Lost Friends

Friends: This word brings in such a meaning to the life and smile on the face. All it means is someone whom you like and enjoy spending time with, someone whom you have chosen to be with you. My life is full of friends specially because I give them so much of importance, at each stage whether it was school, college, work etc I was never short of friends and I made sure to keep in touch with each one of them who really means something to me. My friends who read this blog will surely appreciate the fact that I will go an extra mile to get back in touch with them. But I also have some of my friends from the early phase of my life about whom I don’t know anything, I haven't been in touch with them since years now and really don’t know where they are ....this article is for them, just to tell them I still remember them ... whether we will meet again or not I don’t know but the memories that I have will always remain.

Sunil

I was born in a small town of MHOW (Military Headquarter Of War), it was mostly the military training area but there was a civil area as well where people other than military personnel lived. My house in Mhow was a two storey building, biggest in that locality where most of the houses were less than 200 Sqfts. Being a small place I remember all the people who lived in that locality as each one of them knew the other person well. There was a movie theater just opposite to my house because of which there were few small shops that thrived. A tea stall, a snack shop, a pan shop, a juice shop, a pani puri stall etc could be seen and most of the times they were crowded. Between my house and the road there was a open space which was my play yard where I use to play with my friends, I was warned to be very careful and not go closer to the road. The open space was small and sometimes was occupied by parked vehicles, sometimes by animals likes cows and buffalos, or sometimes by a tent put by one of our neighbors to have a small party. Everyday morning you could hear loud music being played on those shops, you could see a lot of people standing and doing nothing there, daily commute buses passing by the road stopping to pick the passengers in the morning, a couple of trucks, drivers parked them to take a nap in the night. Sometimes those trucks were also parked because the drivers lived in that community and because they cannot take the big trucks in the small numerous lanes approaching their house they would prefer parking the truck on the main road itself. One of those drivers Sunil use to visit Mhow and his family once in every 15 days, he would park his truck in front of our house and will surely meet me in each of his visits. I was about 5 yrs old at that time and remember Sunil as one of my earliest friend, he would be about 20-25 yrs old at that time. He would pick me and take me near the pan shop or near the cows or sometimes in his truck which I really loved at that age. I never saw his house or his family but do remember his face, and I know he liked me and so he made sure to visit me every time he is in Mhow. I was always curious to find where does he go in his truck for so many days, because for me work means going in morning and coming back in evening, that's what my father use to do ... then why would sunil go out for so many days. Whenever I asked him where did he go, he always said he went far in the truck to work. I still remember him when I remember my stay at Mhow and think he might have gone somewhere far in his truck and might come back to see me again sometime, somewhere.

Vishaal

I started going to school and I remember everyone at school use to like me, my teachers specially use to meet my mom and talk about me. It was fun at school I was average at studies and enjoyed other activities in the school. Started making friends there but never actually understood how important friendship is, as I was very young to understand that. There was a boy in our class Vishaal, he was an interesting person, he was very creative and use to talk a lot. At that time I was in 4th Grade and Vishaal use to frame real good stories in his mind and narrate them in the class. Whenever we had free periods he will come over and will tell a lot of stories, and those all were like instant stories. He was very famous in the class and everyone liked his stories, he can narrate mythological stories, stories about kings and queens or some small time jokes but overall everything was very entertaining. It was about 3-5 days that Vishaal did not come to the school and on inquiring teacher found that he passed away in a truck accident. A truck got over his head and killed him on the spot. This was the first time I was hearing any such case, I was too young to digest it, friends use to narrate this incident which always seemed to me like another interesting story from Vishaal, but this time it was unfortunately about himself. Although he was not a very close friend of mine but I do remember him for his interesting stories and feel bad about his sudden death in that small age.

Rajneesh

After we moved to Indore when I was about 14 yrs old, I came in touch with RSS and started going to Shakhas where I met several friends and use to travel all over Indore city on my bike (cycle). The most important benefit of RSS was getting in touch with so many people and making so many friends, I was so involved that I hardly took care of my studies and that was the reason I got a lot of scolding from parents. Rajneesh was 2 yrs younger to me and lived very close to my house, we both use to go to Shakha together. He was a very innocent, a very straight forward and intelligent boy, he use to get good marks in his exams. He also had a very good voice and use to sing very well. His father worked in telephone exchange, mother was housewife and sister was a medical student. I have visited his home umpteen times and his family knew me very well. One day I got a big surprise, one of our common friends came to my place and informed me Rajneesh is no more, he passed away last night as he had very high fever. I cant really believe what he said how can someone die of fever. I quickly went to his house where I saw a lot of vehicles parked and lot of people around his house, which made it clear but still it was hard to believe. He got high fever last night which reached 104-106F and he passed away in the hospital, I was not able to sleep that night it was just 2 days back when I met him and he was completely all right. Next day I went to his funeral, I was not sure what to do or say there, this was the first time I was going to someone’s funeral and I could see the sad eyes of his father. I thought to talk to his father but then what would I talk, what would I say ... whenever I spoke to him earlier it was about Rajneesh. After few days I came to know his family left Indore and moved to some other city, I was unable to meet his family after this incident as I did not have courage to face them or talk to them.

Kamlesh

I was still with RSS and most of the time I was apposed by my parents to give too much time in Shakhas as it was affecting my studies. This was a common problem with everyone in my age, parents will usually appose thier children to go to Shakha as that will eat away the time that we can put in our studies. But still we fought, we got scolding and it continued so on. There were certain cases where the apposition from parents was so stong that kids will give up and will leave shakha, but in certain cases slightly elder kids will also leave their parents and join RSS permanently. I came across Kamlesh who left his family in Sagar and ran away to Indore, just because his parents did not allow him to go to Shakhas. Kamlesh was about 16 yrs at that time and ran from his home in Sagar and came to Indore, he was from a middle class family. When he came to Indore he knew no one here and was trying to find a shakha where he could go, that where he came in touch with me. Since he left his home now, he had to do something for living so he started working at a truck repair shop in transport nagar where he use to get his lunch and dinner daily and some money. When I met him, I found his work very tough, he was very young for that kind of work. I felt bad for him and blamed his parents for not allowing him to go to Shakha (off course I was biased at that time). He tried coming to our shakha for few days but then because of tedious work he was unable to do that, we use to talk to him regularly and tried convincing him to go back to his home, he had no future working on truck repair shop. After a month or so he got convinced and started thinking of returning back, he wrote a letter to his parents and they were really happy to know his whereabouts. After few days when I went to his repair shop to meet him, I was told his father came and took him back to his home. I felt good and bad, good that he is back to his family and bad because he is gone now ... I had no contact details for him and I knew I won’t ever be able to meet with him again.