A Song For Every Occasion - Part III

And like every time, he spares the song from deletion as an afterthought. Knocking a few more out, he moves further down the list which now seems endless (kudos to compact memory designs). Suddenly he encounters some hip hop songs, a genre he totally hates and scratches his head wondering how they got there. It isn't long before it strikes him that he had lent his iPod to a friend for some time. He exhales slowly to calm the rising anger – hadn't he made it clear to his friends never to mess with his playlist? Wondering how annoying friends can be at times, he clears out all the ‘garbage’ until he reaches ‘Yaaron…Dosti…’. And a happy realization dawns upon him – friends…sometimes hard to live with them, and yet nigh impossible to live without them. Before he knows it, he’s visiting his childhood again…the friend who dedicated this song to him…the friend who had stuck…

Yaaron…Dosti…

There are hardly any secrets for a lasting friendship which begins in childhood. Share a toy or a cookie and you’ve made a new friend! Such was the case when he met Samar for the first time at another friend’s house. Bonding over video games and gully cricket, soon they became inseparable. They were quite a pair of troublemakers at school too, causing mayhem in and around the classroom. At times when one couldn’t run fast enough, the other would come back in an attempt to rescue or get caught and take the fall himself. 

Of course they had their arguments, fights and brawls even. But all it took was a mumbled sorry and a punch in the shoulder to patch things up. As they grew up developing their own individual personalities, he found out that what Samar lacked in academic capabilities, he more than made up for it with his musical talents, witty humour and physique built for sports. Evenings were spent learning football from him and during nights he would help him overcome study blues. As years passed by, their bond became stronger over soccer matches, downloading stuff off internet, learning to disable parental controls and bypassing security through proxies. 

One day while on an errand he met with a terrible accident fracturing his collar bone. High on painkillers, with a sling which felt more like a straitjacket, when he was stuck to bed at home, Samar came to visit him. With a crooked smile Samar said,” Seems like you weren't exactly listening when I taught you how to ride properly”. He smiled, which came out more like a grimace and replied,” With you as my mentor, this was bound to happen”. They shared a quiet laugh and then Samar kept a CD next to him at his bedside table, saying,” I know the painkillers never work. I've had worse. Hope this will keep your mind off it.” With a punch to his good shoulder, Samar left. That CD contained Samar’s piano cover of “Yaaron…Dosti…”. At night, with tears rolling down, which he prefers to believe were on the accord of the pain, he listened to the melody and finally had a good night’s rest after days. Recovered enough to be out of bed but still not enough to ride, as he wondered how would he get to school, Samar came by and said,” No way I am letting you take public transport. And man, coming with your parents, I know you want to avoid that. So hop on behind me and I’ll give you a ride. Just do me favour and shed some pounds”. And so with Samar’s help, he got well soon. 

Time tested their friendship once again, when as head prefect he had to report several players of the football team to the principal for indiscipline and violating a series of rules. Due to this, the players lost their football privileges and were suspended with immediate effect. This move had managed to turn the entire school against him as the squad had suffered a terrible blow just weeks away from a tournament. Samar, being the skipper of the team, was furious and shouted on him,” You are one uptight arse you know that? Your stunt has cost this team some key players!” Still he supported him and silenced everyone by saying,” There is no place for unruly people in soccer. A true player remains disciplined on and off the field.” That year the school had to do with a runner-up trophy but the principal lauded him and Samar at the annual function calling them the ideal students. As he moved on to college, Samar got a scholarship with the Manchester United Soccer School. When he went to see off Samar, before departing Samar said,” No matter what mess we get in, we always have each other’s back. And you still owe me a life in Contra!”. He came back home smiling and wondering how such a little thing could possibly be the foundation of a friendship so great.

Read on to the concluding Part IV...