Together Forever

Prem and Sara were inseparable friends from 6th grade in school. They had seen each other pretty much through everything, from being punished by teachers, nose digging to school farewell.

Oh! the dreadful school farewell, where they swore to be in each other’s houses as usual, eat together, study together…even though subjects were different now…and the list was endless. Every sentence just seemed to end in the simple word ‘together’ and yet was so complicated.

As school ended and the college life began, the time to be together became lesser and lesser. They both made many more friends and tried to blend them in but the bond that they both shared was some powerful unexplainable connection.

Prem had to pursue many things along side his college, so he was forever struggling for time, Sara on the other hand had so much time on her hands that she slipped into a new circle of friends with whom she did not have to work too hard to make a plan.

Just as the summer leaves begin to dry up in the hope of rain, so did their friendship. College gave way to work and further studies and girlfriends and boyfriends so the distances between them grew wider and stretched.

Of course the birthdays continued to stay for the guest appearance they would make at each other’s places, but not for too long.

The friendship soon lost its colour from a pretty pink to a fading peach. Sara moved to another city and took up a job. Prem joined his father’s business and was on his way to become a tycoon under 30. He was to get married soon and decided to call Sara and invite her for his special day.

Sadly enough, she had a conference on the same dates and could not come. The wedding continued and so did the conference but what discontinued was the bond that they shared between each other. Days to months and months to years, time passed and they both lost touch completely.

And just like that a decade and a half later, Sara waited for son’s plane to arrive on a cold foggy Delhi morning. She hated the winters; they were so unsparing…but loved the warmth they got with them when you wore something warm. But today was going to be a heart-warming day because Sara’s son was returning after a trek of 20 days...the longest that he had stayed away from home.

And from behind the barrage of suitcases and excited passengers she could see her Vir coming with his proud trek group, walking outside with an air of accomplishment. Touching his mother’s feet, Vir looked up and with a twinkle in eyes said, “Ma, I did not miss you on the trip, guess what there was another Sara with me.”

“Hello aunty” came an unsteady voice from behind Vir. Sara looked at her and before she could collect her thoughts about meeting someone special in her sons life, she could hear some one call her name. Vaguely the voice was familiar… ‘Sara, we have been waiting for you there.’ said her father.

“Dad, please meet Vir’s mother…” before she could complete her sentence Prem and Sara met after so many years and yet it seemed the same farewell day where they made plans to do everything together for the rest of their lives.

How strange is this work ‘together’, it can bring us together in the most unexpected ways?