You’ve got a friend!

10 sure-shot ways to become my friend at first sight!

I recently realized that there is a subtle yet prevalent pattern among the kind of people that I am really attached to. And there is a strong though often overseen differentiating factor between people who I prefer to call as my “confidantes” and others who range somewhere between plain acquaintances to buddies. The conclusion is that I have a strong sense of affinity towards people who have a close connection with books in particular and literature in general. Somehow, a person who is an avid reader or writer, has a special “aura” to the personality that is apparently a key differentiator for me. So that’s how I came up with a list of “first meeting episodes” that potentially act as a screening factor, more like a sign board that blinks the moment I come across such situation “Well, you’ve got a friend!”

1.       A random acquaintance who starts following you on “good reads” and you realize that they happen to like the same kind of books that you read

2.       Someone tells you that they had a perfect weekend because they could spend the entire time at home curled up in bed with a cup of coffee and a brilliant book to keep company

3.       When you see someone getting annoyed because a book they lent to someone else came back “dog-eared” and he/she can’t stop cribbing about it all day, as if a long built trust had been lost on this one instance

4.       A discussion with the office colleagues where someone happens to quote one of your favorite authors, and you are the only one in the entire gang who responds with a knowing smile, while others are still figuring out the Latin words just spoken

5.       Someone complaining that they have stopped buying books for the only reason that his/her bedroom does not provide the luxury of having any more books (this is so true for so many Mumbai residents!!!!)

6.       Someone else picks up the same book that you have been searching for long, at a Crossword or a Landmark, and you end up having a 45 minutes conversation with that person, first on the book, then on the author and then on your respective collections in general

7.       A friend’s friend who happens to mention in an introductory conversation that he/she is a fellow blogger and manages to squeeze some time out of the jam packed schedule of work to write, at least once a month

8.       You go to someone’s place for the first time and they end up showing you the one thing you always wanted in your dream home – a floor-to-ceiling book shelf filled with a range of genres from classic to fiction to humor

9.       A travelling partner that you come across by chance who is as engrossed in his/her book as you are and better yet, the book turns out to be a preferred author or one that you have read already

10.   A person longing to get hold of a laptop as soon as he/she finishes a trip just so the memories of that trip can be captured into blogs or journal and thus immortalized through words forever

If you fall in any of the above categories, you are probably a friend already and if not, I will get to you soon!

PS: Many may find this blog too pretentious, but then when it comes to literature, I am a snob without doubts!

Coming back to life

She walked through the woods, all alone with only the whisper from the trees and the chirping of birds for company. And she didn't ask for more. Her mind was full of thoughts, so many that it was becoming harder by the minute to keep track of the tangential directions that her thoughts were taking. She stopped short in her path, for there was an unmistakeable presence of another person, or probably just another thought stream that was disturbing hers, she was unable to tell. But it was there and she could experience it as much as the breeze caressing her hair, or the leaves rustling against her bare feet.

She tried to focus, disentangle the multiple paradigms that the turmoil insider her was giving birth to. She chose a bench to sit on, trying desperately but in vain to streamline her confused mind - for her out-of-control mind began to wander, jumping from one world to another, unsettling her emotionally. Her soft sobs seemed to blend into the music of the woods. Her face buried in her palms, she tried to let go of the demons inside, clinging on to the ray of hope that peace will prevail at the other end of the agony. 

As she lost track of the time in the switching games being played by her mind, the world seemed to empty around her. Her twenty five years of life resembled a fading memory, as she struggled to recollect the faces of the people who mattered to her. Lately, she had been frequented by this experience of living in a parallel universe. She often found herself waking up, only to realize that she hadn't been sleeping at all. People around her had seen her go into a shell all of a sudden and then switch back, as if from a nightmare. She herself noticed her sweating palms and trembling fingers, unable to figure out where she had spent the last few minutes! 

But those minutes were real, so real that she ended up battling between illusions and reality to put her life story in place. She lifted her face to look at the rays of the sun that filtered through the leaves to touch her feet. As she dried her eyes, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned with shock and fear clouding her, expecting to see a ghost or a spirit. It took her a few minutes to come to terms with what she saw, for there was nothing but the empty woods all around her. 

And then she heard it! Someone calling out, repeatedly her name as if from a distance. She snapped back to see a coffee mug in her hand, her mom yelling from the kitchen, "have you still not finished your coffee?"! She turned to look at the clock, remembering the last time she had noticed the time. Yes! It had been those same thirteen minutes! As it was every single time!