As a mother of a 17 year old who is shortly leaving school, I
find it pretty amusing to see him with a greatly prized possession these days… his
autograph book!
I wish I had preserved my own autograph book of my school
days. I remember I had three of them. One was a red plastic covered one with
colored pages (we couldn’t get any fancy ones at Palakkad some 25 plus years
back) which was reserved for special friends who had sentimentally recorded
pages and pages of the entire history of our friendship; another similar blue
slam book was given out to juniors and other acquaintances at school. The third
one which was of a more fancy nature (something which my mother had got for me
from abroad) was exclusively for my teachers. Come to think of it, most of my teachers had
penned down some great quote or proverb along with their wishes and how I wish I
had understood the deeper meaning of those valuable words that time… Somewhere in
the passing of time, my little autograph books lost their charm and value in my
grown up world and got left behind someplace…
Times have undoubtedly changed. The e-communication
revolution and the era of mobile phones are playing a great part in continuing
friendship among school leaving children. The phrase ‘keep in touch’ no longer
is said with a heavy heart, thanks to emails, skype, Facebook, Twitter, and
other social networking sites. These children will never have to bear the pangs
of separation like those of my generation, since they have an option to remain
connected with each other no matter which part of the world they are in…
But unfortunately, they will never know the sweetness of
discovering a long lost friend in Facebook, or getting a call from a classmate
who has somehow managed to dig out your cell phone number to give you a late
night surprise call 25 years down the road… They will never know the thrill of
a school reunion decades later, where you bump into dozens of your classmates
and friends whom you have never met since your school days… and most
importantly, they will never ever experience the thrill of receiving a friend’s
letter by post, tearing it open in a hurry and savoring the delicious lines
word by word with a song in your heart…
