The similarity in all the difference
I made acquaintance with this story back in my college days. It has stuck with me ever since.
She visited the park every evening. It was a small, enclosed space with a few swings and plants all around - sometimes, in a life as busy as ours, the diversity of nature in its smallness, is a commentary on the immensity of the world.
Of the many things that men fail at doing, hiding the fact that they’re looking at someone probably tops it. He looked at her, everyday, with a desire for friendship (or something more, who can be sure these days?), ever since he saw her. At times, they sat, adjacent to each other, on the swings - she, with her music and her rants to her sister on call - him, with his side glances and suppressed laughter at what she had to say.
~*~
“I think there is something wrong with this app,” she said, one day, unassumingly, screaming at the speaker of her phone in a failed attempt at recording a voice note. “I’m going to write an email to customer support.”
“It’s probably because of your headphones,” he chimed in - for the first time. “If you remove them, your voice notes may not be as faint. It’s probably the headphones that don’t work.”
~*~
Each day, since then, they met for walks. She spoke to him of how her day went by - the friends at college, the assignments that were so many in number, yet so fulfilling, because she loved what she was studying. She spoke of the girls in her hostel and how noisy they are. Then, she asked him about his day, and he’d talk, at length, of all the shops he visited, all the cars he drove, all the work he had to get done. Then, he dropped her off (sometimes, they walked at the human equivalent speed of light), to her hostel, which shut its doors sharp at 10pm.
Life seemed simple - oftentimes, friendship is enough an antidote.
I think the most difficult thing about adulthood is accepting that the people we love aren’t going to be with us forever. As months drew by, the realization that they’d part - that she would have to leave for a job in a different city, drew closer. This never affected their walks - or the fact that as hard and long and exhausting life was, there was something in that brief moment of time that made everything better.
One day, on a casual walk, he asked her - “will it never be possible for us to be a thing? Don’t long distances work?”
I don’t know much about aches, but I know what it feels like, to see a close friend hurt. With all the kindness and courage that she could possibly gather, she reminded him, “I don’t think the problem is distance. I think the way we love each other is not the same.”
~*~
Each of us experience heartbreak differently, and yet, it deracinates us all the same way.
For a few days, there was no communication. Just her wondering what had happened, and him praying to all Gods, that she could feel the same way about him.
At the time of her departure, they met at their usual place.
“You know,” she said, “there are some people in life who make everything feel easy. Thank you for being that person for me. I came to this park everyday because life gets lonely. Thank you for seeing me that night, in shorts and a heavily oversized t-shirt, and thinking, “oh, she’s beautiful!” For going to the nearby ice-cream place and eating sucky ice cream until I could trust you enough to visit a proper shop. For telling me, each day, that my presence was enough, even if it was for an hour. And for running with me, each night, to my hostel, before the guard shuts the door on my face. Thank you for loving me the way you did.
Also, I still owe you fifty for the coconut water.”
He laughed. “I wish you could see how much love I have for you in my heart.”
“I know.”
He kissed her forehead. I think, sometimes, we’re as physically restrained, as love restrains us emotionally.
~*~
This story stuck with me not because meeting someone under the moon, in a park, is like a scene straight out of a Bollywood movie. It stuck with me because it was a story of an organic, unassuming friendship. Something that didn’t demand much, but one that happened because two individuals, from very different walks of life, met in the most unexpected place, in the most unexpected way. When neither of them were looking for anything.
I don’t think two individuals can ever feel the same way about each other. Even if they are mutually in love. Relationships are hard, but they mustn't end because of that. This story means so much to me because it is a testament to what a little understanding, and communication can do for a relationship.
Meeting people who can teach you something - who are as open to you as you are to them - who love you in ways very different from your own and still find it in themselves to let that go - is rare. I wish there were more people like this in the world - more such accepting friendships.
Until then, whatever exists, I suppose, is as good as it gets.
Comments