Ashutosh and I have been friends since grade 9 when he moved to my school. Throughout our school tenue, we would only sit with each other, which at times ran us into trouble but we didn’t care about it. After our 12th grade, he moved to Noida for his studies and I stayed back in Varanasi to pursue my graduation before moving to Bangalore for my masters. During this time we would meet each other briefly during vacations.
Once Ashu completed his master's, he came to Bangalore
to attend interviews, together we explored Bangalore for a week, before he
moved to Varanasi to join his family business, after that we couldn’t meet each
other as we were busy in our lives. The irony is we couldn’t even attend each
other’s wedding as I had just switched job and I couldn’t take leave. We tried
multiple times to catch up but our work schedule didn’t allow us and 17 years
passed by but we were in touch through video and voice calls.
It so happened that I had to travel to Delhi on a
business trip and I so wished if he was there so that we could meet. I just
called him casually and told him about my travel plan and he enquired about the
dates, and the moment I disclosed the dates, his happiness knew no bounds and I
was wondering WHY? Then he told me that he too would be in Delhi at that time
with his family as they attending a wedding. His excitement was evident in his
voice. Then I told him that my hotel was in Greater Noida and he would have to
come down to meet me as I had no idea of the places.
I also told him that I was not sure how much time I would
be able to give him or if we could meet either as I was unaware of my work
schedule and his response was clear if we don’t meet “ don’t ever call me” and
I was like dude I will try my level best but work is also important. Finally,
we decided to try our level best.
I reached Delhi on an early morning flight from
Bangalore, took a cab to Greater Noida, checked in to the hotel, and left for
my work. All this while I and Ashu were in constant touch with each other. My
work got over a little earlier than I anticipated and Ashu asked me to come to
Delhi as he was in some market. Immediately I booked the cab and left for
Delhi.
After 90 minutes I reached the place where we were
supposed to meet, and we couldn’t locate each other, then I asked him to share
his location, and based on that finally, we were able to meet after 17 long
years.
I still couldn’t believe I was seeing he was in front
of me and the moment we met we just hugged each other, ignoring the world
around us. Soon enough his wife also joined us, I was meeting her for the first
time. The moment she left for shopping
we found a place for us to sit and chit-chat.
We were so engrossed in talking that we didn’t realize
that 3 hours had already passed by and it was getting late, as I had to travel
back too. We went for dinner and tried Haldiram’s as I had heard a lot about
them.
After dinner, it was time to say goodbye I booked the
cab and the moment the cab came, Ashu told the driver to drive safely. He even
took a photo of the cab and asked me to share the ride details, which I did.
On the way to my hotel I was thinking about the travel
that I undertook that day, Bangalore – Delhi – Greater Noida – Delhi and to
Greater Noida again. A business trip and a wedding forced both of us to leave
our home turf and come to a neutral ground where we could meet. Sometimes
unplanned trips are more exciting than planned ones.
