - simple, sweet, cute idiots.

But exam times were screwing. Before every exam we use to promise and take an oath to study hard for the next semester. But as soon as the exams use to get over, we were back to our normal bindaas style. How could I ever forget those bouts of coffees and late night gossips just to keep ourselves awake to study? Those small arguments and fight over which girl belonged to whom. All this seems so crazy and foolishly innocent now. I long for those simple yet beautiful days.

This was all so amazing that I can hardly express it in words. I kept walking, thinking about all this and smiling to myself. As I kept walking on the street I saw a tree on the other side of the road, still standing alone. I went up to it just to say a “Hi” to the old fellow. After all it was here that I kissed my first crush, our name still inscribed there on its trunk. That was really sweet. I didn’t know that it would still be there. I had almost forgotten about it. I could feel “Love’s Divine” by Seal playing softly in my ears. It was here that I tried to understand the meaning of love. After lots of crushes I was in love. But life is so unpredictable, what we want, we wish, we desire doesn’t always come true. Lady was a member of our gang. Though most decent among all of us but still an idiot just like us.

Now I was about to get back home. This was the best stroll of my life. I met all my old friends in my thoughts, caught up with old memories, felt my first kiss again. This feeling would sure stay with me for quite some time. I wish I had a time machine so that I could go back and have some more good time with my idiots.

- Sharat Nautiyal