Boy

A smile plays on my lips. I've just been talking to A, and something he said had me laughing at the funny situation he was in.

Scenes from memory come back to me. A voice calling “Boy”; a vision of A drumming away happily, snatches of a conversation with him one fine summer night, the feel of a snake A had found in our building, a vision of A looking down on us from a tree, A sitting atop a rock...

How we came this far still amazes me. It was at a seminar that I first saw A, and he soon became a frequent visitor to our department. In the initial days, I'd always put him in what my friend calls the “Jango-mango” category, and what with my usual way of taking time to get to know a person, it was many months before I said something beyond “Hi” to him.

With time, we did become friends, but I don't think I really had a proper conversation with him until the day we'd all gone out for lunch, and I finally discovered that he was a drummer. (In fact, he'd been the drummer I'd seen last year, but I hadn't recognized him as he'd changed his hairstyle!) If you ask me, I'd say I was glad to have at last found a drummer among the people I come into regular contact with, and I did end up asking him for advice on drum kits. (I can't say whether he shared my pleasure, though :) )

I still remember the way he suddenly started laughing when I showed him a video to show him what footdrums were. I can still picture him sitting with a book, sitting absorbed in his work and oblivious to the world around him. I recall how fresh and in high spirits he would be even at 1:30 A.M., and even on the afternoons when I'd be struggling to keep my eyes open, he'd be just bursting with energy. I once asked A the secret behind his liveliness, and A just smiled. Another friend told me that it was because A was a couple of years younger to us. :)

Now A is busy with his band, as they'll soon be going their separate ways. He will soon be back for an year more. I don't know if I'll get to attend any more of his band's shows, whether we'll have discussions over tea at 1:30 in the morning, whether I'll see my friend calling out “Boy” to him, or whether we'll just drift away. But even if it is farewell tomorrow, I'm glad that A is one of the people I'm come across in this journey called life.

P.S. : Thanks to Marie Corelli & SM for the title. 

This is an ancient draft, and it just got okayed, so thought I'd post this first, bad as it is. Will be posting more soon. Until then...