On a pleasant sunny day, when it seemed like everything good about life was flowing in the air, the bell for the lunchtime rang. Gitali and Manvi ran out together, holding their lunchboxes. They were in the same fifth grade but different sections. Lunchtime, games classes, activity classes and school events were some of the few times they got to spend together. Teachers and other students said they were inseparable.
Outside school they lived quite far from each other and it wasn’t until the college years that they met beyond the walls of the school.
Work life was different, both of them had different fields and their workplaces were far from each other, yet they kept in touch and met occasionally. The bond didn’t really feel like it was fading, but rather like maturing and growing into something that couldn’t be bothered by anything or could it be…
It was at Gitali’s elder sister Naisha’s marriage that Manvi realised that Gitali had another friend, who seemed just as close. Her name was Pragya. Manvi knew it was a normal thing even though she herself felt that she would not find the same friendship with anyone else that she found with Gitali.
They were from the same workplace, Gitali and Pragya. They spoke more to each other and laughed more at each other’s jokes. Manvi tried to speak words decorated with past nostalgia and memory, but they seemed to have toned down in the impact they would have had at one point of time.
Manvi felt it was completely unfair, how can someone just arrive and become so close or perhaps closer. How could all those long years fall short to years in few?
Manvi went home carrying a heaviness she didn’t think she would have to face. But the next day when both of them conversed through messages, Manvi felt that it still felt the same and in the end that is what mattered no matter where the life wandered.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 