Not every day is sunny. Not every week is pleasant. Not every month is delightful. Not every year is radiant. But your days can be endurable when you have your friends and family close.
This is a story from a time when the skies suddenly turned gray and the dementors were hovering above eagerly, waiting for me to give it all up and succumb to their evil desires.
My move to Mumbai after graduation was very successful and my friends had helped me all the way to face the big bad world. A new city, a new place and a new job. Life was at its glamorous best. There wasn’t one dark corner, the sunlight a brilliant golden yellow, illuminated every bit of my soul.
But nothing in life is certain and things happen when you expect them the least. I was only a month into my job and finalized an apartment to move to. But it was not to be. The company I was working at suddenly declared bankruptcy and a bunch of us were asked to leave the next day. I was devastated. All the dreams and plans I had been making with my friends for the last month were suddenly out of reach. The new apartment I was going to move-in. My first bike. To live-up the life in Mumbai. To show my parents and village friends the dazzle of urban world. All vaporized in one swift stroke.
Life was bleak and I couldn’t think of my next move. It was as if I was paralyzed. But then they say that dawn comes after the darkest hour of night. And so it was. I don’t think I could have pulled through without the support of my friends and family.
I must have sounded really bad. Because the next morning my friend’s apartment was full of my village friends and family. It seems that my mate had rung them up and asked them to talk to me. And they responded by traveling and dragging my childhood friends overnight to Mumbai.
No time to think! They dragged me out of my bed and pushed me into the taxi parked downstairs and off we were. Within minutes my friends were lost in the sites of the city and were chattering non-stop about this skyscraper and that flyover. And Gajju wouldn’t stop pestering about going to the The Gateway of India. But the film studios in Goregaon were what everyone of them was hoping to get into.
Even after a decade, I can remember this day as vividly as if it was just yesterday. That one gesture, the time I got to spend with my friends and family changed my outlook. The day didn’t dawn bright but I can always say that the dusk was illuminated with a thousand possibilities. No one has it easy, and the only thing that makes it easy and enjoyable is the people around us.
After all, People matter; places don’t.