Dehradun, Oct. 4 -- Barlowganj's old Sikander Hall

Last week, my friend Anmol Berry (or Tata, as we called him) came all the way from Australia to say hello and a final goodbye. After finishing college, he grew wings and flew to distant lands, while I sprouted roots. Shuffling around the college office, I realised that day the die had been cast: henceforth, Landour was where my life would unfold.

'New teacher?' short and stout Jagdish Babu asked. 'Date of birth?'

Taking a glance at my school leaving certificate, he noted the date, and added sixty years. Like a soothsayer, he intoned: 'That's the day you retire.'

And he was right, as correct as a broken clock which gets the time right twice a day. Quietly, without fanfare, old age has ...