That's Life...

When your closest friend starts writing poems, you expect him to write the first one for you. You expect to hear something you have never heard before. You expect him to surprise you, to make you feel special. But, friendship is such an effortless relationship, that you are more likely to take your best friend for granted than sit and work hard to write a poem, word by word, line by line, stanza by stanza...all this to make sure you bring a smile to their face. That is love, not friendship, isn't it?
When you don't see each for months at a stretch, it is pretty obvious, somebody else will stealthily come and replace you sooner or later, in his life. When in the 30 minutes he talks to you, every day, all he can talk about is his new friends; when that is all he wants to talk about; you hear happiness in his voice and you can almost see the excitement in his eyes. There is a lot you would want to say, but you know it can never match the enthusiasm and passion he is feeling for his new friends right now.
On one hand, you are happy that he is feeling alive again, but you can't help but wonder, how long till they take your place? How long till all the phone calls he makes to you will be replaced by text messages and then how long till the number gradually drops and how long till the day, when you are crazily searching for the last text he sent to you, the last time he remembered you, the time he even thought about you, and there is a disappointment on your face that only he could have recognized. He will think more about you than you are imagining, I assure you, but these thoughts are intercepted by his new friends now. His time will now belong to his new friends. You wonder, how long exactly, till you become a REDUNDANT part of his life?
You think about all this right now, it is just a moment and it will pass. He will call you again tomorrow with more stories and more incidents of how he wrote another poem for another one of his friends. He will tell how happy they were about the poem. You will smile and tell him, he is a great friend. But, you know it is about to change. You know, somewhere deep down in the depths of your heart, you will call him a cheat, a betrayer, in a couple of days. Things will change, the gaps of days when you receive a call from him is going to rise, and as you think about it, and your heart falls, you start to pretend that if you don't think about it, it will all go away.
But, things change, as you knew they will, and after some days of mourning, you will get over it and when a common friend will mention his name, you will be caught in the tiniest fraction of a second, when you won't recall that name. You will give a wry smile, and think to yourself, That's Life...

Of the smile that refused to fade away...

I know a lot of people and some of them are really interesting. They are people who are different and I call them interesting because when I talk to them they have things to share which I could never have thought of. The things they believe in, fascinate me.

I met Siddharth a couple of days back. Just as strange is the way we first met and the way our friendship has sustained, is how the guy thinks.

Most people prefer to find occupations which pay high emoluments but, this friend of mine has dared to choose his way based on his beliefs and faith.

I met him at his workplace. It was really heartwarming to know what he and his group were working on. They were refurbishing a children's library. He was happily painting a board that said "Open from 9 AM to 5 PM". The smile on his face, pride in his eyes, the paint on his cheeks and the song on his lips, said more than one can ever describe using words. He had many other options after his engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology. He could have gone on to take up a job in the software industry like others from his batch, but he instead, followed his heart to serve the nation. The job would have paid him well in monetary terms, but would they have inspired that smile? I doubt that.

Another thing that he taught me that day was that little things mattered. That board in front of that library mattered. You don't have to be Mahatma Gandhi to change the world or to serve the nation, you just have to believe that every drop counts.

This post is dedicated to my friend Siddharth Sethi, who dared to be different, who dared to follow his heart, And salute to his spirit of serving the nation. When most people are busy taking care of themselves, he is one of those who are working for the nation.

When I reflect on the incident now, Siddharth's face with the paint on this cheek compels me to think that there will be a million great options in life, but you don't have to always pick what seems to be the best, you can just pick whatever makes you happy. :)