....

"When we grow up, I will marry you.", he used to say when they were kids, and even now he wonders sometimes. He ran into her yesterday, after so many years. One look at her, and he knew she wonders as well.....

Betrayed

"We are just friends," they used to say. And yet when she got married, he felt betrayed, and she felt as if she had betrayed him.....

Reunion

"Alright then, I will see you at the reunion. You are coming ...right?", and he did not know what to say....Putting down the phone he thought to himself if he really wanted to attend his school reunion. Not that he was unpopular at school or anything...He had his group of friends and he did have his share of fun at school. Just that the mention of school reminded him of Jagruti Babu, and how he used to ill-treat him.

Jagruti Babu was his maths teacher, who took an instant dislike to him for no apparent reason. If anything went wrong, he was the one to be blamed for it. Even if he did well in the examinations, it never showed up in his results due to the strange dislike of the teacher. And then his parents would never believe him when he told them that the teacher intentionally deducted his marks. This gave his confidence a major jolt, and gradually he turned into a timid and cold-footed guy, never quite sure of himself. It took him quite some time to get back to his normal self after the school days were over.

But it was such a long time ago, and he was not even sure if Jagruti Babu would be around any more....Also, it would be interesting to see how his batch-mates were doing....And so he found himself attending the reunion and more importantly liking it....It was good catching up with old mates and remembering the school days....The classes they bunked, the games they played, the occasional fire crackers in the toilets, how they "helped" each other in the exams, how they teased the girls...and the transition from there to the mature adults that they were now....Who would have thought that Rohan who shared his lunch with the girls and never ever played even a single sport would end up becoming an army-man....or that the backbenchers and major troublemakers would have transformed into hardworking professionals.....It was good to see the teachers after such a long time......Some of the old-timers were still around...All in all it was a fun evening.

But the best part for him was to see an irritated Jagruti Babu looking frantically for his lost glasses.....There was a group of students assisting him in the search and they bore the brunt of his anger every now and then....After searching for a good two or three hours, he left complaining of a terrible headache....Although he enjoyed the sufferings of Jagruti Babu, he could not help but notice the helpless look on the teacher's face which looked very old and pale....

Finally the evening drew to a close, and he planned on having a few drinks with a couple of close friends....As they were leaving someone informed them about the cricket match between the alumni and the present students and asked him if he would like to play...He agreed almost immediately ....With one of his hands in his pocket clutching Jagruti Babu's glasses, the idea of coming back to the school didn't seem all that bad anymore.......