Don`t say thanks for that, it was my responsibility to drag you out of that unattainable dream you were building around you. I knew that was not going to happen. But I was scared; you both were my good friends. And most importantly I was not willing to loose anyone of you. That`s why I did not tell you for a long. Our afternoon chat in a coffee shop continued like this. The person on the other side of the table is my childhood friend Uma, a girl from a very decent middle class Indian family. We met after a gap of long fifteen years in a rainy and windy afternoon in London. Drop of rains were slowly coming down from the top of the large glass of the coffee shop beside us. Sitting inside the coffee shop we both were looking at the traveling path of the rain drops, quiet, unanswered.
We both are in our mid forties, seen a lot of life. The unexpected ending of an expected tale, we both are the witness of such stories of our life and victim too. Uma is now a mother of two, a corporate techie. She is visiting London for her new project client meet. We met at the launch of my new novel release press meet, in the banquet hall of the hotel she is staying. My hobby is my profession now, painting through words on the paper. Uma showed her gladness by hearing, that finally I have chosen writing as my full time work. Again a moment of silence, we both are staring at the distant cloudy sky.
`Where is Sekhar now? How`s he doing` – Uma finally broke up the silence and asked that expected question, staring at the coffee cup, circling the corner top of the coffee cup. I was waiting for a long for this question. How someone could totally demolish the structure of the castle of their memories of love.
He is now in India, Owner of his agricultural machinery company. Married, father of one daughter. – I replied.
He finally came out of his playboy image and got settled huh? – Uma asked me with a tone of taunt looking straight to my eyes. As if she still can`t believe that he can be loyal to a single women and love her.
Sekhar was not that a cheater kind of person Uma, you knew that – I replied in a very gentle manner. My eyes went out of the coffee shop, seems it was searching some old memories, buried into some distant land of anguish.
Yes, Sekhar, my childhood best friend. We both grew up side by side sharing every bit of our life details. He was a shy and mom`s-boy at the very beginning. Till he left Kolkata for his engineering studies. We used to study together. We three, Uma, Sekhar and me. From his school life Uma was his crush and I knew that. Uma liked him, but was not that much interested with this mom`s-boy studious Sekhar. After schooling Sekhar just disappeared. No contacts with anyone and no updates about his life. After a long seven years of gap suddenly he came into our life, with an entirely changed persona. Even I, being a childhood friend was shocked with his drastic change in character and view towards life. At that time Uma and me completed our higher studies. Uma joined an IT company in India, and after two years she got married to a high profile management professor, much older than her. It was an arranged marriage. From the very beginning I could figure out that she was not happy with this marriage. I was also pursuing my career in IT and going through my own ups and downs in life.
In this circumstances Sekhar came into Uma`s life and flushed her eyes with his charismatic character and dashing looks. Not only that, within a very short span of time he climbed up a lot of success in his life. Traveling all over the world and earning huge money. This attracts lot of women and he used to take advantage of that. Many women came and disappeared in his life, and being his best friend I knew all of that. I used to tell him not to lead a life like this. But he was a changed person altogether by then. To him that was the definition of enjoying life. Quite evidently Uma fall in love with Sekhar. It was like scattered raindrops coming in her deserted life. Within few months they became very close to each other. I was updated with each and every detail of their relationship, Sekhar used to tell me everything. But Uma didn`t know the detail of my knowing. And I was not willing to tell her that I know everything about this strange relationship which they are nurturing, out of my trust towards both of my friends. To her it was as if we three old friends came back together.
The amount of love Uma put into that relation was not the same from Sekhar`s side. I knew that and tried to convince Sekhar to come out of that relationship. But things were getting worse from Uma`s side. She was totally dragged into this strange relationship by her own. She was so much determined that a time came when she started thinking to come out of her own social relationship. She started thinking of getting divorce from her husband.
`let`s go out and take a walk.` – Uma said very slowly by holding my hand. I came out of my memories and stopped my fifteen years back memory journey. We came out of the coffee shop and started walking slowly. Rain stopped, but it was still cloudy, windy afternoon, quite depressing.
`I would be grateful to you for the rest of my life, for your suggestions and convincing me to open my eyes like that fifteen years back on that night.` -- Uma uttered in a low voice walking beside me.
`Again you are talking like a stranger. Look Uma, you both were my good friends. I can not see you guys are suffering. That was my responsibility as a good friend to drag you out of your distant dream. You were absolutely blind then. You won`t believe Uma, still I can remember your sound of crying over phone that night. This thing haunts me sometimes, but ultimately you realized, that`s why I was happy then. – I replied to Uma gently, and we keep walking without saying anything after that.
Next day morning, I took the flight to India and she took the flight to Canada. We were done with our scheduled work. We met at the airport, hugged each other and say goodbye. That's all. None of us asked to keep our contact details, may be she was not willing to keep those memories alive by keeping contact with me. And I didn`t forced her either. So, the short clash of old memories ended like that.
We can not always get what we want. In case of relationships and to be happy in it, many outer influences come into play sometimes. We have to accept many things in our path of the life. Put out of your mind entirely may not easy for any kind of relationships, which may be years long or for few months. If there was a bit of truthfulness, you can not forget. But you can only accept, and try to let things go. This is the strange part of relationship.
