Recently a close friend of mine got married. We were roommates for 4 years while we were doing our engineering and were staying in a hostel. I and Jiten (another roommate) travelled almost 500 kilometers, taking a whole week off from work, to attend his wedding. Three other friends could not make it as they were not in the country.
As our train pulled out from Mumbai station towards the wedding destination, it set in motion a series of thoughts about true friendship, OUR friendship ... somewhere, in a compartment of my mind. Life is filled with so many people we meet and greet each and every day. Some of these go on to become our friends... hi-hello friends, casual friends, fair weather friends and so on and so forth. But only a few graduate to a higher level... whom we can call our true friends. Those with whom you can share any of your feelings and can never have enough of their company. Staring out of the window, I thought everyone has them. Just like me.
We were six of us, Room-mates during our engineering days. How and when we became friends... we never realized. I still remember those days when we would kill time chatting even during exam days or how we would play cards all night when the next day we would be having our vivas, how we once spent a whole night in a forest to prepare for an exam scheduled for the next day, how we would stay awake in the name of exam just to eat hot Vada Pav at midnight in canteen or the fun we used to have in our regular jungle excursions!
Perhaps these things brought us closer. We were in the company of each other all the time. Our day started with each other and ended with each other, no one could pretend to be someone that they were not. We observed how each other dealt in various situations, under different circumstances and this in turn helped us understand each other better. Perhaps, this is how it was always destined to be. Whatever the reason, we all had that spark that helped us glue. And thus, a strong friendship was forged while staying with each other in the hostel.
Exams went by, months turned into years and we had to finally part ways. As luck would have it, much to our disappointment, we landed in six different cities, spread across 4 different countries. In the beginning, we spoke frequently but even that, gradually reduced to a trickle with the passage of time. E-mails became rare and phone calls were almost redundant. The fact that none of us were too active on facebook (well three of us still do not have accounts) did not help matters either.
Occasionally, we would plan weeks in advance to have a conference call at times suitable to everyone! I remember how excited we would be when at last, all the six of us succeeded in joining in, in the conversation! It felt like we were all in college again. Time would come to a stand-still that day. The old lingo permeated into our world so very easily. We would talk for almost an hour, sometimes listening carefully to a single friend about his experiences, sometimes all six of us chattering away to get the upper hand, sometimes pulling someone’s leg reminding him about some incident at college, sometimes having multiple talks within a phone call (six talking at a single time but having two on two talks! Sounds confusing, I know but we did that too), sometimes everyone went silent for a couple of seconds though just quietly reminiscing the old days!!! We finally, one by one, bid good bye and the moment I disconnected, I could feel a vacuum in my life.
We were six of us, Room-mates during our engineering days. How and when we became friends... we never realized. I still remember those days when we would kill time chatting even during exam days or how we would play cards all night when the next day we would be having our vivas, how we once spent a whole night in a forest to prepare for an exam scheduled for the next day, how we would stay awake in the name of exam just to eat hot Vada Pav at midnight in canteen or the fun we used to have in our regular jungle excursions!
Perhaps these things brought us closer. We were in the company of each other all the time. Our day started with each other and ended with each other, no one could pretend to be someone that they were not. We observed how each other dealt in various situations, under different circumstances and this in turn helped us understand each other better. Perhaps, this is how it was always destined to be. Whatever the reason, we all had that spark that helped us glue. And thus, a strong friendship was forged while staying with each other in the hostel.
Exams went by, months turned into years and we had to finally part ways. As luck would have it, much to our disappointment, we landed in six different cities, spread across 4 different countries. In the beginning, we spoke frequently but even that, gradually reduced to a trickle with the passage of time. E-mails became rare and phone calls were almost redundant. The fact that none of us were too active on facebook (well three of us still do not have accounts) did not help matters either.
Occasionally, we would plan weeks in advance to have a conference call at times suitable to everyone! I remember how excited we would be when at last, all the six of us succeeded in joining in, in the conversation! It felt like we were all in college again. Time would come to a stand-still that day. The old lingo permeated into our world so very easily. We would talk for almost an hour, sometimes listening carefully to a single friend about his experiences, sometimes all six of us chattering away to get the upper hand, sometimes pulling someone’s leg reminding him about some incident at college, sometimes having multiple talks within a phone call (six talking at a single time but having two on two talks! Sounds confusing, I know but we did that too), sometimes everyone went silent for a couple of seconds though just quietly reminiscing the old days!!! We finally, one by one, bid good bye and the moment I disconnected, I could feel a vacuum in my life.
But scheduling the conference call was hectic and we were all too lazy to try skype. It was fun to attend the wedding and to have a mini re-union. The moment I met my old pals, we started chatting from the point where we had left in college even though all of us today were so many years older, both in age and in experience. But at heart, we were still the same.
That’s where WeChat got me excited once again. Separation was inevitable but this time, I had done my homework. So when I suggested WeChat to all my friends, a new mobile communication tool which supports sending voice, video, photo and text messages and is absolutely free to download and easy to install; they all had reason to get excited as well! It lets us chat in a group and help us share photos within our group!
That’s where WeChat got me excited once again. Separation was inevitable but this time, I had done my homework. So when I suggested WeChat to all my friends, a new mobile communication tool which supports sending voice, video, photo and text messages and is absolutely free to download and easy to install; they all had reason to get excited as well! It lets us chat in a group and help us share photos within our group!
When IndiBlogger came up with the same question - If there were 5 people or more who you could connect with in WeChat and why, I knew my answer. I would love to connect with five of my closest friends scattered all around the globe via WeChat so that we could relive our college days again!!
---------------- * ---------------- * ---------------- * ---------------- * ---------------- * --------------
To know more about this contest click here – We Chat with Anyone, Anywhere!
To vote for my entry on Indivine, please click here - http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=246048
Links to my other two WeChat contest posts:
Hello Happiness
A Chat with my inner brats
Links to my other two WeChat contest posts:
Hello Happiness
A Chat with my inner brats
3 comments:
Good to see you back on the contest circuit, friend. Brings nostalgic memories of last year.
The pain of separating from college friends and then the joy of meeting them back again after a few years. Ah, if I was the judge.. I would give you a prize just for evoking those priceless emotions in me. Thank you and all the best to you! :)
Now, I want to know more about your experiences in the jungle! Hope that you will describe them in detail one day. ;)
Post a Comment