FRIENDS......HEAVENLY

Are you best friend material?” Guru asked me. I paused and looked around at him and said, “No. I don’t think so.”

Guru deliberated and then stopped on his tracks to ask me, “How do you know that you are not the type?” That was a strange question and made

me wonder whether he was really curious or simply wanted to catch his breath. The latter was highly possible; the stairs that lead up to Swayambhu are not a joke after all. I stopped my tired feet and turned to his calm but curious face.

“Well I know it because IF I was, I would have had a best friend by now wouldn’t I?” I mumbled to him.

Guru smiled and said, “Hmm…you do have a point there.”

Seemingly satisfied in his inquires he asked no further question. I couldn’t help but marvel at the steps we had conquered, “There was a time when we could cover up the whole way in just two runs, remember it?” I asked Guru.

No response followed from his weary tongue, and we headed towards a bench as twilght slowly gripped us.

“How do you feel here?” Guru had another abrupt question for me.

I frowned my face pretending to really think hard, “It’s calm and quiet here…far form the city…..beauty everywhere.”

Guru didn’t seem very happy with my response, “No…I mean do you feel God around here…”

“Well ever since the word ‘Evolution’ entered my vocabulary, the word ‘Doubt’ has taken hold of me. God around? Don’t know.”

“An atheist?”

I shook my head, “No... Maybe I believe in God but I’m not really sure.”

“So believe more in evolution, then?” Guru asked without a pause.

I smiled and said, “I think I would choose to believe in God…come on we can ask God this and that…and he does sometime grant our wishes. What does evolution give us big hairy apes with weird postures and impossible names to remember?”

Guru laughed at that but looked sad again, “God does not only give…he takes away as well.”

“Hmm…hmm…” I agreed silently.

Some monks passed our way. Their calm happy faces were shining under the half-speckled moon. “Envy them. Really do. Such unquestionable faith. Only God. No doubt.”

The moon shone over the valley and over our thoughts as well. Guru was the first to break the silence.

“You see the moon? Tell me what would you rather do…..sit right here and enjoy the flawless whiteness and the sparkling brilliance, or land over there and find nothing but dirt and rocks. What would you want?”

The answer was obvious but still, “I want to land on the moon. Want to see the earth from there. Reverse angel would be nice.”

Guru stood and said, “Lets go, it’s getting late.”

Surprised by this sudden move,

I was rooted for a while but soon

followed his frantic steps down

the staircase.

When we got down, I assumed we would sit on a tempo and go on our way, but Guru had other ideas. “Want some momo?” he asked.

I shook my head and declined

the offer.

He made an odd kind of funny face and said, “Tsk…tsk…look at you. A city youth saying no to momo….what is this country coming to.” He raised his hands to the sky and apparently satisfied by his theatrics, he moved towards the stall by the road.

I stood at a distance watching him gobble down one dumpling after the other. He noticed me and said, “Why you standing so far? The smell too much for you?”

I pretended not to hear him and looked at the nearly pitch black surrounding around us. I was lost in this black darkness when his sudden reappearance gave me a start.

The food must have reenergised him and he asked again, “Night

or the day?”

“Day for sure,” I had a clear answer.

“Why?”

“Because the sun is warm

and bright.”

Then came the most bizarre question of the day from Guru, “So who do you think the sun’s favourite planet in the solar family?”

I replied, “Earth for sure.”

“Really? Why?”

“You know… the earth is our mother. Dharti Mata.”

I cupped my hands close to his ears and whispered, “I believe the earth is

in affair with the sun. Sun is our daddy.” Then in a normal tone of voice I added, “Well… hence the un loves earth the most.”

Guru played along, “I never knew. Never did.”

Guru and I caught a nearly empty tempo. Inside, he looked up at the sky and smiled a childish grin. “When I was really young, I used to look up at the sky and wonder if it was made of blue glass. If one could knock on the glass from an aeroplane and if God would open the door…” He drifted off.

I said, “Then BAM!!! You grow old and realise that the earth is round

and the sky is nothing but layers

and layers of gases. In end, a vast nothingness of space”

His expression told me nothing so I continued, “Imagine if like the load-shedding, there would be gravity-shedding in Nepal. Imagine giving the term off the ground a whole new meaning.”

A smile passed his face, “Hanging on to poles and pillars during the shedding hours. That would be sight to see.”

The moon still kept following us. This gave me an idea, “I know the perfect best friend material: the Moon… giving us light when the sun hides away. The friend in need… all giving… And the earth, what does it give the moon .Nothing.”

Guru was ready with the answer. “The earth gives the moon a reason for existence.”

I sat stunned.

“Your idea of a best friend is quite unclear. I mean like the moon and the earth, friends are different. The give-and-take level is different too. But

that does not make one less of a friend. Friendship is not an algebric

equation to be balanced both ways. It is more like geometry with each friend at his own angles and perimeters. Maybe you are best friend material…who knows? Maybe you already are one, who knows?”

I could only stare at his shining face and hear the echo of his wonderful words. But before I was able to find words, he got off.

He waved away and said, “Keep thinking. See you on Friday. Bye!!”

I watched his figure get smaller until it disappeared. Nothing could be seen in the darkness. My heart was scared and my hands trembled.

“But thank God! The sun will rise again tomorrow,” I thought and kept thinking.