Nameless

Hi…(shyly).

Hey, long time! How are you? (Pretending to be nonchalant)

Not bad. As long as there’s alcohol. (Smiles). So, don’t see your husband…

Yeah, he had to stay home. Becoming a workaholic, that man. Even I could attend only ‘cos I had to fly into town for some meetings…but I’m not complaining, just glad they had a reunion! How’s the family?

Wonderful! Home never gets old! My sis is getting married, by the way.

Oh my god! Really? That’s lovely! When is the wedding? Arranged or love?

In May. Completely arranged. But she is happy. So, you tell me, how’s married life been?

Exciting! (Winks).

Well, chalo, let’s catch up later…(Slightly uncomfortable).

Sure. Nice to have seen ya…(Shifting feet as well).


The eyes conveyed something that spoken words didn’t. They said,

There’s so much to catch up on, have a drink with me?

Of course, I thought you’d never ask!

Tu nahi sudhrega bhai! Shaadi ko kitney saal ho gaye? Abhi flirting band nahi honi chahiye?

On my deathbed, dude. Only then…ha ha ha…

God, it’s been so so long! Sometimes I wish we had kept in touch.

Yeah, so did I. but neither of us worked at it. There was just so much anger and confusion.

Hmmm. True. Sometimes, I still wonder why.

Because it would never work. You knew and I knew. But we just had such a great time, no one wanted to face truth.

We did live in a fantasy, didn’t we?

Yup. We did have such a good time, remember Goa? But hey, life had to bring us back to reality. Life does have strange ways to get one back on track. Nahi?

You’re right. How come we never talked about this? We could have ended up being friends long ago.

Well, I tried (indignantly). You are the one who shut me out!

Hey, I was a broken man!

Blah! You pretended to be all wise and all, when you were just being a pain in the butt.

That’s so charming. You’ll never change.

Remember your idiotic jokes? Hey, the one with the uncle?

You remember that one?

I remember ONLY that one!

Well, you refused to speak to me as well.

Well, I was furious at you for being such a wiseass.

I was scared. I told you. I was just protecting myself.

Doesn't everyone?! You didn’t trust me. That was all. And I didn’t wanna bribe you.

Are you saying I lost you ‘cos I didn’t trust you?

Wah! What a line! A bit too late on the ‘lost you’ line, honey. This is the way it was meant to be, and you did know it before I did. ‘Cos of which, you were as hurtful as I was.

You are right, I treated you rather shitty as well. Call it even?

Absolutely.

I’m so glad we talked about this. We should have done this a long time ago.

Don’t tell me I didn’t try.

Don’t start again. Let’s please not jump at each other’s throats, and try and stay the way we were…? We were awesome as friends.

I wish we could, and I really want to, dude, but after the alco wears off, life will take us back to reality again.

She saw the knowing acknowledgement of that statement in his eyes, and two people walked away from each other. Because of an indescribable, but nameless connection. Not lovers, not friends, not a couple, nothing. Nothing but having once wanted to take care of each other. Look out for one another, cover each other’s backs. Collect assignments, save a seat at dinner. Bring back something from each trip to the city, teach a hypertense woman to relax. Life’s reality doesn’t deal with nameless connections.