Parveen and I have been inseparable since babyhood. I don't remember how and when we first became friends. We just have been. This is a fact that has been accepted by all around us. They let us be.
This incident is from when we were around seven years old. I was visiting them in Nasirabad, a small town near Ajmer, deep inside our beautiful Rajasthan.
I can see many sandy hills around in my mind's eye even though I could not find them later when it visited Nasirabad as an adult.
One day, my uncle, parveen's father wrote many letters to friends and family, sealed them and gave them to us to post in the letter box which was some distance away.
We left together, parveen and I and walked toward the letter box. We were absorbed in telling each other our endless stories and were not paying much attention to the letters in my hand.
Suddenly a gust of wind came and tore the letters away from my hand.
We ran to catch the letters that had immediately taken on a life of their own and scattered with the sandy wind. If we ran one way, we saw another letter blowing tantalising away the other way. We managed to catch two of the letters with great difficulty and the other two I think were just no where to be seen. They were borne on the sand storm to a destination chosen by the wind.
We were terrified at this fiasco and did not know what to do.
Self preservation won, even at this young age. We posted the two left over letters And came back home quietly. No body asked us and we did not tell that some of the letters had Been lost.
Many days pased. Our worry lessened and we went our way normally.
I came back to Delhi to my own home with the secret safe.
Many months later when we met again, we told uncle of what had happened that day.
He said that he had wondered why he had not received replies to his letters.
He asked us why we had not told him then. He could have just written more letters to replace the lost ones.
We had no answer to this logical question and just stood quietly with lowered eyes. The sand storm had literally stolen those letters from us.
I can still see ourselves running wildly in the sand storm trying to catch those elusive inland letters.
This just cemented our friendship even more.
This incident is from when we were around seven years old. I was visiting them in Nasirabad, a small town near Ajmer, deep inside our beautiful Rajasthan.
I can see many sandy hills around in my mind's eye even though I could not find them later when it visited Nasirabad as an adult.
One day, my uncle, parveen's father wrote many letters to friends and family, sealed them and gave them to us to post in the letter box which was some distance away.
We left together, parveen and I and walked toward the letter box. We were absorbed in telling each other our endless stories and were not paying much attention to the letters in my hand.
Suddenly a gust of wind came and tore the letters away from my hand.
We ran to catch the letters that had immediately taken on a life of their own and scattered with the sandy wind. If we ran one way, we saw another letter blowing tantalising away the other way. We managed to catch two of the letters with great difficulty and the other two I think were just no where to be seen. They were borne on the sand storm to a destination chosen by the wind.
We were terrified at this fiasco and did not know what to do.
Self preservation won, even at this young age. We posted the two left over letters And came back home quietly. No body asked us and we did not tell that some of the letters had Been lost.
Many days pased. Our worry lessened and we went our way normally.
I came back to Delhi to my own home with the secret safe.
Many months later when we met again, we told uncle of what had happened that day.
He said that he had wondered why he had not received replies to his letters.
He asked us why we had not told him then. He could have just written more letters to replace the lost ones.
We had no answer to this logical question and just stood quietly with lowered eyes. The sand storm had literally stolen those letters from us.
I can still see ourselves running wildly in the sand storm trying to catch those elusive inland letters.
This just cemented our friendship even more.
