Memorabilia

In one’s life there are always turning points, defining periods, molding times or curing phases. Oddly the best of the incidents and the worst of them all are always remembered by us. This is only because of the impact that incident had caused in our lives and could also be the importance of the person/people involved. It’s us who define what dark periods are and happy ones are. Not so surprisingly, all the happy-endings like participating and winning in events & contents have always stayed on etched to the memory as the cheerful moments, while farewells, last-day celebrations - although named as “celebrations” don’t really make us happy, even while remembered, as they are all conducted with a sole motto of “bidding-adieu” or “sending-off” or “ saying goodbye”.

There used to be a season, in the last part of the final year, of the schools and colleges where the stationeries and notebook stalls had their day of best sales of certain types of Notebooks: Autograph Notes, Scrap Books & Address/Phone Notes. These kept passing between folks of the same batch or different streams but from the same school or college.

Some wrote meaningful notes, filled with heartfelt emotions for their friendship, while some utilized this as the best opportunity to open-up their hearts to the ones that they have been dreaming about privately & secretively, being one-sided of course, which otherwise they wouldn’t have had the guts to talk about. There are also some who for some strange reason wrote undecipherable “Quotes” or “One Liners” and left the owner of the book with split hairs.

Funny and memorable those days were, one could also come across some Stone-Cold-Steve-Austin’s who for the sake of maintaining their hunk-status never indulged in such kind of childish activities like filling their journal books in front of everyone, but funnily and idiotically used one of those harmless-huge-goggled-soft-spoken-studious wisdom turned principles-of-life souls (who almost always came in the package of a batch of students) to get two autograph books signed. Girls, often never questioned such harmless souls for they thought it’s probably one of the guiding principles of such soul’s to keep autographs at an even count.

One such interesting farewell note, which touched my heart, is as written below.

Analogy:-
A fountain pen, when filled fully with ink, writes like a dream. Smooth flow, precise width, crisp lines etc. But when the ink is running too low, there’s a lot of atmospheric pressure on the ink inside the barrel and hence the pen leaks as a result of the ink being pushed out, pressurized heavily to come out. The Lines become thick, ink smudges all over the paper and finally everything stops! No more ink!

Relating Story:-
This is exactly the same situation I am in right now, writing this autograph only makes it worse. It’s the sense of inevitability I guess. A smiley. Back then, during the initial years when we had a lot of time to be spent, our friendship (the Pen in the analogy) wrote smoothly, but for the occasional bitter incidents like groupisms, fights, misunderstandings (the bad papers in the analogy). But now, the time is coming to an end or getting over (the Ink in the analogy) lots of things are going astray. This may sound silly. But truth is I felt like I was 4 yrs old again. Clutching on to my mother’s hand and crying because I had to leave her and go to school…but then I had to let go…LOL…It's not me… she let go! Felt bad, angry, sad, etc then. But thinking back, it had to be done, as children should go to school, one cant deny that!... so are friends I guess, cant stay back once the course is over for the sake of studying together all over again!

My favorite song:
Rook Rook Na Na
Jhook Jhook Na Hai
Chal Na Hai Chalte Jana Hai
Jeete To Jeete Hare To Hare
Har Dil Ko Apna Bana Na Hai
- JHANKAAR BEATS

The above lyrics aptly sums up the attitude of the best way to look forward to life… “Life Carries On!”

I got this from a friend, “Life is a train journey, stations come and go, new people get in, old ones get off… but the train goes on & never stops for a longer time for anyone...." But what I really didn’t clarify with her was what if my destination is same as yours…. You may call it sarcasm, but it was a genuine doubt of mine! A smiley. Anyways, your motto must be “Happy Go Lucky, Where the Life Goes On….Stopping for None!”

This day, I sincerely wish you "All the very Best" !

Although to some of you it sounds stupid and juvenile, it means a lot to me, coming from one of my best friends, I know what it means especially when you both have traveled the prime years of your life together and are at the end of the long sojourn parting ways!
Cheers to you dude, wherever you are and whatever you do! :=)