Still Waiting……Will you come back?

I was in my class one when I met this wonderful person called Vijay. How can I call him just Vijay? He was very particular about his name I mean, he wanted everybody to call him by his full name "Vijay Vittal". 

It was the first day of my class one. We were all feeling as if we have been graduated from some B- school when we stepped from UKG to class one. We had our own group of friends and we refused to take any one else apart from our group mates. Then a sweet little boy enters the class. He is not from our school!!! So not in our group was the first expression of all the group leaders. Strange but true we had the great Groupism long back in school days…..

I was the leader for my group, followed by my group mates Aashu, Anisha, Kumar and Shaam. Vijay comes and sits next to me and then asks can I sit here? This was how my friends reacted when Vijay spoke to me for the first time.

 Aashu- (She was very fat and foodie) so, her reaction goes like this: - Ranju we are not taking him for the lunch break right?

Anisha- (Very pretty and friendly girl) Hey this boy is as fair as me; I think we can take him for the lunch break.

Kumar and Shaam (Most naughty and so called brave boys) - Ask him can he go near that tamarind tree after 6 in the evening, if yes, he is in. Finally after all the witty things done by my group mates, Vijay was in our team. That day just passed by listening to his old schools stories. We all went home happily as we met a cute little friend. 

From the next day onwards we all became so close that, we five were inseparable. We played together, ate together, sat together and also copied together in tests and exams. I was very poor in Hindi and my helper, of course it was Vijay. I passed a big terror of my life (Hindi) because of him I think. 

It was our midterm holidays the next day of our Hindi exam. Mostly all kids will be happy to have their holidays but we all refused to go on a holiday. We missed each other so much that we took all our land line phone numbers and called each other upon our parent’s permission every alternate day. 

It was again start of the school after our holidays and we all were excited to see each other and tell our holiday stories too….Aashu had become more fat, Anisha more pretty, Kumar and Shaam because of their mischievous behaviour had wounds on their knees which was expected. Vijay and I were very happy to meet each other. I still remember his chubby cheeks shaking when he spoke….  We all went to the candy shop next to our school in the lunch break because of Aashu. We had 50ps each and it was a huge amount then. We all took candies and while returning a cycle guy hit me and my only candy fell down. 

Disappointed and shy me… Did not ask anyone to share their candy with me. Everybody were ready to share their candies, but because of my shy nature I refused. I still remember Vijay throwing his Candy without eating which normally kids won’t do.

Days passed and we all were ready for our final exams. Again Hindi and again Vijay the saver of the terror. All the exams were done and we all were again sad coz of the long vacation. I was sent to my native the day after my exam. All others had their own plans. We all bided a sad smiley faced adieu to each other and were out of the school.

This was not the same vacation me and my friends had as we had the last time. It was very boring without them. We had the phone call idea for a few days and it did not last long as the phone bills were scary to our parent’s as it was a long holiday and mine was an STD call. We lost touch and we had only our stories to talk about with our family. But how much will our family people listen? Even they got bugged. Holidays went on with lots of expectation on the day one of class two.

Ahhh!!!! Sigh of relief to all of us coz it was the first day of class two again. This was a very bad day for many kids and parent’s .As this day bought lots of weird crying sounds and consoling sounds.

I was excited to meet all my friends. As I had mentioned before no one had changed from their physical structures. It was 8.55 AM and still Vijay is not in. My face was down as I expected him very much that day. That day passed without Vijay. Me and my team mate’s very disappointed went home after the school. We were charged up the next day expecting Vijay. Again same 8.55 AM and no Vijay. We ran to our class teacher and enquired about him. She had no clue. He stayed near the school. So, we went in search of him, but his home was locked. As we were very small we could do only this much. Here I learn the importance of social networking sites. Now, I imagine I could have pinged Vijay if he was on FB, Gtalk or other SN sites. Fact is, couldn’t imagine all these at that point of time.

We all were let down from what happened and we never met this superb friend again… Not even now when we have so many social networking sites because we can see many Vijay Vitall’s in the search criteria and we can’t recognise who our friend Vijay is, as we remember only his 1^st standard’s innocent and chubby face. Days passed, Years went but we all have only one thing on our mind and that is,

Still waiting….. Will you come back?.......

And this story is dedicated to my unforgettable buddy Vijay Vittal.

I thank God for the way he made you, distinct, special and
unique. You were not made from a common mould.
~ Erwin W. Lutzer

Ranju….