Shakal-e-kitaab...

Shakal-e-kitaab or Facebook, as it is more popularly known, is a $15 billion worth phenomena that has swept the social networking world. I think million new applications are made everyday (exaggeration…duh!!). Although these applications can be annoying but the site is still very addictive as it keep updating you about your friends. So, now I know if R is shopping for shoes (ha ha!!) or M is perked up coz the payday is coming soon (lol) or G is craving Greek food (wink) or Ri is wishing everyone a happy Halloween. Oh that reminds me Happy Halloween to everyone from my side too.

Last week Facebook showed me the real power of social networking. As many of you know that my Dad was in the Army, so I have traveled a lot and changed 11 schools till my 12^th grade (blah blah blah). There are some obvious perks of an Army lifestyle, you get to travel to many exotic places that you would never visit otherwise, Army canteen has always been great for buying goods at sometimes half the price than retail, making new friends all over the country and meeting people from different backgrounds. There is one big disadvantage to this lifestyle though, forgetting friends as you move from one place to another. I have lost touch with almost all my school friends because of this wandering. I have made lots of friends over the years but there were two that stood out, Sree and Anuj.

We were living in Meerut, the city known for its Hindu-Muslim riots, and my Dad had decided to put me in Kendriya Vidhyala School from St. Mary’s Academy as the former was an Army based school and made it easier for us to move in case of sudden posting in between school years. It was my first day at school in 8^th grade. I was a very shy kid in those days (still am **sharmaying**) and was eating my lunch alone in the class.

“Hi, my name is Prashant and this is Anuj. What’s your name?”

“Ricky **eating aloo ka paratha that Mom had made in morning**”

“This is your first day at school, right?”

“Yea”

“Which school did you come from?”

“St. Mary’s Academy”

“Oh!! What percentage did you passed your 7^th grade with?”

“74%”

“Want to be friends?”

“Sure”

This was a start to one of the best friendships of my school life. They both were the smartest kids in class, trying to outdo each other to come first. Sree was a South Indian genius with varied interests. He would make helicopters by carving wood, knit his own sweater for winters and come to school on his grandfather’s antique bike. Anuj was a very typical UP ka ladka, very conservative but very smart. Sree used to live in Army Cantonment area, while Anuj lived in old part of the city called Begum Bridge. We would often hang out at Sree’s place as Army Cantonment areas are usually nicer than rest of the city. We would play cricket, study together and goof around, all day long. Sree’s Mom used to make some of the yummiest Rasam with rice and Idlis, that we would end up eating after a game of cricket in the nearby maidan. This was my daily routine for the next 2 years until it was time to move on.

We moved to Dehradoon, while Prashant moved to Chennai and Anuj stayed in Meerut. I kept in touch with Anuj by snail mail but over time the mails stopped coming. I made new friends, moved from one place to another, settled in Canada but could not forget our friendship. Infact, the only sole picture of us three during Prashant’s birthday is etched in my head like a Mohenjodaro carving on stone.

Few years back, I was searching for someone on yahoo and instinctively searched for Sree. I got one hit with the same name; I emailed him and got a reply after a week, saying that he was the same Sree from Meerut. I replied him again but never got the reply back, so assumed that someone was playing a prank. Last week, I decided to try my luck in Facebook and again got one person with exactly same name. I left a message and got a reply after 2 days that he was the same Sree. But this time I was sure he is the right guy because my name in Facebook is Ricky but he replied me by my non-nickname. I got another message from him today, telling me where he is, what he is been up to and remembering old times. Unfortunately, even he has lost contact with Anuj.

This may seem like a small thing for most of the people reading this mail but for me it is a big thing. All my friends on Facebook have friends from school except me and I would always wonder what Sree and Anuj would be doing at this stage of their lives. Thanks to Facebook, now I know about atleast one of them…