Getting connected

When I googled the artist, I found that he was famous and had been interviewed.

I recently received a call from a high school classmate. I couldn’t immediately place the name. After pleasantries were exchanged, he said he had become an artist after studying engineering and was calling to invite me for an exhibition of his work. I was impressed by his unusual career choice. My curiosity piqued, I decided to attend the event.

This is the era of reunions. Everybody is having them. There is a great deal of curiosity to see where life has taken your peers and what age has done to them. Ever since I learnt of my immediate high school seniors’ reunion, I had felt a trifle bad that my batch had done nothing of that sort. I realised, of course, that the others too were waiting for someone else to initiate the process. Reconnecting via Facebook is not my thing and I am happy being in touch with the same set of friends over the years.

But here, the guy had taken the trouble to get my number from another classmate and he had bothered to call! He also mentioned other classmates who would be attending the exhibition. When I googled the artist, I found that he was rather famous and had been interviewed by the media. And he looked like Antonio Banderas!

I invited my friend Jaya to go with me to the exhibition. Now, Jaya and I, have seen each other through life’s important milestones --school, college, marriage, career, children and weight gain! Jaya was not keen. We had recently re connected with another classmate and had found the experience a let-down. The one time meeting had lasted just half an hour. This meeting would be different, I coaxed her and enticed her with the mention of the Hollywood looks and off we went.

The art work was indeed breathtaking. Our classmate didn’t disappoint. Throwing back his curly mane nonchalantly he made polite conversation before being called away by important people. Then came the introductions to other classmates. Some were inspiring and others not so.

 “We must thank the artist for getting us all together” I said. “Ha, in the guise of a reunion, he is trying to get more people to attend the exhibition” joked the classmate who had become an industrialist. Oh oh. So, Antonio Banderas was looking for a well attended exhibition rather than a reconnection? I don't know. We haven’t been in touch since the exhibition!