After years of trying to fit in with the people you think were from Mars, putting up with early morning math classes, staying up all night in futile hope to understand how the steam turbine really works, killing time during exams and cursing yourself for having bothered to show up at all… you finally graduate.

As an optimist you think the misery is over. But life proves you wrong yet again, because the school, its memories and its people continue to haunt you every now and then.

Then once you’re out and moving on with life, whenever you accidentally bump into somebody from school, including the girl who told everyone she hated you, her face lights up with a bright, wide smile and before you know it she pulls you into a hug followed by a kiss on the cheek. You try to remember her name since the nickname you know her by is not going to sound appropriate at all. Both of you have changed, you notice. And for the better as far as outer beauty is concerned.

The extra pounds are gone, probably because you’re not eating off other people’s money like you did back then. The hair is not tied up in a plait nor secured by a million pins that the headmistress made you buy from her little shop; it’s either highlighted or streaked and cut nicely in layers. The eyebrows are plucked and the eyelids topped with perfect eyeliner, the eyelashes defined with mascara. It takes a while for you to register each other, but there's no missing a face from school.

You compliment each other on how well you both have turned out considering the disastrous past and limited knowledge of any grooming, chitchat about your respective present occupations and then as if automatically, she goes back to remembering school. Suddenly you realise that the once-upon-a-time-nightmare has now turned into ‘the best time of our lives,’ and ‘I'll cherish those memories forever’ and ‘I still remember how you fainted during singing and we all thought you had gone into a trance moved by the melodious music…’ and ‘Let’s keep a re-union’ and on and on it goes.

You think ‘Wow, was it really that great, how come I remained oblivious to all those wonderful things?’ But deep down you know the truth. And you certainly don’t want that re-union to happen. You keep quiet and smile. On departing, you exchange phone numbers and promise to add each other on Facebook.

At birthday parties, random coffee outings, get-togethers and the dreaded re-unions, a part of you wishes that all that nostalgia hadn't stricken and brought you back to what you escaped after such struggle. You can't believe they're still talking about Grey's anatomy, what Angelina Jolie's babies are called and other very important news. They eye you suspiciously when you order tea instead of a Hawaiian-Mocha-latte-frappaccino and tell you how old you've become. And then just like old times, everyone sits in their own groups: the gossip/beauty/sleek hair queens, the intellectuals looking gloomy, the nerds talking about future plans that include more studying, and the extras. Since most cafes don't allow their customers to turn their floor into a ground that can be used for playing Cho-Cho, the alternative entertainment is truth or dare, random pillow punching/squeezing/throwing, screaming for no apparent reason, etc. As irritated as you are with this clown show of a display, you can't deny them credit for consistency.

It's also when you hear of classmates getting married and expecting kids that you realise how time really has flown by. And your Bollywood-inspired-prince-charming-taking-you-away-on-a-magic-carpet ideas start to sound a bit unrealistic after all. But once past that shock, it's once again talking about wedding clothes. Some things never change as the cliché goes.

However, at the end of the day when you sit with that steaming mug looking at a screen you think will make you feel better, you see these friendship requests. It's the streaked-hair girl's picture — obviously worked on — staring back at you. And your brain and heart go down memory lane. After thinking hard you agree that although school was more or less like a big pain, you can at least call it your own. Feel that feeling of belonging everyone is longing for, always. That's where you found your best friends and learnt your nouns and verbs and adjectives. You learnt that life isn't a bed of roses. You learnt how not submitting work on deadlines could get you into trouble and how faking a nice fever could get you out of it. And that no matter where you went or what you did, you would always remember it: the school you went to and the people you met there. Reminds me of the lines from a song I love:

"Out of the darkness and into the sun/ But I won't forget the place I come from."