It's all life,my little friend

I never imagined that my little friend could teach me anything- but I was wrong, he told me many things.

The sun was having his journey towards the west, some spots of dull red was there in the sky. I was eight years old, sitting with my little friend discussing the twists and turns of my tired life as a student of class three-issues of my class, clashes for pencils and erasers and even about the things I met on my way to school. And my friend advising me as a superior of fifth standard. I admired his heroic act of winning pen fights and adventures with his friends.

He was always there for me, my little friend, my Appu chetan.

He smiled and continued to make me laugh with his surprising bent sense of humor and little gossips. I have always had a special attachment with Appu chetan, I understood the things he didn't know how to express. He was my best buddy.

I was bit smarter than him, so I ordered and he obeyed even though he was elder than me. When gangs of other kids played outside howling and shouting, we kept ourselves busy in our little world. We had code names and uniforms and spent hours in ‘meetings’ under a sheet and four chairs of his family room floor: an exclusive club of two. I came to saw a teddy bear for the first time from Appu chetan ,he never allowed anyone to touch it other than me. Even we collected soap and toothpaste covers, pebbles and torn papers and other unwanted things for our ’store’-the corner shelf of Appu chetan’s bed room. We colored its walls with crayons and color pencils-that was our favorite place of games. I remember how we slump together in front of TV eating Tatteppa’s special dosa and chatni and how we swap gossips just before leaving in the evenings.

Nowadays I see him about four to five times a year and we both standing at two end poles giving just smiles and goodbyes. Time changed my life so drastically…Every time I brush my wonderful yesterdays aside, I feel a cold shadow of grief and imagine how I could regret these lost moments…

It’s all life…