Farewell my friend! May you rest in peace

Beneath the blue sky,

In the dark soil, you have gone under, 

To rest forever

Rest then, my friend, in eternal peace. 

This is a tribute to one of my oldest Best friend forever (BFF), Ravinder or Ravi as he was called by everyone. 

Our friendship goes back to those days when we were in college in the 90s. When we enrolled for the karate class in Raichur, he was already a brown belt. But that dint stop him from befriending us - the only 2 girls in the class of 30 boys. 

After a month when we were learning the kicks and punches, he was tutoring us on the instructions of the Master.  In this group of juniors were 2 other boys. And as we practised every evening our friendship also grew. We became a group of 5 friends and the talk of the other boys in the class and the cause of annoyance of the Master. 

But did we care? After the class, we stopped at a bakery to have some snacks and then peddled our way to a common point where the roads parted and took the roads to our homes. 

The other 3 were Nasreen, Faiz and Javeed. 

We were all in different educational institutes so the evening was the only time we met and after 2 hours of rigorous training, we religiously stopped at the bakery. 

When it was time for our first test, Ravi coached us with the katas, kicks and punches as the test would be taken by the Grand Master. 

So it was with each day our friendship grew. And maybe each one of us had a crush on each other turn by turn but no one ever confessed. And am glad we dint because by the time we graduated we had outgrown all those puppy feelings. 

After the orange belt, we stopped learning karate and Ravi never got his black belt because we had a fall out with the Master who wanted to control us even outside the class. 

Ours was a small town and people did not have much to talk about. so a group of 5 youngsters with 2 girls and that too Muslim girls was something the people liked to talk about. The Master also dint like us being together either.  

It did not matter to him that one of us, Nasreen had won the state level championship trophy giving him something to be proud for the first time ever since he had begun his karate school. 

So we would meet only on someone's birthday in one of the few hotels that were in the town back then. But meeting on January 1st every year was mandatory. It was like a ritual for us. We had our get together on 1st January of every year.

But that too stopped when we all shifted to different cities growing up, settling down with careers, partners, so on and so forth. 

We were in touch through phone calls but not very frequently. But once the era of mobile phones started it was great. Now we dint have to go to telephone booths to make calls. 

Ravi was living with his mother and sisters after his father died and his marriage was a disaster because he had dared to marry a girl from the dominant caste. The girl's parents rich upper-caste landlords forcibly broke the marriage which lasted just a few months. And Ravi never re-married despite being handsome and son of an Ex MLA with large properties. 

He wasted his youth, did not even take up any occupation. He was satisfied living on whatever income the properties of his parents fetched. 

With time he developed culinary skills and could cook even biryani. He cooked for the entire family for all the 3 times.  He no longer had friends except myself and Faiz. Maybe one or 2 from his school who later connected with him during the reunions. Our group of 5 had also split as people change with time. 

He called me up at least once a week and always complained that I never called him and that it was always he who is calling me. And I would promise to call him next time. But before I could call he would call me. 

Two weeks back he called me and said he had watched the Hindi movie ' Gulabo Sitabo' and that the climax of the movie disturbed him so much he could not sleep for 3 days as he was constantly thinking about it. He asked me to watch the movie and tell him my opinion. 

I intended to watch it one of these days and call him to tell my opinion. But I never got to see the movie due to time constraints.  But I am going to take time to watch it now soon but I will never be able to give him my feedback. 

Whenever he called he would give me tips on taking care of my old mother from his experience of having looked after his grandmother. 

With the pandemic around, he would joke saying don't save, enjoy, eat and make merry. 

He wanted to come to Hyderabad for a long time and wanted me to treat him to Hyderabadi Biryani. But he never could make it but had assured he would come once COVID goes away for good. But now he will never come. And I will never be able to treat him to Hyderabadi biryani now just like I will never be able to call him to tell about Gulabo Sitabo. 

But just before the pandemic started he had gone on a 'yatra' to several temples across India with some travel agency which had all senior citizens in it. But he said he enjoyed their company and the seniors were also happy because they had someone younger than them in the group to help them around with things which they could not do. 

He shared all his sorrows with me and from my voice detected if I was sad. It was a long friendship of 30 years a time when religion was sacred and not a communal weapon. 

He did not use Whatsapp.   But today evening on an instinct I saw his status by chance. And was surprised to see his picture with the words RIP and today's date 3rd July. I thought he is playing a prank and when his mother answered the phone I realised it was the truth. His sister had used his phone to keep that status so all his contacts would know. 

Will miss you always, Ravi. Rest in peace now that everything that troubled you is left behind. But you went too soon and sudden. You have gone but your memories will stay. And with this blog of mine, I pay tribute to you, my dear friend. This blog will immortalise you even when I am no more..the blog will remain posted on the internet. 

Fare you well, friend.