All it takes is a hug...

Bhopu had come this morning to invite me to his wedding. I guess I made him feel that this was a big mistake on his part; I pulled his leg to such an extent – from his return from UK to his impending marriage – that the guy was blushing to roots of his hair. Moral of the story – never give up the opportunity when it’s oh so nicely is presented to you on a platter :)!

Mom was most relieved on hearing this news – in spite of repeated denials she had the sneaking the suspicion that I would marry him (??). The fact that we were good friends was not enough to allay her suspicion. Awwww.... cannot really blame her.... Mom is Mom.

When I finally paused to drew in a breath, Bhopu threw in his bit – “So, what about you?”

I was ready with my usual flippant answer but then I suddenly choked up and to my horror, I could feel tears pricking the corner of my eyes. Blame it on the stress, or the growing list of friends going away from me, or the whole plane of relationships changing in such a manner, or......................

Bhopu did something which I would remember for the rest of my life – he left his perch on the chair, ambled over to where I was sitting like a Buddha – or a crying Buddha at that – on the divan and enveloped me in a bear hug ! That’s all I needed to completely break down!

While his shirt was sort of getting saturated with saline water, he (thankfully) chose to be silent. After a full thirty min of uninterrupted bawling, when my tears had finally reduced to (the promised) hiccups, he asked, “Why do you think so much, Chi?”

Never had I been at such a total loss of answer.

He drew in long breath before saying, “You know what? You manage to present such a smiling persona of yourself that no-one could guess that something’s eating you inside. But if this is the end result, then I am thankful that I could never learn that from you.”

I smiled a tired smile – “ Ya.....thanks a ton for the compliment. Not everybody can afford the luxury of tears. This is the way I am. It takes time to change for the better, right? Now...... tell me all about your new job.”

He took his cue and soon, we were discussing about the concept of by-pass IP addresses.

And if Mom noticed her daughter’s distracted silence, she did not comment about it.