Nothing can be as exhilarating as talking endlessly to a long time friend, getting started with nothing distinct to talk about and then catching up on anything and everything in the universe. What starts with a casual "Hi! What's up?", ends in sharing fascinating details about each other's life, work, goings on and finally indulging in some peppy talks about common friends. All this on the phone with someone staying thousands of miles away from you, someone you have not met in decades, someone who lives an entirely different life today, yet you had once been good friends. Long ago you shared a turf, school or university and then dispersed. You connect after decades, and the affiliation comes to be revived even without meeting each other in person. What now reestablishes is a hearty bond built with someone living an entire continent apart. It is fascinating to realise how a certain bonhomie comes to be struck between friends who just see each other in pictures, but as their hearts speak, all that they hear is the click of buttons on their keypads. The printed exchange that follows, fills them with a pleasure they have not known in years. The varied smileys punched at intervals, speak emotions. Thanks to the Internet and social networking, precisely. A long lost friend is stumbled upon. Which other discovery can be more heart warming!
This morning as I prepared myself to begin a typical day, I was alerted by the buzz of my cell phone. I made off to pick the call, and was delighted upon hearing the voice of a friend who would drive me to peals of laughter, in the years when life knew little responsibilities. It was a time when college life meant friends, frolic, fun and pure joy. An everyday delight of meeting friends and sharing a part of life that ultimately had to bifurcate to be an entirely different one for each of us. We diverged as college students then and many years later converged as wives and mothers, on a popular social networking site. This morning on the phone as we started off with a basic exchange of pleasantries, we got talking about the pressures in our present lives, our families and so on. She and I live separated by geographical boundaries. A crisp, sunny morning for me but midnight for her. A huge distance between us and yet we felt the proximity. We did get a definite kick out of the near couple of hours chat and I'm sure it left us both feeling buzzed.
We talked about ourselves, our lives, our families, our ageing parents and the state of affairs in our respective nations. Even though, the Internet connects us digitally, we call up each other once in a while, and each new conversation between us brings about a new delight. Oh, it is so much fun talking about the way we see the world! The funny thing is that we seem to share our perspective on life and times. Our lives at two different places are lived in similar ways, and we have similar concerns and similar vision. With so much in common, we often get talking about some of the common friends we have. In fact, that is the mutual ground that we share in real terms, even today. It is interesting that we have not met in the last two decades, yet we do talk at length about this one and that. We talk about how some of our friends appear when they update their status on social media sites and how every printed word of theirs reflects their personality, how people appear when they go overboard in expressing themselves, how ubiquitous some of them are, and how some turn a tad bit unsavoury. We talk about people bitten by the narcissism bug and how we manage to keep ourselves somewhat away from all that clutter. All this and much more....we go about updating each other on the 'interesting' lives of some mutual friends and so on. We often do admit to indulging in some gossip, and agree upon not quoting each other at any time, for certain back-fence-talks ought to be kept under wraps. Believe me, but once we openly confess to babbling, we realize the fun that lies therein; not the fun in talking about the lives of those that do not concern us, but the playfulness in getting so close in such a farness that we have between us. Priceless! And this morning as we gossiped, now and then we checked to see if we were holding each other from going ahead with the day's schedule. She said she did not have to go to work the next morning, so we could continue chattering for some more time. I, meanwhile rejected several calls on my other phone line. I knew all that could wait, while we went on rambling for over an hour. She told me how exhausted she usually felt going about with her tight schedule, and how much burning up long distance wires perked her up. My feelings were no different. We exchanged notes about our shared, common past and distinct, unshared present. It all seemed a never ending barter of verbal jottings.
Before long, it was well past midnight for her and she felt the tug of bedtime. I needed to head out as well but the chitchat by then had recreated, revived and stimulated us. We agreed upon catching up again, yet, in our hearts we both knew that wouldn't happen really soon. We're totally caught up in our own lives, so much so, that telephonic exchanges for no specific reason can certainly wait for a more convenient hour. Still, when ever that happens, I'm sure it will inspirit us again.
The confab, however, leads us to believe that sometimes we need to put the ordinary pleasures of life over and above the pertinent. It may appear vain, absurd, crazy and useless, yet being silly and featherbrained for a while with a close friend surely warms the cockles of one's heart. The child in us comes alive and intercepts with the impending wane. Life instantly waxes out, and then getting along becomes so much fun! Even as, I cherish these fond moments, I certainly look forward to more!
(I dedicate this write-up to an old pal who, I have not met with in years.With her impromptu call, this morning, she added a frill to an otherwise cliched day.)
This morning as I prepared myself to begin a typical day, I was alerted by the buzz of my cell phone. I made off to pick the call, and was delighted upon hearing the voice of a friend who would drive me to peals of laughter, in the years when life knew little responsibilities. It was a time when college life meant friends, frolic, fun and pure joy. An everyday delight of meeting friends and sharing a part of life that ultimately had to bifurcate to be an entirely different one for each of us. We diverged as college students then and many years later converged as wives and mothers, on a popular social networking site. This morning on the phone as we started off with a basic exchange of pleasantries, we got talking about the pressures in our present lives, our families and so on. She and I live separated by geographical boundaries. A crisp, sunny morning for me but midnight for her. A huge distance between us and yet we felt the proximity. We did get a definite kick out of the near couple of hours chat and I'm sure it left us both feeling buzzed.
We talked about ourselves, our lives, our families, our ageing parents and the state of affairs in our respective nations. Even though, the Internet connects us digitally, we call up each other once in a while, and each new conversation between us brings about a new delight. Oh, it is so much fun talking about the way we see the world! The funny thing is that we seem to share our perspective on life and times. Our lives at two different places are lived in similar ways, and we have similar concerns and similar vision. With so much in common, we often get talking about some of the common friends we have. In fact, that is the mutual ground that we share in real terms, even today. It is interesting that we have not met in the last two decades, yet we do talk at length about this one and that. We talk about how some of our friends appear when they update their status on social media sites and how every printed word of theirs reflects their personality, how people appear when they go overboard in expressing themselves, how ubiquitous some of them are, and how some turn a tad bit unsavoury. We talk about people bitten by the narcissism bug and how we manage to keep ourselves somewhat away from all that clutter. All this and much more....we go about updating each other on the 'interesting' lives of some mutual friends and so on. We often do admit to indulging in some gossip, and agree upon not quoting each other at any time, for certain back-fence-talks ought to be kept under wraps. Believe me, but once we openly confess to babbling, we realize the fun that lies therein; not the fun in talking about the lives of those that do not concern us, but the playfulness in getting so close in such a farness that we have between us. Priceless! And this morning as we gossiped, now and then we checked to see if we were holding each other from going ahead with the day's schedule. She said she did not have to go to work the next morning, so we could continue chattering for some more time. I, meanwhile rejected several calls on my other phone line. I knew all that could wait, while we went on rambling for over an hour. She told me how exhausted she usually felt going about with her tight schedule, and how much burning up long distance wires perked her up. My feelings were no different. We exchanged notes about our shared, common past and distinct, unshared present. It all seemed a never ending barter of verbal jottings.
Before long, it was well past midnight for her and she felt the tug of bedtime. I needed to head out as well but the chitchat by then had recreated, revived and stimulated us. We agreed upon catching up again, yet, in our hearts we both knew that wouldn't happen really soon. We're totally caught up in our own lives, so much so, that telephonic exchanges for no specific reason can certainly wait for a more convenient hour. Still, when ever that happens, I'm sure it will inspirit us again.
The confab, however, leads us to believe that sometimes we need to put the ordinary pleasures of life over and above the pertinent. It may appear vain, absurd, crazy and useless, yet being silly and featherbrained for a while with a close friend surely warms the cockles of one's heart. The child in us comes alive and intercepts with the impending wane. Life instantly waxes out, and then getting along becomes so much fun! Even as, I cherish these fond moments, I certainly look forward to more!
(I dedicate this write-up to an old pal who, I have not met with in years.With her impromptu call, this morning, she added a frill to an otherwise cliched day.)
Thank you for putting your thoughts so candidly and so b'fully in words...touching....loved reading and re-reading the anecdote...thanks again for dedicating the blog :)
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