FRIENDS

“CRRACK!!”

Mani had just shattered the soda bottle that Arjun had given him.
He spoke in a dejected but angry tone:
“THIS IS NOTHING. Arjun SHATTERED MY TRUST. I had believed him-BLINDLY at that. Of all the people, HOW could ARJUN??How could he call me "CHEATER"!!!
Oh, am sorry. You can’t reply …. It is unimaginable. Why does he do like THIS??
After all, I didn’t do anything but to get him OUT. You were there. You saw it all. Tell me. Was I wrong??

Sorry again. You can’t talk. And neither can I talk with ARJUN anymore. How… ”


[
If you are deeply engrossed in the monologue, I am sorry to disturb. I would not have disturbed you except for the selfish reason that I want to tell you what happened before all this.

Mani and Arjun were close friends. ” Closer than kapil dev and sunil gavasker” as Arjun always said.
They were playing cricket. Mani had batted first and scored 20 runs. Arjun had been clean bowled in the third ball itself-at 3runs.
This had led Arjun, who been scolded by his mom that morning for spilling milk, to call Mani a CHEATER.

Mani had thought Arjun would never do like that to him. {Mani and Arjun had eaten stolen mangoes together so many times. Arjun had even gifted mani a SODA BOTTLE for their friendship. In return mani had given him three mangoes and a piece of rare yellow glass to look through.}

And so we found mani breaking the bottle and then talking wid his “special friend”. It was a smooth and translucent stone that raghu uncle had given him. The stone was MANI’s companion all the time-all the time when Arjun was not there. And now was no different. Now back to the story.
]


The stone just lay in his palm. Mani put it back in his pocket. He remembered those mangoes that he had eaten with Arjun. He wanted to cry. But he wouldn’t. He felt all the trees were his enemies. He started running. Running away-Away from the trees-…


Those tiny pair of feet of the 12year old boy couldn’t carry him very fast through the cobbled path-the path that led away from the small hillock.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** 20 years later *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

The feet that were running through the same path(towards the hillock) were no small. They had become bigger and stronger. But the path was still cobbled. Nevertheless Mani kept running. He was 32 years old now.
“I’m not very early. Arjun will come soon,” thought he.
They had agreed to meet at this day and at this hour after 15 years. “Fifteen years had passed since we went off to different places for higher studies. Atlast I meet him today. Hope he would come on tim….”

“CRRACK”
Mani had stumbled and fell. His glasses had cracked. But he was still able to see properly. He started looking for the thing that had tripped him. He saw it. It was a corked glass bottle that lay half buried in the mud.
“Wow. . .but the no white flag. Still this is it. I remember it. Ah…..”


[
Interference is my nature.Interruption is my pastime. This time it is to explain a few things that will help you to understand the story better.

This is what had happened on the day 20years back-the day when Mani and Arjun broke up:

Arjun came to MANI’s house the next day in the morning. He had a small bag in his hand. He asked Mani to come with him. Initially Mani was skeptical. But he decided to go with him.

Arjun took him to their usual meeting place – a small hillock where no one but the trees and birds lived.
Not a word had passed between them.
Mani was staring up at the cool blue sky.

Arjun made a small sound. Mani looked at him

Arjun said “sorry”

Mani replied:”what?”

Arjun:”I am SAAARIIIII”

They stared at each other for a whole minute before bursting into peals of laughter.

Then, taking a bottle and a sheet of paper from his bag, Arjun said:”lets sign this”

Mani saw what was written on the paper. Then both of them happily signed the paper .Then Arjun put the paper in the bottle, corked it and stuck a small white flag on the cork. Then they left to bathe and eat.

Back to the story
]




Now Mani was staring at the bottle. The paper was very old. He took out the paper and stared at it:


TREATY OF ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP (ratified on 23rd December this year)

This is to confirm that we (K.Mani and S.Arjun) are CLOSE friends. Close means verrry verrry close, Closer than kapil dev and sunil gavasker. WE are closest and bestest. WE also agree for the following terms and conditions:

1.I will never call my friend any bad names.Not even CHEATER.
2.If I get a mango, I will share it with nobody but my close friend.
3.If my close friend is not talk with anybody, I will also not talking
4.While playing kiriket, both of us are in INDIA team. So both of us always winnings only.
5.We wanted 5 points for the treaty. So the fifth point is ‘.’

MANI(sign here)

Arjun(sign here)


He gently touched the place where he had signed. Then slowly moved his hand down to the place where Arjun had signed-and felt something-somebody.

It was Arjun’s hand-ARJUN had arrived!!!

He hurriedly got up from his crouched position and hugged him.

Arjun said ”sorry”

Mani:”what?”

Arjun:”I am SAARIIII……for being late”

They stared at each other for a whole minute before laughing out loud.
The two friends slowly walked up the small hillock and sat there, staring at the setting sun, discussing their lives….their unhappy moments……their wonderful times…..including today’s!!!!

LIFE

Here is a wonderful poem by H.W.LONGFELLOW

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;--

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.



I like to call this poem as “THE RESURRECTOR” because it gives the reader a new lease of life by providing a healthy alteration to his/her attitude of life.
Sometimes small things matter a lot. A good example is LIFE. That tiny word- just four letters. It bothers so many people. Many people complain about it-yet, nobody(well yeah, almost nobody) feels like renouncing it.

Probably you may be one of the millions who contradict with me saying-"LIFE is BIG.EIGHTY YEARS man-not a joke".
Yes i agree. EIGHTY years IS BIG.
To a little child ONE year is BIGGER!!! To an Octogenarian EIGHTY is small-afterall eighty is smaller than HUNDRED.(TOO MUCH RELATIVITY??)

Well RELATIVITY is everything. When You say you "live”, the statement involves relativity; You know that you are "living" because you are unlike the inert stone there; and since It is unlike you, you say it is DEAD.
Observe that "DEATH" is longer than "LIFE".
"What do u mean by DEATH IS LONGER? You mean the time between two births??"
"Well probably yes-If at-all there is another birth"
"What if i don’t have a rebirth??"
"How can u be sure??"
"Prove me wrong"
"Well, there is this thing called karma......"
-Whoa this sure drive me crazy. Its CRAP.

That’s what actually happened in my mind while i was thinking about what to write next- and by writing that LO!!i have another five lines or so to my blog!!:-)

Relativity too drives me crazy. So I revert back to the main topic LIFE.

People say, When you have lived the greater part of your life, It will seem like a dream.(There is a connection to these things in HINDUISM known as the concept of 'MAYA"-but talking about that would make this an abstract discourse that even I would fail to understand :-P).

So why take all the pain for a dream??

The best answer i thought would be-"If you don’t work that hard for your ‘dream’ (=life), It will prove to be a NIGHTMARE!!!"


So, lets take it that LIFE IS A DREAM.
So are we sleeping??
Then how do we wake up??

Before i tell you how to wake up, tell me what you mean by "WAKING UP"? (HAHA!!! GOTCHA).

What is a dream? It is something that we are very much involved (at least sub-consciously) in yet we do not realise until it is over.

Isn’t that what we are exactly into?
So what do we do to come out of this trance?? -We gotta start living.
Can I say that "LIVING" means to realise every moment of our existence??
I can’t speak anymore for I have neither the knowledge nor the experience.

I quote Longfellow again :
“Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!”

That statement is typical of the one I gave previously. Acting in the living present is to be alert.

Longfellow also tells:

“Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.”

Let us not get disheartened about our sorrows; instead we shoud strive to make ourselves better with each passing day.

Lord KRISHNA says in The BHAGAVAT GITA:

“SUKHA DUKHE SAMAE KRUTVA LAABAALAABHOU JAYAAJAYOU”
[Handle happiness, sorrow, success and failure with equanimity]

So, Lets quit complaining about how life is and start accepting things as they are for that is the key to “LIVING”.