Buzz my friend

Buzz lived in a beautiful home surrounded by green plants, sweet smelling flowers and kind souls. He loved to get up each day and looked forward to discovering the many surprises life had to offer him. Buzz lived with his mother and his brothers. It was a happy life, full of excitement and fun. Food was never a problem and they always had enough to eat each day. The most exciting part of Buzz’s everyday life was when the school lunch bell rang, it meant that Buzz would be surrounded by friends, playing with them and having a good time. He had three very good friends who played with him everyday, they played hide n seek and chase. It was happy times in Buzz’s life.

Then a day dawned it was not the best of the days, the sun had disappeared and the wind was strong, there was a chill in the air. Buzz did not like the weather one bit. The day went by slowly until it was time for lunch again. As the bell rang, Buzz went to meet his friends, they always played in the wooded area of the garden, it was cosy and secluded. As they all gathered a strong wind blew, shaking the bushes and tossing things about. It was messy and difficult however they decided to still play there, it was going fine for a while. Until suddenly a twig broke and the wind blew it , it landed hard on Buzz.

“Buzz!”, shouted his friends.

Buzz lay still, his small body being nudged by the wind , as if to say “Get up!”.

Buzz wouldn’t move and as his friends discovered soon, Buzz had died. His friends picked up his fragile body and kept it safe for a while, as much as a child could.

A few days later as the three friends sat forlornly in the woods, missing Buzz they were surprised to see Buzz’s mother there. Nobody exchanged a word but the friends felt happy to see her and extremely sorry for her. Buzz’s mom had come to pay them a visit as if to say “Thank you for looking after my son even when he was no more!”.

Now this would read like a traumatic story the only saviour being the fact that Buzz was a bee, who my daughter  and two of her classmates, had decided to befriend. Unusual choice one might think but children are that simple and that touched when things go wrong. This story was narrated by her rather sadly. It needed to be retold for us to admire the simple things in life.

Why doesn’t the pink snail go home?

Mithoo skipped and hopped on the wet pavement

she was on her way to school.

Wet weather, wet ground saw a lot of snails everywhere,

they were on the ground, on the hedge and on the walls.

Lovely colours their shells were,

some orange, some twirly whirly and some plain brown.

What caught Mithoo’s eyes was a snail with a pink shell,

her favourite colour after all.

The snail was at the edge of the pavement about to climb the wall!

Oh! asked Mithoo “Mamma where are the snails off too? Are they going to a snail school?”

When Mamma said maybe, Mithoo was keen to meet the pink snail’s family.

“Some other time dear, we are running late!”, said Mamma.

Again back from school on the same path,

Mithoo meets the pink snail at the same spot.

She stopped, she peeked, she looked intently.

The snail lay dead still.

“Why doesn’t the pink snail go home?”

“Let’s take the snail to our home, she isn’t going to hers anyway!”

Oh! no, thought Mamma.

“Well she needs to go home, her parents would be looking out for her!”, said Mamma.

It rained and poured all night long and the ground was the wettest ever.

The next day when Mithoo went she met the snail at the same spot, now dead and gone forever.

Oh!, wept Mithoo “Now it will never meet her mom again!”

It was such a tiny thing it might have met its fate under a trampling feet!

But for Mithoo it was the prettiest creature to die in a heart beat.

Death so grim and so fast doesn’t even spare the prettiest of us,

it works in a flash and takes all without a fuss.

 

Friendship of another day!

I look out of the window, see the blue sky and the shimmering waters of the lake. I feel happy another day to look forward to, school, fun and friends. What’s more it was my birthday! I expected gifts, loads of them and lots of cuddles and kisses. Also I wanted a party. My friends didn’t disappoint me, I did get a lot of attention and great gifts. Unable to hold a party, they planned their little treat in a spare classroom during lunch break, shared their lunch boxes and presented me with their gifts. They were inexpensive stuff, but they made me happy, very happy and surprisingly so. Those little gifts, hastily wrapped meant the world to me. My dad came to pick me up from school, I generally travelled by the school bus, he offered to buy all my friends ice lollies, orange flavour, from  the ice cream van just outside our school gates. They loved it and so did I!

It’s been years since that day and many birthdays have passed by, but this one holds a truly special place in my heart. Those were difficult times in my childhood, but I was unable to articulate  that and make my friends understand. With time we drifted apart, set on our life’s various journeys. We met at times, like waves, but the kinship was lost. Till date they are unaware of how much I cherished them and this memory that they created for me.

On the course of life I had my own children.Now, they are in school, making friends, trying to understand the complexities of the social world. They are in their formative stages, little acts of indifference from their friends hurt them. Emotional and sensitive they are, especially to their friends. I see a reflection of my childhood. School life is incomplete without friends.

However, nowadays there is the ever-present social media, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, to name a few. One might propose it’s so easy to reconnect back. Is it truly! I doubt it, yes I am in touch with these friends, do we really connect I don’t think so. We simply stay ‘friends’ on Facebook, out of maybe some old bonds or mere curiosity to find out how life happened to them. This can never be friendship, this is just some emotional mirage. I wonder then what kind of friends will my children have!? Nothing on Earth can replace the human contact, the joy of physically being with people whom you cherish as friends. Nothing can replace the little acts of kindness, love and remembrance that your friends show towards you. To play together, celebrate together, eat ice-cream together and simply share secrets, that’s what friendship means to me, even now.