Passport

Yesterday I applied for my passport renewal. It would expire on the 7th of January, 2011...just a couple of weeks from now. It was issued to me exactly 10 years back. It was the year that I passed my engineering. It was as-if passport to a new life.
So, I thought of taking stock of how life (the new life post college life) has shaped and changed for us. "Us" meaning some of my friends, some whom I have contact with and some whose news keeps flowing into me through the friends I have contact with. Before I proceed furher, let me clarify some things. I will not take any names; if any friend gets hurt because he/she feels it is referring him/her and I shouldn't have written about him/her, my sincere apologies. Please mail me at amitava.b.chatterjee@gmail.com and I will remove that part immediately. The sole purpose of this blog is to have a look at how the lives and the world has changed for some of us.

When we were in college, my close friend, Sandipan and I used to often say, "We are waiting for the day when we can run out of the college and never return". We had reasons to say so. Precisely, we hated college and I have no qualms in thanking the "teachers" of my college for that.I dont understand what fun teachers get by giving less marks to students and thus find the cynical way to show their power and position. Finally, we did manage to come out of the college and the best part is, with the "Bachelor of Engineering" degree.

I called one friend the other day.
"Hey, what's up?"
"I'm attending the second marriages of friends now!"
"What???"
"Yes, You remember, XXX married in 2004?"
"Yes.."
"Well, he got divorced in 2006 and married again! Even YYY has remarried. And, Amitava, I must say second marriages are much more organised and grand than the first ones. Actually, they already have experience and have learnt from the mistakes of the first ones"
Marriage. Divorce. And marriage again.
For some it is marriage and a rocking married life.
For some it is marriage and a rocked married life.
For some it is marriage and divorce. No re-marriage, yet. Once bitten, twice shy.

For the married, some have kid or kids.
Some are yet to start the process - hesitant about starting it.
Some are in the process.
Some started the process and got rude shocks on the way - medical problem or the trauma of mis-carriage.

For one, it was marriage, kids and then death. A habitual drug-addict, he met a tragic end, leaving his family in shatters.

Some were outstanding in the academic life (unlike me). But then could not make it as they had thought they would. So now they are into hibernation. Several mails and phone calls failed to bring them back. They have chosen to live in isolation. I have stopped disturbing them.
Among the good students, some went ahead and continued studying for the love of it. On the way they picked us some good degrees and then got what they wanted in life.
Some went ahead to study because they did not know what else to do.
Some continued studying perhaps not just for the love of studying but because of somebody else or because they wanted to prove something to the world. Dont know whether they have enjoyed the process.
And some confused souls like me went to work from college, then back to college and back to work again!

We have lost contact with many. Orkut and facebook occasionally brings out some old vaguely-remembered faces. But not all believe in networking sites. For some, I do not like to contact even if they may be in the same city. And thats because we never got along nicely.

Some have decided not to leave their hometown, their comfort zone.
Some have decided to look out for better opportunities in some green pastures away from their hometown, but within the country.
Some have decided to leave the country and settle abroad.
For some friends working in the IT industry, it is all about taking "onsite" assignments and clicking photos with family with the statue of liberty or the Eiffel tower in the background.Then posting on the networking sites and getting "wow!" from friends.

Most of us have put on weights. Some a few pounds more, some a few pounds less.
Most of us are on diet with the occasional pizzas,Pepsis, and Mac-Ds and french fries.


There are once-not-so-close friends, with whom now I share warm relationships and who have become part of my close friend circle. And there are once-so-close friends with whom I have hardly shared a thought for the last few years.
In college we all seemed united. Now, each has a world of his/her own. Its a much lonely life now.
Within the boundaries of the college wall, there were few things we really needed to worry about. Mainly, academics and a job post academics. Now the list is almost endless.

Schools have uniforms. It signifies that all students, irrespective of their social background and economic condition are same in school. Colleges don't have uniform. But, the spirit of the uniformity remains. Ten years on, it is too much to ask for uniformity of any sort.

In 2001, my mind and the leaflets of the passport had one thing in common. Both had no stamps, no seals. Pretty-much blank and didnt know what to expect from future. Ten years on, 40% of my passport has been stamped with visas of different countries and sealed and signed here and there by the different emigration officers around the world. Records that cannot be deleted or wiped off. Even I had quite a few good, bad and ugly experiences in these last ten years of my life, never to be forgotten and cannot be erased.
The new passport I am applying for with 60 more blank pages is for another ten years. It is perhaps life's own way of telling me to take a fresh look at the next ten years of my life with the same zeal and enthusiasm that I had ten years ago, when I got my first passport.