“He is a district level champion”, Bro introduced Santy. “Wow! That’s a chance for me to professionally learn a game”, I asked smirking, “would he mind training me, then?” “Sure, let’s see where you stand and we can fix a time for daily practice”. We had then become buddies, travelling to university together. Forty kilometers isn’t fun without friends and guess what, a campus amidst a dense forest area, atop a plateau!
Three years of fun and adventure, they stood like pillars by me. But then you graduate, means you part ways! I spun away to the metro city and was lost in the crowd and humbug. To each his own, they say. Carving a career, settling to be professionals, takes away so much of your comforts. And there you stand proud of your achievements, sensing some happiness and creating a niche for yourself.
Until one day, when destiny knocks on your door a heavy metal anchor and binds you to itself, drilling and dragging as it swerves through the murky waters to test your agility and adaptability. Some call it crisis, some just enjoy the thrill of the roller coaster.
I opened my messenger inbox. “Where are you? Add me to your friends list”, came a message from Bro! “Whoa! It’s been donkeys years! Add you bull shit! Call me on my cell phone”, I left him my number. He called that evening, cussing me tip to toe. “We both searched for your for fifteen long years. You haughty kid! You never turned back to look at your mates? Off you went!”, he rattled off endlessly. “I was caught up in many things”, I said grimly, unwilling to spill the beans.
“I am a billionaire now! Would you believe it? And Santy is settled in the United States”, Bro exclaimed. ” I am separated, right now trying to relocate and settle down with better opportunities. Some social complications I am going through. “Ah! Sorry to hear that, but need to know how all that happened”, he added. Let me create a group for the three of us to share”. He quickly added me and Santy was dazed to see me after all these years.
Hearing my plight they both were concerned. Santy called up immediately to hear the story from my end. He told me his and Bro’s bit of struggle in life. “I have taken to a spiritual life, totally convinced there is no better life support. But Bro wouldn’t approve of my ways. I have told him how and why to avoid drinking so. But he gets upset with the mention of that”.
In a month Bro came over to visit us. It was a replay of college times. But a serious Bro! A pretty much binge drinking Bro, a guide to many careerists and an entrepreneur.
I stay struck at the different courses life had taken for each of us. A bit of pain, a bit of achievement and yet such different values. ‘To each his own’….I thought and it all depends how you create opportunity of your crisis.