Note: The following is an excerpt from my diary. I write to my diary as to a person and so most of the references I’ve made are to it and not to you (except the ones in the end).
Day 46 – Tuesday, February 03, 2009.
Happy New Year. Our irregularity in meeting continues… and with it keeps rising the pile of events I have to tell you. The last month was moderately eventful. Annette is now married to Sheril and he asked me to be the ‘best man’ for him. That was some experience, but that is not the reason I am writing to you today. By the way Shimona has also wed Kevin in the last month. Coming back, there is a more pressing issue to tell you about – Yes! More pressing than the wedding. I now begin the tale of how I, no we, celebrated the republic day. Here goes…
Gazab ka ek din
10 boys. 1 day. Friendship…
We had a retreat the previous day (another thing I have to tell you about), i.e. Sunday the 25th, and we decided to camp at Bonny’s place after it. There were 8 of us in the night – Bonny (obviously!), Griffin, Winson, Elroy, Ravi, Glenn, John, Adarsh (who went back early in the morning because of his church picnic) and I (Enoch). It was definitely not one of our better night-outs and was pretty drab. We just danced a little – very little – and then sat to watch ‘Madagascar 2’. Most of us were pretty drained, owing to the retreat – especially the ‘masti’ we did on the road while returning -, and didn’t last through the movie, me included. But of whatever I saw in the movie, ‘King Julian’ was excellent. I digress. Anyways, when we awoke, Sheril and Kevin had joined us and Adarsh had already left. Sairith joined us in the afternoon. Sheril’s stay was a brief one; probably his newly acquired marital status is to blame. I rose to the classic voice of Mark Knofler (singer of Dire Straits – for all those of you who have lived your lives without knowing that) singing some beautiful songs, songs I had never heard before; which reminds me, I have to get them from Bonny. I digress.
Thus we started the day, completely oblivious of what is to come - completely oblivious that this would go down as one of the greatest days of our lives…
So everyone’s up and just chillin, to lazy to even stir. Then sets in the realisation that we need some breakfast and so into the kitchen go some of the ‘bavarchi’ boys - me included… Naah! Just kiddin. – to conjure up some food. Now when they were at that, we, the lazier bums, resumed where we had left off the previous day and started dancing. I don’t know who’s to blame for it but we were dancing to Hindi songs – which probably was what triggered something which eventually led to a memorable end. It was pretty crazy and funny too. We even head-banged on ‘Rock on’ songs (He he… imagine that!!!). Our breakfast, which was noodles with some vegetables and other stuff in it (do you seriously expect me to know?!), was finally ready, it was pretty good. After food we just sat singing some of the craziest songs we knew (all Hindi again), for eg. ‘What is mobile no.?’ and other Anu Malik unforgettables. Somebody then had the idea of playing ‘Truth and Dare’ which was highly entertaining. Most of the dares were downright crazy. I had to pluck a hair from Bonny’s head. Sairith’s dare had a patriotic tinge to it, he had to scream ‘Jai Hind. Bharat mata ki jai.’ at the top of his voice from the balcony. The bewildered expression on the faces of the kids playing below and a family in the opposite building was hilarious. Glenn had to do a head-stand (with a lot of help from us, of course), Winson 50 crunches, John ate a raw egg straight from the shell and Elroy had to propose to and kiss a doll. Bonny, who refrains from dancing in public, had to dance solo, almost solo (he had John for company), on ‘Apdi pode’ – now that was a sight to savour, he went absolutely ballistic. Ravi had to call Rev. Santosh and scream, “Hello aiiya! Ravi here! Happy Republic day! Jai Hind!” click. Aiiya called back because he was totally clueless of what had just happened. The best part is that we have all this (all the dares) on tape. It was then time for the ‘Truths’. Everyone’s secrets were laid bare, Sairith being the only exception. Spoilsport! Don’t dare ask me, or anyone for that matter, cause we’re not telling anything. Griffin and Kevin, who had gone back home returned during this time. Lunch came next – scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets and fingers with bread. It was around this time, I guess, that Glenn, again I guess, said that this was probably one of the better day-outs we’ve had. He was, of course, unaware that what was to come would make it undoubtedly the best. And here’s what came next…
It was a little after 3 pm I recon. We were just sitting lazily pondering over and discussing some of the recent revelations, especially the funnier ones. One thing that the ‘Truth’ session had done was to bring us all closer to each other and remove all inhibitions, if there were any in the first place. I think it was Sairith who started singing some Hindi songs. Before anyone even realised it, we had all joined in the singing. We then went on to sing old Hindi movie numbers. I, being an amateur at Hindi music, just managed to join the others in the choruses but the true king of Bollywood was Griffin. He knew the lyrics of all the songs!!! I was completely floored by the lyrics in some of the songs. Every single one of us was in our own world and were singing the songs with all our hearts. Some of the songs were extremely appealing, well all of them were in their own way, but some more than others; like when we sang ‘Har kis ko nahi milta yahaan pyaar zindagi me’ all of us single boys, among those present, raised our hands. Some songs like ‘Pyaar ka nagma’, ‘Tujse naraaz’, ‘Jaane tu’ (old), ‘Sach mere yaar hai’, ‘Yakeen’ by Atif, etcetera were pretty emotionally stirring. It was Bonny who said, “If we were drinkers, we’d be crying by now.” The song ‘Dreamgirl’ created in us all an unexpected surge of hope, we all sat up straight reassuring each other while singing it. Man! In hindsight it all sounds so funny. I don’t remember half the songs we sang but what I do remember is all of them were great. I am now a devout fan of old Hindi music. We’d been singing for around two and a half hours and it was almost six now. Some of us had already started dressing up to leave and this was when I started ‘Gazab ka hai din’. I, personally, had second thoughts about singing this song because I thought it would not go with the mood created. Boy was I wrong! When we sang the line, “dekh lo humko kareeb se, aaj hum mile hai naseeb se” we all stopped whatever it was that we were doing and looked at each other and then as we sang the next line, “ye pal fir kahaan, aur ye manzil fir kahaan”, time stood still. We, at that instant, had a moment that’ll last forever. We sang that verse again during which I removed my spectacles as they were already getting a little moist, a stroke of great foresight.
[I’ll deviate a little to a relevant tangent. Bonny is gonna shift from his place in a few days and this was supposedly the last nite-out we were to have in his current place]
We all sank back into our places after ‘Gazab ka hai din’ and someone suggested we sing ‘Yaaron’. Bonny, who had the guitar at that time, started playing the intro. He played it once… no one started. He played it a second time but this time he stops abruptly and says, “Mai nahi baja sakta”, puts his head down and starts to cry. Griffin, who’s left his seat to come console Bonny finds me, who was sitting beside Bonny, weeping like a kid. He comes to me only to turn towards Sairith, who by this time has completely broken down. We weren’t just crying, it was more like an uncontrolled weeping, a wailing. Every single one of us cried that day, Winson probably the only exception because he was on the phone while the initial outburst happened. The crying and hugging went on for quite some time. We then huddled up together and sang ‘yaaron’. We then went on to sing some gospel numbers like ‘Bind us together Lord’, ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’ and ‘Loving God, loving each other’. It was probably the worst group singing we must have ever done and we must have sounded horrible through all the snivelling, no one person managing more than a couple words per line. It was also probably the best group singing we’ve ever done. Most of us had gathered ourselves before we reached ‘Loving God’ but we broke down again as we sang that song. I used to think the line ‘and the story never ends’ didn’t really fit into the song, but that was all before the 26th because when we sang it on that day it sure did make a world of sense to me. We went on to pray, all of us still in a huddle. It was, for lack of a better word, beautiful, simply beautiful. It was when we were praying that Bonny’s parents returned but by then we were all pretty composed. After concluding our prayer we drank the tea Bonny’s mummy had prepared for us while we discussed what had just happened. You could hear lines like, “Mai do saal ke baad roya yaar.” and “mai teen saal ke baad roya”. We were also back to our usual ways of teasing each other – this time on different styles of crying (some were really funny). But we all knew that something had changed and something between us was different now and that, with all the truth-revealing and the crying, we were closer to each other than we ever were. And we all, each one of us, want that something to never change again.
It’s true that the greatest friends you have are the ones you can cry with. Looking back, I don’t really know why I cried that day but I’m glad that I did. Bonny’s shifting was a factor but he is still gonna be with us for some time and so it was not that pressing an issue. I guess it was just the line ‘ye pal fir kahaan’ that kept playing in my mind like a broken stereo. Probably it was my gratitude towards God for giving me such great friends that brought me to tears. The exact reason, I guess, I’ll never know and I’d rather keep it that way. I, today, want to thank you all, those who were there and those of you who weren’t, for being a friend to me. You have been one of God’s greatest blessings to me and I cannot thank Him enough for you. It is impossible to overestimate the influence you have been to me. A great part of what I am today is because of you. I pray that, whatever the circumstance and wherever we may go, we never give up this beautiful relationship of friendship that we have between us. Rather let us grow closer towards each other and, with each other’s help, towards our God. I’d also ask you that whenever in the day I, or any of your friends, do venture in your thoughts, say for me a line to our God because I may be in desperate need of it. Thank you for everything. Thank you very much.
‘Loving God, loving each other,
making music with my friends.
Loving God, loving each other,
and the story never ends.’
This story will never end…
A friend,
Enoch Soans.
