October 2022

Mid-October almost, and it is raining much more heavily now than it did all through the so-called monsoon months. Yesterday it was a true deluge, and there was a repeat performance this evening. Climate change for you.

There is a nip in the air of evenings (and in the very early morning), though the days are often sweltering still. I am sure that winter is at least a month away, but I can feel the pleasurable anticipation again...

I am about to step into my sixtieth year. The emotion I feel most strongly is wonder. I have such vivid memories of youth still, and mentally I don't feel much older than when I was thirty, though the tiredness has gone much deeper into my bones. Also, it is sadly funny to see ex students twenty years younger or more, who look almost as old as I do... what on earth has gone wrong with so many people?

I had a delightful chance to meet, chat and dine with a lot of favourite ex students over the pujo holidays, but now they have drifted away again, and I miss them. With them I often manage to enjoy 'feasts of reason and flow of soul', as they used to say in a more enlightened age, which is the only sort of thing that makes life bearable to the civilized man. Thank God for Whatsapp and Zoom. And I forgot to mention this in my earlier post on fantasizing, but being able to afford calling over the best of old boys every now and then for gala meetings would be very high on my wish list if I had money to burn!

Since Pupu has been staying with me for some time, I have grown deeply attached to her dog. I would like to believe that the affection is mutual. I wonder how we shall both cope with the separation when that happens, even if that is a matter of a few weeks or months.

I am looking forward to our next holiday, towards the end of November, God willing. We haven't been amidst the hills for rather a long time.

Another batch of students is coming to an end. I wonder what old boys and girls will feel when they read these lines and remember their last day in my class, many years ago?