When I was studying in Bangalore
and lots of my closest friends were working, I had come to realize the
importance of the 2:00 am friends. In the dark nights when only students who
had assignments to submit were awake, I used to call up friends who always
stood by me. And those were the times the legend of the 2:00 am friends grew.
Every single one of them has stood by me through thick and thin and there was
always someone to reach out to. The sanctity of the 2:00 am timeslot varied
however as people dispersed across the world. But the point was at 2:00 am
there was always a friend when you needed one.
Slowly most of us settled down
from our bohemian bachelorhood and things started to change. You would think
twice about calling someone from deep slumber not because you would hate
disturbing them (Oh No! You had the rights still to do so) but because of
concern for the unsuspecting spouse. And the 2:00 am calls became rarer and
rarer.
A BFF became a dad in Kolkata,
another started schooling again with his daughter in Bangalore, a friend
started taking baby steps towards getting the Noble Prize, quite a few, almost
everyone, refused to name their daughters and sons and nephews and nieces after
me even after much plodding and convincing them of the beauty and unisexuality
of my name. In essence we all were growing up and climbing the so called ladder
in our day to day work.
Then one sudden rainy afternoon in
July, after a particularly bad morning at work, the phone would not stop
ringing. That afternoon, friends from around the world wanted to discuss
something or the other, inane and important. And while struggling to keep a
straight face and be focussed on work, and thinking twice over before picking
up a call, I just realized the paradigm shift that had happened.
We no longer need to just be a
2:00 am friend. We all probably are in deep slumber after work. The true test
of friendship today is in being a 4:00 pm friend.
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