Me and My Friend

"There is so much beauty in the world, that sometimes I feel I cannot take it".

It’s not often that I get to see the sun set, all the stars in the sky and a beautiful sunrise all within 12 hours. It’s not often that I travel form Delhi to Bangalore by train.

It wasn’t my idea, to study in a collage in Bangalore. My father wanted me to do it. It was his idea of getting me to know the ‘outside world’.

I made a mistake by traveling alone. I never had an idea how boring traveling alone was.

That was when I met him. He was almost my age. He was staying in the adjacent boogie. Surprisingly, he just lived in the next road to my house all his life. I had never seen him before. Our houses were placed centrally in a busy area. I presume that was the reason we never met.

To add to my wonder, he was going to study in the same collage and the same class. We just hit it off. He was like a brother I never had. And in what seemed like moments we arrived at our destination.

There is very little I remember after that. All I remember is the auto and the bus. It’s hard to point out whose mistake it was but it happened. I woke up in the hospital a next day. My body hurt and I smelt like garbage.

I only took a couple of hours for me to get on my feet. The accident had given me few scratches and had knocked the wind out of me. The first thing that came to mind was my parents. I had just called after arriving and had promised to call every day.

It was engaged. That’s when I saw the news paper. ‘HEAVY FLOOD IN NORTHERN KARNATAKA’. The article said that the flood had washed out most of the railway lines and telephone lines. I couldn’t contact my parents. It seemed so right. If I had informed them my mother would have called me back home.

I then tried to find my friend. I saw the auto driver but not my friend. I spoke to the doctor. He said that there were only 3 people admitted to the hospital from the accident. The auto driver, the bus driver and me. I presumed he must be in the hostel.

Everywhere on my way to the hostel I saw dejected people, the tragedy of the flood had gotten to them. At the hostel after enquiring with the staff I knew he had not checked in.

I checked in and my new roommate was heard my story and promised to help me. We searched everywhere we thought he could be and returned empty handed. He then proposed that probably my friend was so shaken that he went back home. That was the best possibility and we accepted it.

It was two days later when it happened. I saw him walking around the room when I woke up. He looked surprised to see me. Then a few seconds later he just disappeared. I forgot the incident thinking it was a dream. Then like an ironic joke I saw him in my dream and spoke to him. The conversation was not clear and he mentioned me leaving his side. My roommate was horrified hearing this. He then suggested slowly but calmly that may be he was on the other side. The thought triggered my memory and I remember seeing an iron rod going through his chest before blacking out at the accident.