Saturday, June 9, 2018

Anjali - A Close Friend Leaves

Harsh and Anjali have been together since they were in PP2. Most of their ten-year lives. With Mansi, they formed a group of really close friends. Both Mansi and Harsh naturally feature a lot in TWIED. A natural at cricket and a serious competitor who always pushed her at academics, Harsh and Anjali shared a nice, easy and yet competitive friendship.
A typical moment with H, M and A
So Harsh had to be bought the cricket bat for his birthday because his old bat's grip was torn. And Harsh was the one who cajoled Anjali when she got it in her head to change her school last year. And Harsh and Mansi were the ones who helped Anjali negotiate the steps and got to class when she had a bad headache. And Harsh would be the one who would take the Olympiad gold in their school for Maths and Anjali would take English. 'This year I got three - Harsh got one.'

Harsh would not eat even when he came for birthday parties. Reticent when adults were around, he would blossom when his two friends were with him alone. Many a day Anjali would drop by at Harsh's house and they would play cricket together in their flat or any of those games they all normally play. These days, now that they are older, they call each other on the phone and discuss homework etc.

So when Anjali went to Mumbai in the summer vacation, Harsh was already there, visiting his grandmother as he always does. She called him to go to Kidzania with her but he already had been there. When they wondered if they should meet Anjali was like - I will meet him at school anyway.

It so happened that Harsh's parents decided to shift to Mumbai and it happened so fast that Harsh got his admission and they moved before Anjali even knew what happened. I don't know if she felt bad about it but I felt a lot of pain. I know she did and does, she is a deep one who keeps those feelings to herself though she lets us see a glimpse of it.

And then you realise that there will be som many more such exits in life, so many changes, and you go through them all. Some affect you some more, some a little less. But they always take away a part of you. 'It's not so bad,' I told her. 'You guys can call and meet and message much easier than we could.' Anjali nodded.

Good luck Harsh. We will miss you and your ways. I must tell you though, you are a damn good cricketer young man. 

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