Lost Friendships

"We are all pieces of what we remember. We hold in ourselves the hope and fears of those who love us. As long as there is love and memory, there is no true loss."

- Cassandra Clare

At every stage of life, we all had some special friends. There were days you were lively and there were days you were dejected but you were together. Then with passing time that bond faded, either due to a fight, a misunderstanding or simply you all got carried away with life. 

I have been longing to write on this facet of life: missing some old friends and reveling in nostalgia gave me the necessary push. Throughout our life we meet people from different spheres. We develop fellowships, acquaintances and friendships, sometimes which turn into adversaries, but  each of these mold our personality accordingly. These special people are there for us in times when our families fail us, when we fail ourselves. Despite that, either we make mistakes or our friends do and everything changes. Change is the essence of life but with that change comes pain and its surprising when you notice that you feel downcast not when you recall the cause of the change but the happy memories you made before that. You long for those happy days.

 'The things that gave us pleasure become the source of our agony.'

I have made a lot of friends over the course of twenty years, with all the shifting to different cities every two to three years. Similarly, I have lost many of them too. And I miss them especially the ones whom I lost in last five years, because teenage years are full of attachments and sensitivity. But they all are a part of me in one way or another. For instance I learned badminton, my first sport, by my friends when I was in grade 5. In my college years I made friends who brought me out of my nerdiness and made me enjoy that time. I still remember it was the first time I was bunking a class, I was nervous and to ease my tension she asked 'why are you so afraid?' She made a joke or two and I had such a fun time, now that memory lives with me, always pushing me to experience things out of my comfort zone. I have read numerous books but my favorite remains the 'Clockwork Princess' and a very dear friend introduced these series, and lend this book to me. I made a friend during initial auditions of dramatics in college after which we bonded over badminton and that person introduced me to a 'qawali' which is one of my favorites now. This is just an inch of me. There is a whole bunch of my traits that have been influenced by the people I met. 

All these anecdotes are of the friends I am no longer in touch with; we drifted apart. But I am glad to have been friends with them. No matter where they are I pray for them and I'm happy for their successes. 

Life indeed is a blur of faces but always remember the faces of those who touched your life. Every person is a chapter of your book, with the end of each chapter you learn something, especially from those who wronged you. This is what breaks you and this is what makes you stronger. And in the end be grateful for the people who stayed.   

Do share your experiences in the comments.