College Relationship Comparisons

This past Saturday we met some of Prasad's college friends and families. A group of them live in Bangalore so Prasad has started reconnecting with them. One family moved back to India recently and lives in the same complex as us and their daughter is in Rushil's class. A couple of them he had not seen in 20 years. They reminisced about their college days and had vivid and fond memories of their past together. After spending the evening with them, it occurred to me that I did not have a bond like that with my college friends. I came up with a couple of obvious reasons, I didn't live in a dorm (I always wished I did), I was shy, most my classmates were males, and it took me almost 2 years before I hung out regularly with the same gang (4 guys and 1 other girl) and we hardly ever met on the weekends . And out of that group, I now only keep in touch with one of the girls . At that time, most of my social life revolved around my high school and cegep friends. Although all of these reasons play a factor, I think there is a little more to it than that. Indians tend to bond very strongly with their college classmates, and that tie seems to remain over the years. Most of our Indian raised friends in the bay area regularly met with their college friends and although they made new friends, their college friends were part of their social fabric. Even my father still connects with this college friends. Looking at a small sample of my friends and family that grew up in Canada, very few keep in touch with their university friends regularly, it's an interesting cultural difference.