Amaravaagu... ninna nenapinante....
Late in the night in my friend's campsite my daughter was still awake. We were lying on the floor outside our tent looking at the clear sky, I tried to talk to my daughter about some basic astronomy like pole star, how to identify the constellations like ursa major, stars etc.
That is when I remembered the below lines a friend had written to me.
Iruva kelavu varshagalannu - o geleya
chokkagi kaledu hogu
iddaga hoovinante ghamaghamisu
illadaga adara savi nenapu uliyali
holeva nakshatragalalli intha yeshtu savi nenapugalu nelasilla ?
aa nenapugalalli ninnadu ondirali
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If the above is not a chaste note of friendship, I don't know what can be... Even if I was asked to write a note wishing happiness or good things to a close friend, doubt if I could have come up with something so simple, yet so meaningful. We all want the good things for our friends dont we? Wouldn't we also want our friends to be good and remembered eternally for what they are.
Coming to think of it I felt that was what I liked about her. Her communication was simple yet suave, short but effective. She was of course a person of few words.
I had asked her on who had written the poem, pestered her for a couple of days to find it out for me. All she kept saying was that she didn't remember who the author was, but only that it was wonderful. Now in retrospect I think it must have been her own words.
I guess the first time I saw her in office was when she came by and said hello madam to a dear friend of mine in the cafeteria. Both my friend and me were surprised, we looked at this young fresh recruit from campus. There was this pretty young girl, with a cute round face in a pink churidar who gave us a half hearted smile and wanted to get some doubts clarified.
Those days we were not much in awe of the folks undergoing training as we were forced to take them under our wings after the training is complete. The struggle to get them out of the college mood and get work out of them was a thankless job and we were on a cycle of training folks every other quarter and ensure they contribute in the project's success.
After a chat with her, my friend who worked in the Quality wing went on to explain how she was handling some sessions to the new hires and it resembled taking a lecture in a college. It was a drain of her energies. I could surely understand her concerns and said yeah finally its work and we need to address it.
I used to spot the new girl once in a while in a group. A lot of my friends used to think of her as the most beautiful in that batch of fresh recruits. Time passed and a while later I heard she got married and that quite a few folks in my company were heart broken when she handed them the invitation. I remember someone telling me that the good girls are always taken early. Almost eighteen months after she had joined our firm is when she joined our group of friends.
Slowly after a while she started hanging out with us for lunch and coffee breaks. As we started conversing, we realised we had a lot in common and prominent amongst those was the love for poetry.
She would talk about some poem and in those days my ego would make me try and ensure that I write something better than what I heard. I would leave no stone unturned to create something better. I guess I miss that passion to strive, yearning and belief in myself to outdo anything these days.
She would talk about something and that would motivate me to write something else. It was always an invigorating thought, her poem would make me think, make we want to respond and ideate on how I can create something similar or better and I would concentrate on my response to it.
Those days I used to write a lot of poems on love and longing and she would always notice if there is something sad and prod me to write something happier, something to cherish, something lyrical and something to feel positive about
This went on for sometime, we would chat on everything under the sun and spend time over coffee and sometimes continue it over texts on the phone. Strange are the ways of friendship, we have no control on how things turn out, how someone who was a stranger might turn out to be someone we feel is the reason for a smile.
Then like all good things, it had to end. I decided to quit and move on from the firm and she decided to move to the US with her husband. Our lives got busy and in all the hustle bustle we forgot about things we cherished.
But like all good friendships I know distance and time are not a factor. If we get to meet in person sometime in future, it will be like old times. A lot of years might have passed, a lot of things might have changed but when it comes to friendship it shall remain as it was
Just before she left for the US she handed me a hand written poem. The message on the neatly folded piece of paper was for me.
Translated in english it means
My friend - in the years that is left....
spend it wisely ....
spread perfume like a flower....
so that it remains as a memory when you are gone....
how many such fine memories aren't present in the stars sparkling in the night
let you also be one such memory.....
Such wise advice and clarity of thought is something I lack. Below is the poem she shared with me, I guess this is something I want to leave as a legacy to my daughter. I want her to be immortal in a way the poem advises.
Sometimes I pray but for these friendships and people journey of life would be incomplete....
PS : Below is the poem which is eternally in my mind just like her memories...
