India, June 18 -- By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam

Attending an alumni meet is like stepping into a time machine. The machine is slightly rusted and the destination is blurry. The fellow travellers have all mysteriously aged. Except, of course, for that one person who somehow still looks like they walked straight out of our final-year group photo.

The moment we step into the venue, we are hit by a wave of nostalgia, excitement and mild panic. Panic, because while the faces look vaguely familiar, the names attached to them have mysteriously evaporated from memory. The brain works frantically. It tries to match features to old yearbook photos. But all that comes to mind is: Was he the guy who borrowed my books and never returned them? or Did he ...