Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Last Day

Well, today was the last day of school. It's weird. I'd always had a rather cynical view of how I'd feel when this day came around. I thought I'd be annoyed by everyone talking about how much they'll miss school even though if they had a choice they would still leave. I thought I'd play my part and then laugh when I was alone. After today though...
It started off normally. One of the other sections had their last assembly. It was pretty damn good, finishing off with "Papa Kehte Hain". One of the guitarists, a friend of mine had borrowed my guitar which I had fitted out with what I'd like to call my jugaad strap - a laptob bag strap hooked onto a long blue shoelace-like cord tied around the head of the guitar. I'm still pretty proud of that.
Anyway, that assembly talk gave us a real inferiority complex since we hadn't done as much. I started falling back into my familiar black mood. A crow narrowly avoided shitting on my head which was all for the best.
Afterwards, there was a flurry of activity - people writing out their speeches at the last minute, the order of the speakers being thrashed out and final song practices. Finally, we all headed downstairs where we had a brief respite from this feverish preparation. I hung out with a couple of friends of mine and we took some really weird photos of each other. I had decided that I was anything but photogenic, so I made the most effed-up faces I could. Then came  the assembly.
It started off well. The speakers spoke well, everybody was listening. Every now and then, I would throw in an entry from my list of the Top 10 Things We'll Miss About Bosco. I'd only put it together the night before, but it went down well with the crowd.
Next, we came to my good friend Avranava's rendition of Breathless. Two words. Fucking awesome. I had the privilege of being his guitarist for the day. It was just one chord (E Major) but I just couldn't get the strumming pattern right. When we performed it on stage though, my timing was spot-on. Unfortunately, the amp stopped working, so you couldn't hear me play. Oh well.
We got a huge round of applause, but it seemed to loosen up the crowd. They started talking amongst themselves and as a result the poem written by one of my best friends got drowned out. That sucked.
The ending though was memorable. We sang "500 Miles", our class teacher's choice. We were apprehensive about doiung such a common and simple song at first, but the fact that everyone was familiar with it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We wrote an extra verse, threw in some embellishments when it came to the vocals and I sang a bridge I had written all by myself. The climax was a repeat of the first verse with me exhorting everyone in the hall to sing along. Since they all knew the words, we truly brought the house down.
The huge round of applause we got surprised us. We thought we would suck, to be quite honest. But some people said it was the best assembly out of the lot! That was a really heartwarming experience.
We moved to the junior assembly hall to stuff ourselves with food and then danced the day away with DJ Babdoo (don't ask). A friend of mine took pictures of his friends on his tablet and then turned all of us into zombies. My effed-up faces came in handy there.
The best part was everyone scribbling on each other's shirts. Old jokes, farewell messages; it was definitely the highlight of the day. I got my shirt pocket torn off and danced an Irish jig in the middle of a crowd of bhangra boys. I loved it when I heard people I didn't even know used to be friends writing on each other and then saying "Tujhe abhi bhi woh yaad hai?" It felt good knowing that they remembered all those memories. And it was kind of sad that they didn't talk about all the good times they'd had more often. 
It was a great day and I look back on it not with cynicism but with understanding. I know now that it's not about missing school; it's about the way you say goodbye to your friends.
It wasn't maudlin, but it wasn't an excessively exuberant occasion either.
And it was the perfect way to say goodbye.

If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone.