"Destiny decides when we meet and situations decide when we part but it is we who decide whether we meet again."
I have been caged in this human form for the past 21 years and what I have really understood is that the very basic thing that separates us from machines and other non living entities is our unique ability to feel and perceive things or what can rather be termed as emotions. As I write this piece, I get reverberating visions of my past or specifically the last quartet that I spent at a place far away from my family and yet amidst another one. These years have taught me lessons so invaluable that I seem to have not only graduated from my college but also from life's classrooms. I still remember when it all started... A tall and lanky guy with big dreams in his eyes and even bigger frustrations in his heart, standing and predicting where the road ahead might lead him. Someone who had lived his entire life under the protective cover of his family, being suddenly exposed to a world where he was on his own. Sounds very much like a teen movie but there I stood in my real life, no strings attached, stepping into my new home - my hostel. Although at the beginning it sounded pretty scary, as time progressed my emotions got the better of me. Not only I had to ward off the ghosts of my past inching me towards a pessimal existence, but also get acquainted with an alien environment and creatures who seemed like me but lived in a world different from mine. Initially it seemed unlikely that the two worlds would ever meet. But the foundation of our liaison was built by time itself. With passage of time, I found myself recovering from those shocks of the past and nurturing good ties with some survivors of those rubbles. And it wasn't long before I figured out that the world outside and its creatures weren't much different from me. They too had their own stories and own regrets. They too were trying to come to terms with life as was I. The occasion necessitated for a camaraderie of sorts and what evolved was a everlasting bondage. I made friends with many and for the first time tried to see life from a direction I had never seen before. That era of friendship helped me endure pain and surge ahead in the eternal race for survival. I started understanding myself better and looking at the beautiful things in life. I figured out the essence of love, the joys of being together, the intricacies of relationships, the grandeur of responsibilities, the satisfaction of helping others, the sanctity in comforting others, the elegance of setting an example for others, the pride in assuming what I was and the beauty of life itself. Its been years since I had last cried but when ever a friend hid his face in my shoulders and sobbed irrepressibly, I felt the pain he was through. I have laughed heartily throughout my life but it can in no way be compared to the laugh I have shared with my friends. Those moments clearly defined the value we had for each other. We stood through those pedestals of time like a band of brothers enjoying together, fighting together, dining together and more importantly surviving the mean world together.
And in a spark the celebration was over. The four years had ended. Our foster home required us no more. We were now supposed to be knocking the doors of the real bad world. We were required to separate from each other and move onto a new frontier in life. We were now on our own relishing control over whatever seemed to be ours. No doubt there lay a hint of satisfaction in all our hearts. We were now the masters of our own life edging towards earning the very first nibbles of our own salary and living the life we had all dreamt of. These were the sole remunerations we were getting at the onset of this farewell. Time might erode those lovely moments we shared but our bondage is here to stay for ever. Those jokes, those pranks, those grudges, those debts, those unspoken words will forever remain imprinted in our memories. May be a couple of years down the lane, we all might be striving harder to make a name for ourselves and in the process might be pitted against one another forgetting those days of thunder we shared. Who knows someday we might even become the reason for the downfall of our own friends with greed, jealousy and contempt playing spoilsport. But even then we will keep telling our future generations of how we met people and what great things have our associations with those people borne. We meet so many people in our life and every time we part we feel sorry about the occasion and then just forget about them. It baffles me why this parting has left so many uncorrupted memories. May be this wasn't just another case of meeting and parting.
As my oculuses are getting flooded in this torrential surge of emotions, I think I have conveyed enough through my words. It was destiny which decided where to send me four years back and it was my graduating out that decided I part from my companions. It is now up to me to decide whether I can meet those wonderful comrades of mine again, for the world is too small and there are too many people in it. So who knows when I might bump into one of those distinguishable gentlemen/ladies. Till then where ever I am, I would forever raise a toast to all you wonderful creatures and all those treasured moments, we shared, for making me what I am worth today.
P.S. : Adhering to my style, the title for this post has been inspired from a Oscar nominated short film Tales of Meeting and Parting.
