Rendezvous

The warmth of friendship

Is beyond comprehensions-

Where you feel like you lost-

The heaviness you carried,

And you walk light back.

And that reminds me of that rendezvous…

After ten years I met him then-

More of a brother than a friend-

Though was my senior colleague;

I called him brother fondly.

We had been in random touch-

With birthday wishes and festive wishes;

Both in own isolations,

And we met; ten years down the lane-

We both watched the known 'stranger'-

Me transformed from bubbly naive

To seemingly brave and strong being

And he to an older version of himself-

Who seemed to have lost his charisma-

Somewhere while he walked his life…

And suddenly his eye blinked and his cheek twitched,

I was shocked, I lightly asked him-

He told a medical term.

He asked, where to go;

I said: 'Immaculate conception church',

A place where I tried to shed my insecurities,

Where I tried to gather courage,

Memories flashed, 

I went inside, fell on my knees,

I didn't want him to see my agony,

Nor did I want to be sympathetic-

I smiled at him, made him laugh-

Told stupid things…

And the last line of the closed-

Chapter of life; and his face fell,

Shock to pain to concern flashed…

We headed to his favourite ice-cream shop,

Wandered to the old places we spent,

Those ten years back,

Trying to filter out our memories,

And he bought me a 'pink sari'

Tagged with an advice- 

Do wear bright, don't be dull…

And he came to see me off,

His bundle of life advices and goodness of life fell open,

He was smiling more, I felt-

Pain and bitter dismay concealed in my smile,

He hugged me and said good bye,

His twitching cheek touched mine.

It was hard to stop the tear springing,

I cried all through my journey back,

For him, for me, for the lost something.

I do try wearing bright, generally 

Ending up in black…

Didn't act upon his advice yet.

Still he stays a phone call away-

Laughing out on stupid things,

And are not in isolations any more.

He is miraculously recovering from 'incurable'!

I wonder of the deep bonds- 

I share with the humans around.

People affect me at my emotional depths…

I have a lot of shoulders to lean on to,

Just that the stupid me is unable to confide!

But impactful memories provoke

Me to write.