Friends, a Homecoming, and a writer

So, he, or I, if you prefer it that way, was left stranded in what had once been home, a habitat, at least, a place well known, that had now changed, and become unrecognisable, like the corner shop that suddenly has another owner, or even that PCO you used to visit as a kid, before you got a Mobile, and now suddenly you find it’s become something completely different. I was stranded, I felt like I should know this place, I did, but it didn’t make me feel like it used to.

Of course I wondered, what had changed, me, or the place, college, and finally it struck me, neither had changed, I just didn’t belong here anymore. That was a strange feeling. Ever gone home to find a different family living in your house? That’s what it felt like.

To him. I feel more comfortable talking in the third person... or perhaps I don’t, but I shall. He felt like he’d come home to his house, and found someone else living there. Interesting isn’t it, that I and He are the same, except that he is my creation, almost a self portrait... but he definitely is a creation of mine, does that mean, I too am a creation of myself. Some would argue yes, luckily, he was spared such philosophical discussion...

Instead he was wondering, what to do. Except he knew what he was going to do, just not the particulars. He left those ‘hallowed’ portals, as they’d been introduced to him, and got a rickshaw, even that felt strange, mostly because the richshaw valla charged him 5 bucks more, and he wasn’t sure if that was right. Imagine being overcharged for staying at you own home? Another strange sensation.

He didn’t know exactly where he was going, because Giddy, his friend hadn’t told him exactly where he was staying. He knew where to ditch the rick though, and then he made a phone call, feeling strangely like a character in a video game, one check point complete, now what?

Ring..........ring............. ‘oh please,’ He thought to himself, ‘he can’t have gone back to ignoring his phone, just when he told me to come over.’

“hey,” it was giddy, he wasn’t ignoring his phone.

“hmm, so i’m standing at the corner, now what?” he asked, trying to sound neutral to the position he was in. Going to his best friends house, with absolutely no idea where his house was, feeling like a stranger. And because this was Giddy, wondering if he would be a stranger. The strange de ja vous of his hour or so in college, still with him, he wondered if Giddy had changed.

When they had lust hung out, Giddy was a happy go lucky sort of chap, very well read, very willing to talk about anything, to discuss the operation of soap with the same earnest that he discussed mountaineering. Yet able to talk about existentialism, and communism, and all the other isms, under the sun, and yet, completely aware that rickshawvalla knew more than he did.

It was a strange love-hate to have, disagreeing and agreeing on everything under the sun, and being willing to discuss dogs and Mephistopheles in the same breadth, that’s why Eduard liked Giddy, because if you told him, xyz was like hitler, he’d know what you meant, and leave out all the seeming impossibilities in that comparison. It wasn’t with everyone that he was like this. Eduard and Giddy, they could have a full conversation in only full stops, conjucts and commas, and still know exactly what the other had said.

Of course to other people in the company this was excruciating, but they enjoyed it all the more, they could be talking about people, in front of them, in English, and no one would know what was being said. Eduard wondered, what Giddy would turn out to be. Would he have become more serious, the way people in college were(read condescending) or would he have become dry, and work a day, or would he have changed in some completely unpredictable way, like had he started dressing well, adn telling the truth. Those would be changed Eduard couldn’t deal with.

While he thought all this Eduard, was still trying to get a better signal to speak to Giddy.

“Hi, is this better?”

“Yes bastard, now stop helloing me, we havne’t been apart for that long. And come up.”

“ummm... yeah, sure, i will, once you tell me where to come.”

“yeah okay, so where are you?” This aggrevated Eduard, he was right where Giddy had told him to be.

“I’m right where you told me to be.”

“okay, well can you see the pink building?”

“Which Pink building?”

“It should be right infront of you?”

“huh....” Eduard looked around, “which way should I facing?”

“The Pink building.”

“that isn’t very helpful, cause if i could see the pink building, it wouldn’t matter, i’d just see it.”

“okay, yeah, so where are you?” ‘really?’ thought Eduard.

“look just tell me where i should be, i’ll figure it out.”

“okay, wait... hmm. Now i can see the road, wait i can’t see you, where are you?” that question was getting right up there on Eduard’s list of most hated...

“Arrey,” he said, a little peeved now. “i got off the rick at the crossing, and i turned right on foot, i’m just at the turning.”

“okay so go back to the turning, where you got off.” He did.

“Okay, now i can see you... Yay...” and then giddy started shouting, “here Ed, look up, over here, can you see?”

The voice came to Eduard’s ears without the aid of the phone. He dropped it to his side, scanned the building’s in front of him, from ground floor to top, and even the roof. Eduard had himself lived in a room on the roof, (yes we both love Ruskin Bond), and saw nothing.

“abbey, come to the balcony,” he said into the phone.

“I can’t” Said giddy, a little embarrassed it would seem.

“okay, but you can see me right? So tell me where to go.”

“okay, so turn to 2 o clock... now look between the shop and the big pink building. Can you see the staircase? Climb up the staircase, third floor, to your right.”

“okay, yeah i can see... but why can’t you come to the balcony?”

“i’ll tell you when you get here.”

Ultmately, he didn’t need to tell him. Eduard found the door to Giddy’s room, one of three on the floor, which opened onto a narrow balcony. He spotted Giddy’s face in the window almost as soon as he came up the stairs. Now why couldn’t he come out.

Then he spotted the door, it was bolted from the outside. Geez! He thought, we’re supposed to be professionals now. They had both got jobs straight out of college, and so... and we’re still caught in pranks. Eduard had been the victim of such a ‘joke’ recently, one that was seriously bothersome, since Giddy wasn’t visiting Mumbai at the time, and was quite bugged about it.

He went up to the door, unbolted it, and pushed it in. Giddy’s house wasn’t much, it was single room with a bed, strewn around with books, and clothes and remnants of food, and cigarette packets and rolling paper, and ash, and pretty much anything else you could think of, including Giddy himself.

And Devika, but she isn’t so important to this story. Eduard had only met her once as Devika, and subsequently as the girl Giddy wasn’t dating, whatever that meant! I’m not going to pretend I understand the way Eduard, (err... I think) but basically, whenever he spoke to her, it was usually with Giddy around, and whenever she did/said anything, it was unconsciously coloured by the lens, of the girl Giddy isn’t dating, which is confusing enough, without me trying to explain it.

Giddy was lying in his bed, apparently exhausted from trying to open the door, he was bear chested, sprawled across his bed, while Devika sat, attempting to compose herself on a chair. You can’t really compose yourself around Giddy, or Eduard, though Eduard was kind enough to allow you to try, Giddy, just wouldn’t have it.

Giddy got out of bed and gave Eduard a thumping hug, all close, and tight, and pinched his butt on the way out. ‘Fuck!’ thought Eduard, ‘Something should change.’ Giddy and Eduard had some weird, wannabe homosexual ideas, but they never materialised, attraction to each other had always been hampered by human anatomy, or the lack of it, in both their cases, they were men, and straight, and lamentable as that may seem, they were stuck like that.

“Hi Devika,” Eduard said,

“Hi” Devika said,

“Let’s role,” Giddy said.

“Yeah,” Eduard said. Then remembering they were seeing each other after almost 3 months, he asked, “how are you? How’ve you been?”

“Good man, work is fun.”

“Oh yeah where are you working,”

“Yeah one sec,” Giddy was looking for something, Devika handed him the packet of cigarettes “Work is good man, I’m working at this... thing... called...” Eduard handed him the rolling paper, “Yeah, the RTF, it’s a cool organisation, it’s a think tank... or we work for the gov.” A wry smile spread across all three faces, as Giddy said that, all of them had thought they were rebels, but were they really? Eduard was working for an NGO, doing honourable work, Giddy the gov. It would seem... but nothing really mattered, the important questions had already been answered in those first few seconds of Eduard’s entrance.

He sat back on the bed, and said, “Show I’ll roll, it’s been ages since I did, and I miss it.”

“This isn’t weed man, it manala, do you know how?”

“Arrey, just fucking give me the mix, i’ll roll it na, the j doesn’t change, does it?”

“no, okay fine, let me get everything ready.”

“Devika, hand me roach material.” They were very possessive about rolling only in roaches they prepared themselves, for no particular reason, since they all made similar roaches anyway, and a roach, is just, ultimately a stiff strip of card. Usually cut out from a cigarette box. She handed him one.

“Scissors?”

“hmm... it’s right there,”

“Where?”

“look around where your sitting.”

“it’s not there,” Eduard looked everywhere, even under him.

“Devika you look na,” Said giddy, “I’m busy.”

“uff,” Said Devika, “get up, it’s probably under your ass...” It wasn’t..

“Ah, fuck it,” Eduard said, as he tore a rough rectangle out from the box... “how much are you giving me?”

Giddy held up the paper he was mixing on. “Okay,” and he shortened the roach a little.

Then folded into little fan folds, and rolled it over itself, waited for Giddy to finish.

The actual rolling was a little awkward, but he got a decent job done. As Giddy inspected it before lighting up, he squinted his disapproval, but Eduard just shrugged, “Three months man, Chill... it’ll work fine.”

“Yeah” said giddy, as he struch a match to it... He took a deep hit, and another, and passed the joint back to Eduard, and he took a couple of drags, and handed it over to Devika, and just like that, three months of not seeing each went up in smoke.

Things change, things don’t...