Somes Names and friends

There are situations when we subtlety try to make some moments understood by others. One situation is characterized by these questions e.g. How was one supposed to make new friends? What words one had to say? Was there any well defined ritual? I did try to find these questions and would be answers in childhood days. One of the innocuous activity then was touch of forefingers followed by a handshake . Not to forget the excitement that followed . I am still not sure how swami made friends in "Swami and friends-By R.K Narayan " . But they can be taken to be ideal friends , at least for me it was the definition . Another open question , how was one supposed to end the friendship? , yes there was easy way for this ( because it was part of friendship ) . The ritual was to touch little fingers of the forelimb and exchange unfriendly stare.

How was one supposed to identify the best friend? Again answer to this was abstract rather than absolute. May be you knew someone is best friend when you had to separate , not to meet again. An interesting activity , regarding best friend , i got to know from dear mother. She said for them it Was easy and mandatory to find your best friend ( everyone had one best friend ) . They used to call each other with same name because they were best friends. I always knew there was "engine Mausi". My Mom referred to her best friend as "Engine" . I did understand the full scenario when i actually heard "engine Mausi" calling my mom as "Engine". Its amazingly sweet , even now they refer to each other with the same word i.e. engine ( How they found this word for each other is another story ).

A corollary to above scenario is situations when you call some friends with unique names .This name is used by only you and not others in general .Some unique names become so popular and everyone in friend circle will use the same for person under consideration. We do end up giving really unique names to some friends , i remember, i nicknamed one friend "NDTV" because he always had unending "news" to share. His name was later modified to more sober "ND". It's creativity at best when you can nickname people around you without fear of hurting them . You can only gesticulate wildly on hearing those weird names , sometimes you are at receiving end :)

Next question comes , how often we get chance to nickname friends? Some friends are there only for few hours. You suddenly realize what if you had known him/her for better? There is unknown conspiracy to send some people to meet you only for few days and some only for hours , serendipitous. There is realization of the truth , you can't save many good things for tomorrow.

As i look for concluding words , in few days i shall have to shift to new city . Present acquaintances will become part of memory lanes. Some moments will be part of the sweet memories for sure....The Smiling face of newspaperwala when he came with monthly bill , the ever helpful kirana store bhaiyaji who knew what i shall ask for , the repetitive question from the house Maid on weekends , " Bhaiya aaj chutti hai kya?" , the waiter at restaurant who knew i did learn to eat sambhar-rice at his place , the Paan shop i did visit only to buy the match stick box of rupee one , the chicken Centre guy who did give apologetic smile when his stock did end. These Small but beautiful moments define life.

Talking about the nickname replication activity , it is strangely cute occurrence when you call someone special as "baby" and as return you are called as "baby" by the same person . Obviously, the person in question will be more than friend for you i.e. THE ONE for you.