We all have best friends, but no one can even come close to this.

My Best Friend

Nitin, you’re fine na?” a concerned voice broke my flow of thought, and I turned around to see who it was.

“Hey Akshata, yes I am. But why ask? What’s the matter?”

“I have been noticing you for the past few days. You have been blabbering something to yourself. Today you were doing it again, so I thought I better ask.” Akshata said as she took the seat next to me.

“Oh, I didn’t know I was being noticed“

“You definitely are. In fact, people also talk about you”

”After a tiring day of work people have the stamina to notice things? I thought everyone escaped into a world of their own.”

“They may be tired, but their mind is always wandering and looking for something unusual and exciting. You fit the bill perfectly.” I just smiled in reply.

Being popular was not something I craved for but to my good luck or bad something about me always caught the attention of people; making me popular without any effort.

“So what do you blabber about…the horrible work at office?” Akshata asked with a smile.

I looked at her and smiled too. ”You know, your blabbering habit is not a good thing. It makes an onlooker think you’re disturbed or probably swearing at him/her. You should see a doctor or try meditation. It would surely help.” Akshata’s concern was heart-warming.

In this maddening race of life where winning is all that matters and petty politics the order of the day, it was hard to find people who stop by and show some care.

Akshata and I were bus buddies for quite some time now. Bus buddies is how I term those people whom you only meet in the bus while travelling to and from office. You do not work with them or catch up otherwise. Yet, it’s their company and the conversations with them that makes the nearly four hour journey to and from office a pleasure. The best thing about the conversation is that it can include anything under the sun, even work details. Sure enough, some conversations with some people don’t go down the interesting line but still it’s a chance worth taking. I had noticed Akshata reading a novel by Chetan Bhagat, and that became our conversation starter. Before we knew it, we were on song. Bus buddies also come in handy when you need the current position of the bus or need to stop the bus when you’re running late. At that moment, they’re like angels in disguise.

“Hello, where did you get lost?” Akshata asked. “Something is surely the matter with you.”

“Nothing baba, I just drifted away, that’s it.”

“What’s the matter Nitin? Won’t you tell me?”

“Something should be the matter to tell you about na.”

“I don’t believe you. You just go blabbering on and on and say nothing is the matter.”

“It’s not blabbering. I just speak to someone.”

“Someone? But to whom and how? You neither have your earphones connected nor have a Bluetooth earpiece clipped on.” Akshata was being herself. That meant she wasn’t going to let go off me easily. If there was something she didn’t know, she would pursue it by all means. What made matters worse was that I couldn’t even bluff with her. She would sense it and then get irritated. Tolerating an irritated Akshata was not a good proposition.

Read the complete story in State of the Heart.

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• Friends Are There to the Very End !!!

Practicality

A pastor, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude".

The pastor said, "Hey, here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." "Hi John. Say, what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire! last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group was silent for a moment. Then the pastor said, "That's so sad I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer, after much thought said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"

Lesson: No emotions please, only practicality works here.

Friends or Foes?

Some days u cant help remind yourself, how much better it was when we were kids!!

Friends were friends and foes were foes, there was always a bold line drawn between the two in thick black ink.... na......thick black crayons!!!

Feelings were always clear and intentions never misunderstood!

And now we have grown up, and we have to wear a smile, while in our minds we might be screaming our heads off, with whatever bits of bad words we know!

We need to put our heads to concentrate on multicoloured computer monitors, when we actually want to go out and party!!

We have to be friends to our foes, which almost automatically makes our friends behave to us as if we their foes !

Every look, every word, every intention is misunderstood in every possible way! So much to the point that great people started proclaiming that 'the secret of failure, is trying to impress Everybody!'

Indeed, if we intent to clear every misunderstanding 'everyone' had got about us... then we would not have time for 'anything' else at all!!!! But does that mean that we live life our way and never care about others??? Answer would be a BIG NO !!!

So then what could we do?

A class in Theology

A group of kids, with some in their early childhood, came to the church on a war footing  to meet the Parish priest. “Where is the parish priest???” they enquired. “Down the corridor, in the room on the right” the sacristan replied looking at the anger on their face coupled with great dejection, without raising a question. The kids knocked on the door. “Come in” said the priest wondering who came to visit him at this hour in the morning. “Father, we're angry, very angry with God”. The priest thinking that this was not an ordinary issue folded his newspaper and kept it aside along with his cup of tea. “Why, what happened”. “Father, do you know, our cat was very sick. We prayed to God, so much, every day, every single day so he would cure him of his sickness. We showed him to the doctor, gave him medicines, took great care of him but to no avail. God has failed us. We are very angry with Him. Now we demand an answer as to why God did this. Tell us Father, tell us.”

Rounding up the kids the priest began explaining the concepts of life and death and theology. After going on and on, one of the kids; the youngest; held the arm of his sister who was standing right next to him and jerked it. With big eyes his sister chided him “Pay attention”. The boy tried paying attention again but again his patience ran out. He again gave his sister’s arm a jerk, this time he pulled it so hard that his sister’s ear was right next to his mouth. “This Father doesn't know anything!”

Sensing that the kids were not able to understand what he was saying and were getting restless by the minute he said, “You know God really loved the cat a lot and he couldn't do without it, hence he took it back. Your cat is now with God and in the best of health and happiness”. Hearing this the kids went back home happy and delighted that now their cat was with God and doing well.

Moral of the story – Always know your audience and speak to them in a language they understand. When you go fishing you don’t put a piece of pizza as a bait but a worm. Why? Because a fish doesn't know what pizza is but surely knows what a worm is.