Auld Lang Syne

How does a person feel when he returns back to his alma mater after 30 years?
Auld Lang Syne means – "Those times gone by" in Scottish (I think it is Scottish but I’m not sure.)

It’s been 30 years, Thirty years?!
Why! Wasn’t it yesterday?
Why don’t the words come? And these tears?
Somebody shouts "Oray"!


I look around. Friends hug me
From all sides. And suddenly
It all returns. A sea
Of emotion strangles me.


We babble away, about Those Days…
We stutter, we stumble but its fine.
Its our hearts which are talking
About the days of Auld Lang Syne.

Those playful pranks come alive again,
In our words. Those ragging tricks,
Those late night teas, those games in the rain…
And, "Oh Yes", adds someone, "The election antics!"


And we talk and chatter away into the night,
As once we’d done in those cramped rooms,
How holy these dorms seem in the moonlight!
Even those lectures, those H2S fumes!

"Love, naiveté, friendship, marks;
We left them 30 years ago",
I think. In the distance a dog barks.
But midnight cannot stop our flow!


Life has been full of ups and downs.
Full of conquests and triumphs.
Full of careers and marriages.
Full of cities and houses.


But right now, we’ve shed our cloaks,
Our fancy clothes and ties and bows.
In the midst of these ubiquitous motes,
We’re all in vests but I can see the halos…


And right now, as the wind blows,
And the dawn enters – we’re free again.
As over the horizon, the sun shows
Up,we play again, we fight again.