Say squeeze

Right in the middle, and that is where it matters the most. When the rate at which the girth increases outpaces the rate at which the height increases, two things become evident — one, the genes that we were born with have orchestrated a series of activities inside us which has resulted in a height that we are destined for this life, and two, the graduation to ‘the mid-life’ where the same genes work in conjunction with our lifestyle habits with a razor-sharp focus targeted at the middle portion of our body.

One day in October 2017 the stars aligned and the planets crossed their orbital paths, or so it appeared, as classmates who were for forty years incognito started coming together on a WhatsApp group. Pleasantries were exchanged with the ‘then’ pictures making the rounds, while the ‘now’ pictures were confined to the faces, at best a bust pose is what was shared.

The first weekend in December 2017 was set aside for the classmates’ reunion. As the group in Bengaluru converged to go together to Mysuru, it dawned on us we needed more space than what was envisaged. Two-seater spaces shrunk to single-seater which resulted in space crunch. As we landed at the venue in Mysuru and friends started to get together, one common theme emerged. One needed more than a pair of hands to go around the person they wished to greet with a warm hug. Innovation found its way through the brain-freeze moment as most switched to the good old Indian way of ‘namaste’ to greet each other.

The event had two ‘wow’ moments planned: one to visit the school where we studied seventh grade and go to the classrooms to re-live some moments. Two, to felicitate a few teachers and shower our gratitude. Both these instances once again echoed one common theme — the middle. The classroom had stayed the same; the challenge was to fit us into those benches of yesteryear.

We had more of ours falling out of the bench than what could stay within and hence a lot more ‘standing out,’ an appreciated decorum then. During
the felicitation the teachers exclaimed, among other things ‘oh you have gained weight to be a well-rounded individual!’

With many a click from the shutterbugs wielding their phone camera, ‘say cheese’ was a thing of the past.

Morphed into a new flavour ‘say squeeze’ moment, lo behold we finally fit into one frame for the loving smiles to beam out of a group picture. Us fitted into one frame was an achievement as everyone held their breath and tucked their paunches at the ‘squeeze’ moment. This memorable reunion has relived now as a ‘framed being’ in most of our homes adorned as the centre-piece in our family rooms!

Oh yes, right in the middle!