Couple of weeks back after a heavy workout in gym i was heading towards my bike when i saw something unusual about my bike, its seat bore a deep cut just similar to the holy cross. Aww it must be the work of one of those out-of-the-blue freakazoids who only eat protein supplements as their breakfast, but i don't blame them completely, a research in San Jose has proved that excess protein intake has some side effects and might affect working of your brain, this act was an acknowledgement for the same. Though the cut was not large big but still as i have always liked things to be perfect I decided to buy a new seat cover on the very next day.
Next day i went out in search of a shop from where i could get the job done, after around one hour i was finally able to spot a shop, it was a hot day as usual, the shop owner told me that i will have to wait for a while, i walked towards a nearby tree and waited there under its shadow. I must say than on a hot sunny day if one chooses to wait under the shadow of a freakishly large tree time seems to have paused and for a moment you think why people keep on moving like this? Why don’t they stop for a while and experience how is it like to wait under a tree. Soon a black car stopped near the shop, a girl in her early twenties stepped out form the driver’s seat and walked towards the shop. Dressed in white polka-red dotted frock along with red sandals and a red purse she was looking beautiful, the only thing missing was a magical wand in her hand and yes a banner in front of the shop saying “Ganesh automobiles presents Annual fancy dress competition” would have been like icing on the cake...lol. i mean its fine to look beautiful and dress well but does it make any sense that you have to be dressed like a fairy to visit a mechanic? Anyway as she walked across me she looked at me for one tenth of a second and walked straight to the mechanic and told him that her car has been troubling her since a week and then typical girlish talks followed “please bhiaya dekh lo, mai specially aapke pas ayi hun peechli bar b aapse hi theek karwai thi”...then as she accompanied the guy towards her car she again looked at me and this time the look was accompanied with a smile and it lasted a bit longer than the previous one. Woah woah woah! what was that?? Hey i am not talking about that second look with a smile, after all its not the first time that a girl passed me a smile and it’s also not like that everyday i get so many second looks and smiles that i’ve got used to it, no no its about something else. Actually this time i got a better view of her face and the first thing that got stuck in my mind was her eyes. Those big dark brown eyes had something familiar in them. I knew those eyes but how? Suddenly a face peeked out of the car’s window and shouted “beta come fast, gudia needs u she is crying”. I suddenly recognised that face, that face had grown little older and wrinkles had also appeared, the face had changed but not so much, i at once recognised her. Now everything was clear and i had solved the mystery behind those big dark brown eyes of hers. The woman sitting in the car was that girl’s mother and that girl was none other than a childhood friend of mine. I used to call her gudia.
It was some 15years back i remember, a new admission in my class smart, intelligent girl with an accent that can leave anyone spellbound. That day just when my school bus dropped me home and it moved little further it stopped, as i was the only student to get off the bus in that area so i looked back at the bus, the new girl in my class also stepped down from the bus. She along with her family had just moved to a house just couple of houses away from ours. Slowly as the time passed we became friends, we along with other friends used to play together, sometimes study together i still remember we were around 6-7 guys of same age all living nearby. That girl whom i called gudia had a Labrador in home, that Labrador was the first and perhaps the last dog till now with whom i had played. Her mom was an English teacher in a different school and i remember how sometimes she would arrange a surprise grammar test for everyone of us, there was no escaping from those tests and everyone knew once that test got over a post test analysis would follow, most of the times i would have topped the test and gudia had flunked. Then followed a strict scolding and for next two or three days none of us could have dared ask gudia to play with us. But slowly and slowly as time progressed how that group of 6-7 guys got apart, how we made other friends and how we choose a different path of ourselves none of us ever realised. Within a year i guess her family got shifted to some other place she shifted the school and within a month’s time i had forgotten her completly. I know it sounds strange but not to me because the only reason we 6-7 guys were together for sometime was that we belonged to same age group and perhaps each one of us had a different friend circle which we were more close to.
Out from the flashback standing under that freakish tree watching a 15year old friend is a feeling that words can’t describe. Watching her going towards the car she asked her mom handover gudia to me, she lifted a baby from her mom’s lap and said “aaja mumma pass aaja”..wow time simply flies away! The girl whom i used to call gudia today had a gudia of her own. I just started walking towards her but soon i stopped. “What was i doing?” a thought came “what will i say to her? Will she even remember me?” i actually wanted to go to her and ask a bunch of questions i had prepared just now
“do u remember me?” or
“how on earth can you get married and have a baby too just at an age of 21?” or maybe
“where do u live, what do u do for a living?” and yes
“what happened to that Labrador of yours?”
But then i thought none of my questions would actually make any sense, forget it dude what an embarrassment would it be if she simply refused to recognise you after all its been 15years and though i don’t eat any protein supplements for body growth but supplements of time have helped me grow and change on my own. The short story of two little kids who once became friends had ended 15yrs ago only its just that i realised it today that there was ever a short story. I could have just walked to aunty and asked about her wellbeing, i am sure she would definitely remember me but then i choose not to. My bike was done till now and i was all set to move from the place. With a kick i zoomed out from the place and there was no looking back. Then whole day i kept thinking about gudia, her mom, my group of friends whom i had completely forgotten, how busy i had been all the time with myself and world around me, so much busy that i had completely forgotten a small chapter of my life and i wonder how many other such chapters are there that came and left and i never realised. Its true that time simply flies away but with this passage of time some chapters get hidden in the darkest chamber of your memory and its only until u have such encounters that make u realise what you have missed and left behind in this journey called LIFE!!
