I believe that the time I spent in university is probably one of the best periods of my life. Not that it wasn’t a difficult period…it was but the best part about my university days is the friends I made.

Ayesha, Rabia, Usman, Saba, Ahsan, Sajeela & Sidra! As corny as it sounds, I used to think of them as my lucky seven. I had some of my most memorable times with these people. And they were the reason I stayed in university. There were times when I felt I couldn’t take any more of the pressure and the cumulative effect of things at home and my inability to commit myself to serious studying almost made me drop out of university. I remember one particular day when I left one of my classes’ practically in tears and made my way to the bus stand thinking that I would leave and never come back. I still remember that Ayesha and Ahsan stood in my way and convinced me to give it another shot. To this day, I know that without Allah’s help and the presence of these precious people in my life…I would have been a failure.

I feel particularly nostalgic today. I guess probably cuz for the first time, I know that things have changed. Ahsan’s in town to attend a seminar so sajeela asked me to come see her, Rao and Ahsan in University. Rao was actually a pal of Ahsan’s from GC and I got to know him while staging one of our university dramas. He started calling me Baji while Ahsan called me ‘choti’. These days Rao is completing his M.Phil in anthropology and going to Austria for his PhD. Ahsan is leaving in August for his MS in Finance from Cornell and Sajeela recently got married and is about to finish her M.Phil in Economics. She too is planning on starting her PhD in Germany where her husband is already doing his in Electronics. We had lunch at social huts…a string of kiosks in our university where students eat very unhygienic without any hesitation and for only one reason…it tastes really good. Then we walked around the campus and caught up on each other’s life, reminisced about the good times, the sad times, times that we will never forget. And yet, even when I sat there, listening to them talk about the subjects each of them was taking for their degrees…I knew that what I had in common with them had come to an end. We share the same past but our futures have nothing in common. So many of us have already moved apart. I am not in touch with either Rabia though she teaches a few blocks from my place, or with Sidra despite the fact that we are in the same city. Saba & Usman got married to eachother and well their priorities have changed. With the exception of Ahsan & I, everyone else is married. Ahsan is going away too, sajeela is moving to Germany…

I feel essentially and remorsefully, left behind!