And the lecture drones on and on. Not your usual class lecture. No. Series of lectures about our oh-so amazing school. Our school is okay. Its been like a second home for several years now and will perhaps be for more. Being here in this auditorium under the sparkle of a hundred electric stars and under the spell of a pack of lies, isn't the most fun thing in the world. Its boring as a matter of fact. I look around, stare at the man delivering speeches that even he doesn't know the true meaning of. Strange or is it? I talk with Teddy beside me. I smirk, pass remarks , laugh jokingly at some teacher and clap along with everyone else. Then I see this girl. That foreign girl from the O-level exams...And thats her dad. A kid follows them; her brother perhaps. And yet as I look back, I feel this odd sense of deja-vu. No not deja-vu. This odd sense ...I look back at the kid. His face, I could say that I have never met him and yet it strangely seems so familiar. In fact it reminds me of someone. I look at the girl. That demure expression, slightly curled deep brown hair..sharp nose and thin lips. So familiar...could it be? But surely not! I look again. Yes...the resemblance is striking. I talk to Teddy. "Teddy that girl...-"
"You mean Mahnoor?"
That name. It is her then. Long lost memories resurface in my mind and my eyes well up with tears. I hide my face in my hands and shed tears of surprise and joy. It really is her. And the lecture doesn't seem to end. I keep looking at her and I talk to Teddy about my days at my old school and about Mahnoor who was my best friend from play group. We read together till class 3, when I left the school and came here. And here of all the places and after all these year do I see her. The world is round. "I wonder if she'll remember me Teddy.."
"You will go and talk with her after this ceremony is done"
"Yeah.."
But the lectures go on like what seems forever and I can only sit still in the hope that it will have to finish sometime and then perhaps I'll go and ask her. And then its done. I carefully make my way out of the rows of seats flanking each side of me.
"Excuse me...Are you Mahnoor?"
A curious smile, perhaps she knows that its me? "Yes"
I take a deep breath. "I don't know if you remember me..but I am Mony"
Oh sunshine and smiles.
"MONY!! Yes.."
"You-you remember me?"
"Yes ofcourse.."
Yeah...thats exactly how I found an old friend of mine at a boring A-level orientation ceremony. The world really is round, so says my dear mother. The girl wearing the navy-blue tee is Mahnoor. I'm the kid in the lime green tee and pants. :P. . . .indeed. And lookit my belly. Whooyey! And Mahnoor is all tall and elegant and thin. I'm still chubby. Always was...lol
Anyhoo. The girl in a white tee beside me is Aisha, her sister. Dunno if I'll be able to find her miraculously around me, nor Aroni either, who's the shy girl in cream. And may I add, the photo was taken in my old school in 1998, when I was 5 and in KG-1. And to think its 2009, 11 years almost!! I'll be 16 in a few days. How time flies and yet I hardly felt it until I saw Mahnoor and compared her now elegant self with the little kid in a navy-blue tee here. She looks quite the same only, she has a certain distinguished air about her, but the same smile and the same sparkly eyes.
I do hope we can be friends again. School starts again on the 22nd and we're in the same section. :D
~Mony
^_^
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