Amidst the crowd and the chaos, I first met you. Face lit up with the procession lights and eyes shining with excitement. From the balcony, you called out and I answered. A little sanity amidst the chaos, a little madness amidst the calm.
I remember you back then, more eager to show off your dog than you were to meet me. Friends off a playground, what did we expect anyways? We had our separate lives and quite happy with them. Why then, did we keep bumping into each other? Players of the same winning team, audience of the same Somaji Gomaji Kapse stories, inhabitants of the same lane? Maybe it was Destiny. Maybe God willed us to become friends. I am sure of it…for it was on Anant Chaturdashi that I first met you!
That was just about 20 years ago, a whole lifetime ago. Each day has gone hand-in-hand with you ever since. Growing up but never growing apart. For with you, I have shared lives and laughs. Cried buckets and raged wars. Done insane stuff and also been called responsible. Forced a puppy to ride in the bicycle basket and painted thermocol houses with leftover oil paint boxes. Thrown bottles down mountain cliffs and been punished for ‘talking too much’. Like dad always asks, “Who listens to whom when you two start to talk?”
You are my first lesson in letter-writing, ‘cooking’ up future plans and ‘stitching’ a broken heart. You are my first chapter in love and trust. You are, unfortunately, not my first friend but definitely the longest. And you have been the only topic of ‘My Best Friend’ essays!
In the middle of the night and under the blazing sun; in the shabbiest of clothes and in 5-star hotel rooms; while snoozing morning walk alarms but actually making it up the hill once a while…you have been there in every mood. Monochrome or technicolour…you have been through every phase 😉
My mind is doing a rapid flashback tonight as I try to hold onto the years that rushed past. I wish a camera had captured all those moments for us, so tonight we could relive them just once. I begin to mourn the fact of there being no ‘material’ proof, but a sudden thought catches me unaware.
I have just been looking for the proof in the wrong place….it isn’t in the photo album but in the life we have shared. A memory got created each time we got together; be it to haunt the Nal Stop bus stop in the most indecent of attires or just to say a Hi through your window and fall into the potted plants in the process. A chapter was ‘bookmarked’ each time we wet ourselves laughing over trivial things; stuff which if publicized would get us instant entries into a mental hospital. A whole new angle to our friendship was highlighted every time new people came into our lives. Closer is all we’ve ever got and jealousies always kept at bay. Today I thank you for all that and so much more.
In the race of Life, despite contrasting routes, I have always found you waiting for me at the finish line. Preferring to celebrate my success more than your own achievement. Always ready to share and revel in my happiness. I know I have been selfish and never truly shared you; but just the thought fills me with dread. I have had you in my life for so long, that I won’t know what to do without you.
For me, you are the other piece of the broken heart pendant…the key at the end of the string keychain…the earring in my new piercing…the worn-out friendship necklace that has survived many baths…the paper-maché weight of torn letters. For me, you are my other half. Better or not, is a question yet to be solved 😉 For that, meet me in another two decades!!
Happy Birthday, Pournima….a name synonymous with my own, for as long as I can remember.
