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Finding a long lost friend
KM and I have known each other for ages. There were days when we were at school and the height of excitement of pre-globalized Lahore was visiting friends. So we would plan our visits and then sit for hours and talk. Random, intelligent and human stuff.
And, then our lives expanded so to speak when we arrived in London as undergraduate students, lost and a little disoriented in a college with thousands of students. I remember that we watched “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” together and few other alternative films. KM was a little shocked at the Kundera’s hedonism. There was one that KM did not find too exciting. Perhaps it was Greenway’s “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover“. Of course we were growing up and finding our little paths and dealing with our demons and gods. KM also introduced me to Said’s Orientalism among other vignettes of life and living. But then we lost touch as it happens in the Ghalibesque speed of life where the rider has no control of the speed of life-horse.
In a decade and a half, KM earned his well deserved doctorate while I only mused and debated the idea. He is now a full-time academic at a renowned private University in Lahore. So after this hiatus, we were connected through the blogosphere. KM has a wonderful blog laced with poetry, art and fine writing. And, we were writing to each other until this January when we met on a dull winter day in Lahore. KM introduced me to another friend T who happens to be the scion of a Sufi household and we had a great afternoon at the University premises chatting away with cookies, crisps and mugs of coffee.
Quite delightful - reclaiming an old friend from the silly maze of an otherwise unfathomable life.
The picture above was taken by T, the Sufi who went astray and teaches economics now.
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
How many of us didn’t like black comedies at some point of time in our lives? Sometimes I wonder at the process of aging and how all of us do get used to it as we reach close to the end of the tunnel with each passing moment. Things so close to our hearts in a distant past seem so ‘unlike us’ in the present moment.
January 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
So it was not at the Pak Tea House :). Now if there was a list of Astarte’s blunders … But when everything is said and done, b’s (KM’s) blog is the best, it has a unique home-like and a … I don’t know … may be a solitary feeling. You can’t help but wait for the new post.
Best of Luck, b.
Astarte.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I remember quite clearly that cable television came on the scene while I was high school and I got acquainted with the internet only while I was pursuing my post-grad degree.
Before that, as you’ve described, visiting friends and long conversations comprised a really important and exciting part of life.
I hope you and your friend will always be in touch now, thanks to the internet!
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:15 pm
P.S. - Visiting friends and long conversations still are an important and exciting part of life, but one that people seem to indulge in far less frequently than they used to.
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
It’s very nice meeting old friends. Subhanallah, it’s amazing how soon we part with our closes friends and not meat them once we leave school or town.
happy Muharam to you and salams from Sri Lanka
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 am
I composed this a few years ago but its sentiment echoes your post:
Finding Me
Fearful and feared
forward I fared.
Amid amicable acquaintances
felt fashionably friendless.
and then…
a hug, a joyful cry
and tears that were endless
The mega miles of distance
had long lost their credence;
My friend had I found…
or perhaps he did find me!
SR
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 am
Er..as KM I have to respond here. Most of the “intelligent stuff” is really just listening to Raza (though he’s too modest to say so). Still, your generosity of spirit astounds me..perhaps you are a sufi after all! Even if you’re not, you should turn your hand to writing fiction
Hmm. Unbearable lightness of Being. Even then you were into profound things (I think I was more interested in the nudity to be honest!)
i can’t imagine what demons you’re talking off ..unless it’s Piracha!
But yes, it was great meeting up with you again Raza. Next time I hope you stay for coffee and we can trash those curs-ed maulvis!
Okay, stop acting like a younger brother and embarrassing me with such photos!
(I notice you didn’t include yourself…I’ll get you back for that!)
Keep well kaka,
b.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:50 am
a good friend is a rare possession. we should always be considerate towards their sentiments. but few acts of foolishness and we can lost that friendship. for ever. this piece, on re-readings, is growing on me.