Nostalgic...

Ides of March...floods me with so many memories...School, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, Mr. Patro’s classes in the first period...not in any specific order!

The image of a quiet class comes to my mind, waiting for Sir to enter after the morning assembly. Absolute silence during the entire period, and letting the world of Shakespeare's drama take over... at least for me! How I wish I could see Julius Caesar as a drama, the Romans in all their grandeur with their flowing robes and their arrogant faces! Mark Antony was the hero for me...calm, intelligent, brave. Brutus was stoic.. I remember hearing this word for the first time and how I loved it...I still do.

Cassius the villain and Julius Caesar, of course, who is there throughout, driving all the characters’ even after he is dead. And how can I forget all the beautiful metaphors of Shakespeare.

Ides of March was also the day our ICSE exams began and coincidentally, it was the English papers on that day. Shakespeare was with us on that day too, maybe lurking behind some of the answer sheets!

Those 15 days of the final exams just flew by. Most of us were not mature enough to be aware of how important a milestone it was for us, both in our school life and our academics. We just took on each day as it came, with no baggage from yesterday and no parcel for tomorrow. Exams got over on 1-Apr-1991 and life moved on, albeit with changed priorities and friendships.

I often wonder if we would have behaved any differently during the last few days of school, if we had known that we would not be meeting each other (at least most of us) for more than 2 decades. Would we have interacted more, shown more empathy towards all our classmates, more respect towards our teachers and invested more time in building friendships.

Life has taken numerous twists & turns for all of us, and made us older and wiser through the years. What do we have to say to our children about school life, do we have any experiences/lessons to share which would help them deal with life in a better way! In today's world of virtual friendships, long-distance relationships, can they even relate to our experiences! Thoughts to ponder...