Mitra - My Friend

I met a very old friend of mine yesterday. We were buddies in school days. Then I moved to Indore to finish my schooling while he stayed back in Khandwa. I chose to take the engineering route while he was determined to become a doctor. And a doctor is what he is today. A dentist to be precise. A smartly dressed doctor, that I had imagined him to be after the brief conversations that we had on and off in last 10 or so years. Things don't change much with some people. It was really nice to meet my old buddy.

I also happened to meet couple more old friends in Khandwa. They are what Khandwa was/is to me apart from a hundred of relatives and the millions of childhood memories.

I met another very old and close friend in Indore. If Indore is one of my dream cities, his friendship is a big reason behind it. I have spent some of the most memorable times in Indore in his company. Anything and everything, I can rely on him. And he has always proved that I made the right choice by doing that. Many a times I think, he is what I am not. And I aspire to be like him. I hope that I'll be able to do so some day.

And then there are so many other friends. From school days, college days, work days and the BSchool days - they are part of my formative years. I could keep in touch with many, but still many a links are broken. Even the likes of Facebook and Orkuts cannot help one if it's not in his inherent nature to be in touch with his past. My papa tells me stories from his school days as if they happened just the last weekend. He talks about his friends from school and college. He knows whereabouts of many of them even though they would not have met for years. His friend circle expands in all walks of life from being a big businessman to a bus conductor. It astonishes me how does he do it. There is no facebook or IM in most of his world. Mobile phone is a recent entry too. We still visit even the extended families of some of his friends when we are in their city and find it home. How does it happen that we, in spite of all the so-called favorable tools, cannot do what he has done and continues to do.

I am trying my best to learn from him. And from my friends. Some of them are really good at it. These are my biggest earning from my formative years. And I intend to cherish them all for my entire life.