Bye-bye time- Once More!

I have never been good at handling adieus. Though I can never get weepy and clingy, inside me, my little heart would be doing a washing-machine spin, counting days down, letting the distance sink in, and then, finally, letting time take its course.

My first bye-bye was to Gautham who went away to Germany to study machines (like he doesn’t know enough already!) So Gautham is my trekking-cum-lets-check-this-new-restaurant-out buddy. He was working in Chennai for a year, and for one year, even though he was staying only like 40 odd minutes away, I hang my head in shame and say that I never did make much time for him. Some differences cropped up between us, and he kept rushing away to Coimbatore every now and then..Well, now we have a time difference of 5 odd hours, and now all the time that I had and did not use of makes me feel bad. Some things feel right when you experience them with an equally enthusiastic friend. Be it jumping into the sea, or falling flat on your face in snow, or digging into steaks and other God-knows-what-they-call-it dishes in restaurants that we would pick off the internet, or shopping in malls or feasting on home cooked food or discussing opinions and playing word games...Some things such as these, I miss, my friend. Not because I do not have other people to take me to such places. But because you in the frame made such experiences extraordinary! 

My second bye-bye was to Gaurav- who made the simple act of coming to office seem such fun! Incessant chatter- witty chatter I should add, and never ending laughter- is how I would describe things when this bundle of energy was around. Somehow, big issues would seem trivial and lambasting from managers would be laughed off over fruit juices and more fruit juices. Or over conversations under neon lights in our favourite hangout in Chennai. Somehow, he always knew what I wanted to hear whenever I was down in the dumps, and somehow, we never ran out of conversation topics. Sarcasm became an effective antidote for all the stupidity around us and somehow ideas would flow- and flow- though neither of us were disciplined enough to convert them into anything actionable. Gaurav, I am writing your farewell words to me- back for you- word for word- you know why- To take so much, yet give so little. To be understood so much, yet understand so little. To be inspired so much, yet inspire so little. That is what you gave me, my friend. I wish one day that I can stand at the top of the world and shout to God that I am blessed with your kind. You, my friend, is what the world deserves, the universe craves, and I prize! :)

My third bye-bye will be to my first best friend at work, Sameer, who might move, God willing, in some time. My fight-friend, the one person with whom I am entitled to be a kid (read un-friend, yell, scream, smile through tears, become friends again, laugh in a very un-womanly fashion, poke my nose into all his corrupt activities :D , blackmail and demand things and still know that he will be around, no matter what). Somehow when Sameer left to Pune, I had no hope of the friendship even continuing beyond the basic formalities that any relationship demands. Somehow, it stood the test of distance. Somehow, he always HAS been around to give me senior advice, to listen to me crib, to watch me grow up, to cry with me when I was grieving and to laugh with me when I was blissfully happy :) Thanks for always being the kite runner :)

I do know that next year, this time, things might-might not be the same. I do know that all our priorities might change-ARE changing- as we breathe, as the seconds tick by. I do know that nothing is certain, only change. But I also do know that these memories will always be around, to stay.