From Linkin Park to Coldplay

I met an old friend yesterday, probably after three years.  The irony is that, we used to boast about us being best friends back in school days, but as the school got over, our friendship succumbed to the sinister blows of distance. Isn’t it the fate of most of friendships? People meet, they talk, they connect and then gradually they part ways, never to meet again. We convince ourselves with sham thoughts like ‘longer the distance, stronger the bond’; but deep within we know we are losing touch. And then one fine day we realise ‘oh man! It’s been three years and we haven’t talked. How time have changed! It’ll be too inappropriate to talk now’; and in this way that bond dies-only memory remains.

I was at a bakery shop, trying to figure out which pastry was befitting to ruin all the sweat I have oozed out from my body in gym, when suddenly I heard an oddly familiar voice, “Chatur, you haven’t changed much….still at the same corner of the shop.” I turned around to find a round face, with a conspicuous mole at the bottom left of the chin, smiling at me. Suddenly waves of memories were ebbing in and out of my mind. “Hi Seema! It’s been a long time,” I stammered. “Yeah…very long time. Look at you….you have lost weight….no more the golu-molu sorts,” she guffawed. “And contrary to me….you have gained some….no more the hot-chick-talk-of-the-town sorts,” I snapped. “Haven’t learned chivalry still eh?” We both laughed.

We quickly did our business at the shop and then she offered to drop me home as she was on scooty and I on foot. “It will not be a problem, as I have to go the same way,” she said. “Seema….I don’t live in Janakipuram anymore....I changed my house about the time we left school. I now live in Priyadarshini and it lies in opposite direction to where you are bearing to” I interrupted. “Ohh….still…I am in no hurry and I can do atleast this much for an old best friend,” she winked. “Fine,” I said and hopped back as a pillion passenger.

It was evening and the square was thronged, it took her some effort to incise her way through the heavy traffic but she managed and finally we were on the empty single lane which led to my house. When we reached, I offered her to come inside and have some water. “Are you trying to return the favor? If so, then don’t do it….because it was no favor, it was what I would have done for any friend,” she said. “Take it any way….but you have to come…I insist,” I said. She agreed and came in.

She sat in the living room as I brought a glass of water and some biscuits. “So you are in Durgapur right? Bengali babu,” she smiled. “Yeah…unfortunately,” I gave a furtive response. “How are the studies going on?” she asked again after a brief pause. “Fine,” I replied. She was there trying to make a conversation and I was there thinking what to say. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, about her boyfriend, her mother who was suffering from cancer, her designing dream which she wasn’t able to pursue; but I was unable to ask. I was just wondering will it be proper to ask now, after so many years. Afterall, we were almost strangers now. Will it not be too intrusive? Will she like it?

Meanwhile, she took my laptop and surfed something and then put it back. “I think I should leave,” finally she was the one again to break the uneasy silence. “Yeah,” I nodded nervously. She went out, hopped on her scooty, put on her helmet and was about to press auto start when she stopped. She glanced at me. “You remember I said to you in the bakery shop that you haven’t changed much?”

“Yes..”

“I was wrong. You have changed……a lot. So much that if someone would have told me what I just witnessed I would have never agreed that he was talking about you.”

“I don’t understand Seema…”

“You know I can just ride back without saying a word, but unlike the present you….i don’t like keeping things in my heart. I mean what is wrong with you dear? Earlier you used to be so garrulous…..everyday you would have some stories to tell me. And now….when we meet after three years, you have nothing to talk to. I saw in your laptop…..your most played songs have changed from linkin park to coldplay. You now put quotes as your desktop background whereas earlier it was always some cartoon character. You have become reticent….or atleast….this is how I perceive you now. I just wish you get back to how you used to be. Bye”

Then she whizzed off leaving me in a swamp of confusion. I was astounded because she hadn’t changed a bit. She was still the same candid girl who didn’t like to hold back anything while I, as she described, have changed from linkin park to coldplay. The worst part was that, I couldn’t figure out the exact transition time, maybe it was around the time when I turned eighteen. Maybe, that’s why they have set eighteen as the age of becoming an adult, because it is around this age that we lose all our childlike perspective. We start assuming a lot, judging a lot and do little thinking. And then I realized, that’s the root of all my problems. I have stopped being a child. I have stopped seeing the galaxy in the foam of coffee, maybe that’s why the hot coffee burns my lips. I have stopped setting out paper-boats in water filled drains, maybe that’s why the rain has started irking me. I have stopped finding these little pleasures in life, maybe that’s why the life is not interesting anymore. I just wish….. I could become that child again and never grow up.