Wednesday 19 September 2012

Lost and Found. Friends.



When I was much younger, the land-line was the only way to connect with friends. Then school got over, college saw me making newer friends. I am from Delhi, born and brought up. Life was full of hopes and aspirations and eventually after working many years I shifted to Mumbai for career reasons.

It was inevitable that over the years I lost touch with my friends and they also got busy in the grind called life.

I would often think of them... And there were times, some tinted with rum (wink) where I would hold an almost tattered phone diary and dial the no.s I had from Delhi. Some were answered by Parents, who remembered me... Some nos had stopped existing... some to my sheer delight were picked up by their spouses (!) who promised to pass on my message and duly took my mobile no. The mobile of course was newly acquired...

After leaving my no. with everyone I called, it was just the beginning of a wait.

Some called back almost the next day. Some called back in a week, apologizing for their busy schedule... And some texted me (from their newly acquired cell phones). And some... well I am still waiting.

Friendship is about a feeling... which makes you miss people, wants you to meet them once in a while, share your emotions unbridled by pretense, social strata differences, career paths and love lives.

Friendship runs deep... but can dry up too. This is something we all learn as we grow older. We realize that making new friends does not mean you love your old friends lesser. It means the space left behind needs to be filled. You don't actively seek out... it happens when you meet people who mirror a bit of you... or are totally the opposite but still speak a language you understand.

But do you still miss your old friends, Of course you do. It is complicated... so is life.

I don't like to use the term "True friendship". Is there any other kind?

As Pam Brown said
A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely. 

So value your friends, new and old. They are not your family. They are the ones you have chosen. Some of them are the first decisions you have made in life, when you were still learning to tie shoe laces.





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