Gubes - Miss you gals!

As the taxi sped on the desolate streets of the city, I couldn’t help but heave a sigh!! A mélange of memories engulfing me spasmodically, making me go back to my past with spurts. Sitting next to me were my frenz of 3 years now, few of the closest buddies I have had in life! We sat in silence, our hands entwined tightly. None of us spoke a word. We were just pondering as abstract memories flashed through our minds.

It was an early sunday morning. Not a soul was to be found on the streets. Traffic lights flashed on and off casting colored shadows on the dew pitched roads. Somehow I found it difficult to identify the roads,
so bereft were they of the usual noise and commotion. We crossed HarbourFront to take the road to the Airport.. I squinted at my watch. It was just 5:45 in the morning.
My frenz stayed over at my place and we were together on our way to the airport now. I had a flight to take in the morning. We had not slept the whole of last night... Dinner treat at a beautifully located restraunt with a relishing cuisine,talking about everything and everbody as we had done on so many nights before. We knew that goodbye time was ahead. Yet no one really wanted to broach the topic....

I have known them since I got a job..From movies,celebrations (All those bday's and special days), weekend outings, experiments in the kitchen,midnight walks, photo sessions,shopping extravaganza's,travel confusions, chats and mails,wake up calls,to those rib-tickling one-liner's we have been a group... Its funny how we get aquainted with lotsa people,yet there are those few people who get closer to you.. I liked the rebellious streaks in their nature that was so like me, we all had dreams of going places and we made it together! We were (few still are ;) ) all scared that our respective parents would eventually force us to get married to some software engineers well settled in the US ( which actually came true for one lucky dame!,the catch being he wasn't 'some' software engineer but a special one indeed :) ) making us wonder if we would get the man of our dreams.. But life had it's own surprises in store! :D The level of doing-everything-together gets such that they become second family for you.
And then one day you pack your bags, attend a few farewell parties,hug each other, and go your own way in life....

For these are the friends I have laughed and cried with. I enter a certain restaurant to be reminded of the number of times I had been there in the past and had fought over who would pay for the food. I enter a certain metro station, to be reminded of the debates on everything under the sun and seeing the trains leave one by one. I walk down certain streets, go to certain stores,and it all comes back to me again and again. I see the faces of my friends, smiling at me, waving at me, and it is then that I feel the loneliness....

So we kept chatting and getting silent alternately as the taxi sped through the roads towards the airport..
The classy Changi International Airport was soon in sight..We hopped out of the car, got a trolley and walked towards the check-in counters..Checked in my baggages and sat aside for what seemed like a last group chit-chat..Chit-Chat!?! - It was the most silent moment which we have experienced..But that silence spoke volumes!

It was time I had to enter the gates and had no courage to look into those wet eyes! Those warm hugs will remain precious! With no choice left I bid goodbye to my frenz for life! I entered, stood at a distance..Looked back as they stood amongst the crowd..Looked at them one last time,smiled,waved and walked off....

Ofcourse I knew being in touch is not a problem..Email, Phone zindabaad! Being net savvy I am very much in touch with them! But can anything compensate for getting to meet them and having a cuppa coffee or hanging out in the fav food joints with endless hours of senseless itsy-bitsy talks about anything and everything? It’s not that I would get to meet them everyday, or even every month. But the simple realization that they were in the same city and were just a phone call away was good enough.For you could always call them up and make a sudden plan of meeting anytime. Not anymore....

Not that I blame people or end up feeling morose. I have learnt to take these things into my stride and appear unperturbed...It is craziness to expect them to stay with you forever. Both you and I know that the world doesn’t work that way. But in their short sojourn, they leave behind millions of memories that make you so nostalgic...


PS : Gubes..Loafers...Pranksters...Whatever! You gals are the best!