Arun carefully rushed inside the building, struggling to hold his umbrella. The wind along with the rain made things a bit difficult.
Arun stood outside the reception area of the building, out of the reach of the rain, closing his umbrella and giving it a firm shake to let go of all the excess water. Arun’s eyes fell on one other person who seemed to be in a similar condition.
The other person noticed Arun’s gaze and looked at him and said, “The rain is not sparing anyone today.”
“It’s the cyclone passing towards the west of the country. I honestly did not think it would make that much of a difference here in north,” said Arun
The other man paused for a second and then answered, “so, how are you?”
Arun was a little surprised by the question, ‘Could this person be a salesman?’
The other man smiled, “didn’t recognise me, did you?”
Arun thought hard, looking at the round, lightly bearded face of the man, the receding hairline, the eyes trying to hide a certain kind of pain behind the spectacles.
“I am sorry,” said Arun, unable recall
“It’s all right,” smiled the man, “I.. I am Ranjit”
Arun knew the name, and he dug into his mind holding the thread that the name had released and he found a boy in specs and along with the boy he found himself.
“You are Mr Sinha’s son. Sorry I couldn’t recall. How are you? How is everyone at home?” asked Arun as he walked closer to Ranjit
When the apartments opened for the residents to shift in, Arun and Ranjit’s families were amongst the first to shift here. They were eight years old. While Arun missed his friends from the previous neighbourhood, he found a new friend in Ranjit. For a while at least.
As more families arrived, more children came as well. Arun due to his outgoing nature was able to make more friends while Ranjit due to being shy and lacking confidence, slowly backed down, often watching the children play from a place where he was hidden. Slowly Ranjit just became a child who lived there but was nowhere to be seen.
“Father expired a month back,” said Ranjit, “I came to pick up a few things here.”
“I am sorry, what happened?” asked Arun
“Lung cancer,” replied Ranjit
“Oh,” said Arun, thinking of something better to say, “you could have called…”
Ranjit moved out of the society with his parents, when he found a job on the other side of the city. They kept their apartment, once in a while they did return, but Ranjit’s presence went largely unnoticed by the people living there.
“Called?” said Ranjit, the voice almost breaking, “do you even remember when we last talked”
Arun had forgotten Ranjit and he felt a sadness when he thought about it, “Ranjit listen..”
“I always felt that I was alone,” said Ranjit, “you were the only friend I ever had. You might have forgotten but for me it seems like only yesterday when I met you here”
It was true, amidst everything, Arun didn’t pay any attention to the fading friendship with his first friend here and he had clearly not thought that it would lead to this. Knowingly or unknowingly, our actions can create ripples of emotions which can travel far and wide to an end completely unseen.
Arun handed his phone unlocked to Ranjit and said, “Write your number there and give a missed call and then let’s go around in my car, I will show you all that has changed.”
Ranjit held the phone in his hand and looked at Arun, emotions welling up in his eyes.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “Once a friend”
Heartfelt story.
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