Friendship Day

Before the age old debate starts about keeping aside a specific day for any emotion or relationship, I would like to make my stand clear. I do not mind it. What I mind is that when such a specific day comes the chords in the heart start playing the old forgotten numbers, once patched wounds let out the pain stored hidden in them and Airtel begins to send you irritating messages to download yet another ring tone.

And yet, somehow that got me thinking. Almost 10 years ago, a little girl called me up to stop by her house after school so that she could give me her self made Friendship Band. One of the very few to wear such a thing to school, I was in for a surprise next year. Suddenly everyone in school seemed to be talking about it. And my little girl kept on making the bands for me till I left for Pilani.

We were growing up. On our way back from school, we put on our smug, little chauvinistic faces and discussed the demerits of an Archies outlet near a Girl's School. And I'm sure every single one of that gang of ours secretly wished the other would get the 'Guy' Bands made for ourselves.

In Pilani, it used to come just after the new session started and it seemed to be fading away in importance. But I was proven wrong from my second year onwards. People made preparations for it during the summer holidays itself. A dinner at C'not was the minimum one could ask for.

At IIMB, we were reminded of it by the cards sent from Old Friends. In your first year, you hardly knew anyone and by the time you got to know people, it was time to leave.

And today, all alone in a hotel, engulfed in silence broken only by the Rabindrasangeet on my laptop, and the occasional shout of a drunken reveler in the roads, it seems that time travel is a necessity in such times.

Two songs come to mind, the first one is for all those who I want to grow old with, who I want to meet for the last time if suddenly I know the world is coming to an end tomorrow.

Old Friends - Simon and Garfunkel


Old friends,
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends.
A newspaper blown though the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends.

Old friends,
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sunset.
The sounds of the city,
Sifting through trees,
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends.

Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears

The Second one is for the wish that I could have made up for all that happened. I wish we could have one more chance.

Friends Never Say Goodbye - Elton John

There isn't much I haven't shared
With you along the road
And through it all there'd always be
Tomorrow's episode
Suddenly that isn't true
There's another avenue
Beckoning the great divide
Ask no questions, take no side
Who's to say who's right or wrong
Whose course is braver run
Still we are, have always been
Will ever be as one

What is done has been done for the best
Though the mist in my eyes might suggest
Just a little confusion about what I'll lose
But if I started over I know I would choose
The same joy the same sadness each step of the way
That fought me and tought me that friends never say
Never say goodbye
Never say goodbye
Never say goodbye
Never say goodbye

Suddenly that isn't true
There's another avenue
Beckoning, the great divide
I would choose
The same joy the same sadness each step of the way
That fought me and taught me that friends never say
Never say goodbye
Never say goodbye
Never say goodbye
Never say goodbye

To Friends, old and new and not yet met...