Kedar...

In todays action packed, hustling and bustling, and a fast paced world, it seems that maintaining regular contact has been a bit difficult, especially with those who have moved out of town. I know all the potential difficulties in maintaining a continuous contact- in both ways- by being away, and having friends go away. And then one day arises when you suddenly get a phonecall saying... "Chinmay kuthe ahes... Me punyat aloy". It brings immense relief to hear the voice- especially if its the voice of the best friend you have ever had.
I got such a call daybefore yesterday, when Kedar(Kedhaar as he now calls himself, ill stick to the original spelling) called me up. I was thrilled that he was back, although only for 3 days. Finally i had the chance to meet him. The last time i had talked with kedar was probably in my December vaccations when i was planning a trip to mumbai-almost 3 months back! Shocking, considering, that we have been friends from day one in school...(our friendship streches back to almost 17 years!) well after a mixup, where we were originally scheduled to meet yesterday,we finally made a definite plan to meet today at Kedars place.
On my way to Kedars place, my mind was flooded with a whole load of memories from good old days.I distinctly remember his expression when i dropped out of nowhere at his house on my holidays(when I was in UK). I was keeping my visit to India a secret at the time.As soon as I landed, the first thing i did was go to Kedars place. He was least expecting me to turn up.. He was talking on the phone, when i tapped him on the shoulder... the phone literally dropped out of his hand! Also the long and eternally fresh memories of the things we did in school, the jugaad we did when we were prefects surfaced. The innumerable hours we spent doing timepass under the pretex of doing homework, the stupid bets of how long we could stand in the cold storage, all the letters describing the 'kaarname' of our friends, when I was in London that he had written, all came back as if things of yesterday.
Once at Kedars place, we greeted each other in customary sarcasm like kay re jadya! I sat there for about 3 hours- well sat for two hours and roamed about the city for one. Kedar was making paav bhaji, and i gladly accepted his invitation to have lunch! After Kedar finished cutting his vegetables, we went out to buy paav. Well, we roamed around for quite some time..Alsom we stopped by at this incredible Sugarcane juice place which serves 9 varieties of sugarcane juice! Back home we went after that, and had the extremely delicious PavBhaji that Smita Mavshi had made. We didnt talk much- neither on the past, nor the present, nor on the mundane daytoday life. Actually we were sitting silently for most of the time. Its rather ironic, that in moments like these, without uttering a word, you have the best conversation you could ever have.
It really felt good to meet Kedar after so many days- well, anyway, it always does. Just goes to prove that somethings money cant buy, and some relations go beyond the extraordinary- good friends and an everlasting friendship..

(Kedar Tomato Kaptoy!!haha!)