Burning memories

I had a whole bunch of classmates from South Korea when I was in graduate school.  My dissertation guide referred to them as the Korean mafia, for the manner in which they operated as a tight group.

Thanks to the military service, I think, they were typically two to five years older than me.  A couple of them were married, and at least one had a kid, as I recall now decades later.  One guy went to Vegas one weekend and came back about 3,000 dollars richer!!!   He took me to a Korean BBQ restaurant, which was quite an experience.  Another guy always had a nice car, in which we went to Santa Barbara for a conference.  He took me to the Chart House in Malibu, which was a huge deal for the starving graduate student that I was. 

One of the mafia guys emailed me a few years ago.  Some how he tracked me down.  "Do you remember me?" he asked.  Like I could have forgotten them all!  In the warm email recalling old classmates, he wrote that the mafia was doing well, with a majority of them in academia.  He himself was a university provost.  "If you have a chance to visit Korea, these Mafia will really welcome you," he added.

With two of them, I recall having had discussions about culture and art and movies.  Boy would it be a pleasure to find out what they thought about Burning.

The movie has plenty of intellectual stuff to talk about.  The urban-rural divide that was so much a part of the graduate school discussions.  Income and wealth inequality.  The role of women in society.  North Korea, which is only a stone's throw away from Seoul.

And personal matters too.  Did one of my old classmates ever find out whatever happened to the grandparents and his eldest sibling who were left behind in North Korea, and whom his parents never saw again?  What are the mafia's kids up to, and what do they think about Burning?  Do they smoke cigarettes even now like how they used to in grad school?

In the journey of life, we are fellow passengers for a while.  We exit at different places and continue on with our separate travels.  Rarely do we travel together again.  

I am glad that I traveled for a while with the Korean mafia.