Jab We Met

Yesterday was the first Sunday of the month of August and folks, especially the youth, celebrate it as the friendship day. While I do not like to celebrate such ‘festivals’, I do not take any objection regarding the symbolism they brandish. On the contrary I believe that symbolism, to an extent, is essential in order to express your feelings and let your loved ones know how much you care for them. It is another matter that I don’t believe in doing things for the heck of it and hence refrain from greeting people on this day. However, I do reciprocate when someone wishes me. I know that the friendship day is over now; nevertheless, I am going to narrate a tale of friendship in order to celebrate the friendship day this year.

The internet, and especially the social media, has indeed made the world a global village. And the most beautiful part of it is- we can interact with people of our choice and befriend them even if they are thousands of miles away from us. It is not that I am fed up of people in my life and hence I seek refuge in the virtual world. Nevertheless, it is true that of all the people I know in my real life, no one likes to discuss the subjects or topics which intrigue me the most. Thanks to twitter, and to an extent Yahoo, I have come in contact with like-minded people and now I discuss those subjects or topics with them. Yeah we have a small group of like-minded people on twitter and we do enjoy interacting with one another.

But the tale of friendship is of Mr. Mahesh Jagga and me, and there is something which makes this friendship special, a very special one. Mahesh and I first met exactly a year back on twitter when I used to tweet from a parody account and that’s how all it started. I was anonymous to the world then. Many people, including Mahesh, thought that I was an aged person. And the funny part is- I used to believe that Mahesh must be in his late thirties or early forties. Both of us were wrong and that’s another funny thing. We interacted a lot with each other and eventually we discovered that on certain issues we were on the same wavelength. It wouldn't amount to exaggeration if I say that it was the #NaMo4PM campaign that brought us together. In fact, I owe all my friends on twitter to two things- one is that parody account and the other is #NaMo4PM campaign.

With the passage of time, we began to know each other personally and that was the time when I found a great friend in him. We met each other recently. It was indeed an experience I would never forget throughout my life. It is easy to interact with a person online as all you’re going to receive or send is words. But it’s not the same when you meet that person in real. Besides there was the generation gap to make both of us feel awkward. But to my surprise, that awkwardness didn't last even for five minutes. This was quite unusual for me, as I am not someone who goes on talking to people in the very first meeting. But then it was Mahesh. We went on and on and talked about many different subjects. But that wasn’t new for either of us, as we have been doing this for a year. Eventually he did ask me why I was demented; and he didn't stop there. He heard me out and then talked to me in a manner that boosted my morale. When I went to meet him, I was a bit deranged but after meeting him, I now feel a bit confident. Thanks to him, I am now rejuvenated and battle ready to face hardships of the life yet again. To say the least, he has rejuvenated the sanguine me.

This was the tale of friendship of two fellows who met each other on twitter and became good friends. I still do not know why I wrote this all, but as said in the beginning, I do not mind symbolism if it’s not for the heck of it.