The Creaking Chair - Part X

08^th June 1999

The other day I was speaking to Aman on telephone 

and we ended up talking about how we came to be friends, 

Not in the obvious sense, both of us were in the same batch in my graduation 

but more like when did we actually start talking,

what were our first words; non-verbal cues to each other that our frequencies match as Sahil would say in his generation

and not for the fault of our fading memories 

but neither of us could genuinely remember that moment of first encounter

Its quite ridiculous how easy it is to portray in a biography, a musical or a documentary 

‘We met for the first time in a sports bar while playing pool’ , or 

‘The first time we met was when Calen introduced us in one of her parties and we hit it off right away’

Realities always work differently, and hence the allure & charm of fiction I guess 

I repeated the experiment with Steffi and Manu and guess what?

We drew up a blank again !

By now I was quite determined to find out what had really happened,

I headed for my attic again, pulling out all my journals from Graduation days 

Alas ! no mention of that fateful day for either of them there too 

This comes as a rude shock to me though, 

a man who has always prided himself with capturing every significant detail of my life in these journals 

If that author friend of Kamal every decides to write my memoirs, 

She should just go through these journals, or maybe a movie would be more entertaining

I still decided to revisit the memory lane of some of the most wonderful years of my life

and went ahead reading all those diary entries and slowly these names started to appear

first it was sporadic, where I was massaging my ego by judging Manu for his hairstyle 

The warmth of the relationship slowly crept in

when time routines became intermingled,

the routes to the market to pick up milk started having a pitstop to meet Aman 

and when conversations changed from college gossip to broken hearts and future dreams 

This makes me sure that my story should definitely be a book 

a movie can never do justice to this surreal pace of integrating into each other’s lives as family

It is the second day and I am in the attic again to read from where I left yesterday

I have not yet reached Archit’s mid night accident and the scare he gave us all! 

But it made me realize, I could never find that moment when we first spoke to each other 

In hindsight, it may have been the most relevant moment between us 

but in the grand scheme of life, it was an irrelevant speck

just like the Earth in the Cosmos, and yet a lifeline 

just like Old friends

P.S. – to read about the day Archit’s mid-night accident & his temporary memory loss, go to 19^th September 1952

P.P.S. – The only friend with whom I remember my first encounter is with Richard & our debate on the why I never learned the lyrics of Opera music and yet enjoyed it thoroughly

- Ashk

For the complete series, visit - http://www.ashksymphony.com/p/the-creaking-chair.html