So near, yet so far

Today I visited a neighbor of mine after a very long time. The last time I entered their house would be about an year back to borrow some books. And the house is just 3 houses far from mine. I realized that I’ve never even bothered to give it a glance the numerous times a day I pass that way. It wouldn’t have been such a shock to me if it had been so always. But no, there was a time when things were different; a time of which only memories remain. The long gone days which just disappeared from the charts just like that; without leaving traces; with no regrets.

15 years back

I was new to this locality. Bro would always complain as to how bad a place this was coz he had no friends and the neighbors were all kids. Neethu lived 3 houses apart. We got acquainted and due to our mutual need for company, we became friends. I don’t remember how it was initially. All I remember is that it was play time for me everyday from 4pm to when it got dark. I would go to Neethu’s place. And we would play all sorts of kids stuff. She was adamant about calling me by name even though her mother always reminded her that I was 2 years older. She was my first friend here and the only one at that. The other kids were too small and not our ‘league’.

We did play with them kids at times as the big bossy chechis. The big bossy chechis left to themselves used to play ‘set’ with broken bangles, horror night relived where we always made neethu’s lil bro appu the bhooth, hide n seek, police-kallan around their compound, and many more bizarre kid games :D. We used to have blanket tents for the bhooth game and used to scream our heart out despite knowing it was the little boy playing bhooth. Maybe it was an intrinsic feeling that real bhooths might get inspired seeing our antics and pay us a visit!

There was a swing in front of their house and we used to take turns swinging. There was also a cement bench in their garden where we used to rest after tiring games involving lot of running and jumping. If it was raining, we had to be content playing hide n seek inside the house and my favorite hiding spot was the curtain behind the sofa. I would flatten myself on the window so that my shadow wasn’t visible. Around 5, aunty would call us for the evening tea and snack. We would start phase II after the break.

Every year during the summer vacations, we played much longer and aunty thought it was time we stopped wasting all the time. So began the Malayalam classes. We started off with letters and moved on to the usual ‘pana’, ‘thara’, ‘aana’ etc. If I know how to read and write Malayalam now, it is all thanks to her. She used to give us dictations and quizzes and we were enthusiastic about scoring in her classes. Also, every year on my birthday, I used to get two handmade cards for sure. One from neethu n one from appu. They never forgot my birthday. Neither did I forget theirs. I would also make something creative for them either something I learnt in the art classes or from the hindu young world.

We all went to the same school too. But I was a senior there, and we had our different groups there. Those worlds never clashed. As we grew older, we had our world of books too. We shared story books, novels and told each other stories we had read. The funny part of the companionship was, unlike the latter ones, we never did any bitching. And even if I were to meet her today, I wouldn’t. It was an untainted relationship maintaining all its innocence until it faded off. Once I was in 9th, there wasn’t much time to spend playing and also I perhaps had the feeling that I was beyond the playing age. I would still go there and spend time. But it wasn’t the same as before. We were more into our new friends and there wasn’t much I could retain of the old.

Now, I don’t even remember when their birthdays are. I don’t remember which class appu is in. They seem to belong to my past and I never bothered to carry them along to my present. True, there is no ill-feeling in between us. We just went on with our lives. But today when I was looking around the house, it seems so unfamiliar; yet so familiar. The bench was still there, but it housed the flower pots now. The ‘unjaal’ had been taken off. The garden had many new plants. I saw myself all over the place and all these memories flooded me. I don’t want to lose them again. It had been chained to the past for long. I know I can’t thank them enough for gifting me all the good times and the smiles. All I know is, they are special and they remain so.