It is amazing to meet up with old friends" ...and sometimes not so amazing. You wonder where the old magic has disappeared. Just a few years back, you couldn’t have done without them. Now that you meet after so many years, you cannot figure out what to do with them. I 'm talking about friends who had been there for you for long, who you spent hours on end chatting ceaselessly, who you could sit with in silence without feeling it, who you could call up at any unearthly hour, who you told the silliest of things to...until one fine day..you just had to part.The initial few months after college when everyone bids fond farewells with promises of being in touch forever, are full of phone calls, chats, emails at least once every alternate day. That reduces to once a week a couple of months later when the rising phone bills become the excuse. After that you start stuttering..'Aur sunao', 'Aur batao' ..Well when that happens, it is downhill all along. You just run out of conversation and hence run out of further motivation to continue to keep it going. It is, of course, you tell yourself because of being too busy with the new assignment, having no time, the phone calls being too expensive, the new boss being too demanding, the new girlfriend/boyfriend, its just too tiring to travel to meet up, you have appointments with clients for the next 2 years everyday...and then one fine day...boing... you suddenly bump into that friend and you are tongue tied. You just dunno where to start and what to say! Its fine to claim you are still 'there', but you no longer can call them up at 2 o clock with your silly fears. The only way I reckon, this can be avoided, is COMMUNICATION..of even the things you think are too silly to discuss now.
Distance makes the heart grow fonder, for sometime but gradually out of sight becomes out of mind. For all my friends out there, who feel betrayed or unhappy about 'losing' their friends to distance and time, Let Go. Life moves on. Everyone has to move on. Priorities change, people change, situations change, time does not stand still after all. But yes, one thing that cannot change is the past and all the memories that come with it. Life is indeed like a train in which new people board while some alight. It would certainly be wonderful to be together forever, but is it not wonderful to be able to at least carry the fond memories forward whilst experiencing life with new people?
