I reached home next morning.

Home Sweet Home. East or West, Home is the Best. It is evergreen truth. There is no place like home (or home town if you are coming from outstation visit after a long time) on this planet earth. This was the place I missed miserably in past 1 year of my stay in Delhi NCR. I missed the gang of my buddies, love of my parents, congested traffic jamming the roads, Thaggu ki Kulfi, Banarasi ke Laddu, Chacha ki malayeedaar Chai @ Mothijeel Gate and everything. I dreamed of enjoying these things may times far from my reach in real life during 1 year stay away from my home. I should feel happy, after all I was back once again and it was in my reach, along with my loving friends.

Everything was so colorful but my eyes were unable to see the colors of life. There were tears rolling out every now and then. My gang of buddies, well most of them if not all, were waiting on platform to welcome me. Their happiness was over-flowing and was evident from their energy level and wide smile.  I should be happy as I was returning home for good for almost a year after being away from home and family. But there was something which was not allowing me to be happy. My eyes were searching for that one Face among the crowd to which these have become habitual to. That smiling face, glimpses of which were appearing momentarily every now and then, was not visible anywhere.

3 of my buddies from our Gang of Buddies, hopped in and picked up all my luggage while rest of them were busy in hugging me one by one. Everyone wanted his time spared but was not willing to allow others take much time with me. I was being literally pulled off from one person to another. No one had time to notice my situation or condition. It was not a big deal even for a lifeless stone to feel their ecstasy of happiness and excitement after seeing me standing with them. Finally the 3 came in after collecting all my luggage from the coach.  Aman (Remember the friend “A” from my last visit to home) was waiting for the last. He was not in a hurry to finish it quickly like others. He wanted his isolated and devoted time spared with everyone else in this snatching game. He came in last to hug me, looked in my face and noticed my eyes wet. Instead of hugging me, he wiped off my eyes, turned back to the gang and started scolding them as the head of the unit, “See ! What the hell have you uncivilized junglee people done to my friend.” His finger was pointing to my face while he was scolding others. Now everyone noticed that I was carrying tears in my eyes. Although he had wiped the tears a moment back, but somehow my eyes had lost the control over the tears since last night. I tried to bring a fake smile to make everyone feel okay but I am not good in pretending what I am not. I instead used the excuse and tried my best to deviate the attention away from me. I told them it was due to over-excitement and happiness of seeing all of us together. No one suspected anything wrong in it. In fact, it was partly true. I was happy but was not feeling that happiness because I had more severe grieve on the other hand.

It was not even a day, when I started hearing complaints from almost everyone I knew. Their complaint was more or less the same that “I have changed. What’s wrong with me?”.  Have I changed? Majority of people may not be wrong if this was a common observation from most of them. It made me think what could have made them draw this conclusion. I was alert to hide my inner feelings but perhaps I could not succeed in it. Somehow my actions were not reflecting what I intended to show. I was finding it difficult to laugh. People were feeling like crowd and gathering was not looking good to me either, I wanted to stay alone, isolated.

I did not feel hungry at all. The first nibble I took when I was served the breakfast, it reminded me that yesterday I was taking breakfast with my roommate. His ever-smiling glorious face started floating in front of my eyes. I got worried whether or not he would have taken breakfast today. I am here with friends and family, but he would be all alone. I was not able to take food. I told my mom that I was tired of overnight journey and not feeling fine. I asked her to allow me take rest for couple of hours all alone. The loneliness was the only thing that was a respite to me  in this time. I wanted to have some time with myself.

I wanted to talk to him. But my mom insisted that I should rest in my parent’s room instead of running upstairs to my room. This way she would be able to take care of me easily without running through stairs. I cannot disobey my parents. I went in the room but there was not enough privacy. I could not call my roommate to ask him if he had taken breakfast. I laid down on the bed, closed my eyes and was still thinking about what to do, when I heard someone entering the room.  It was Sameer, one of my friends. He almost shouted, “Hey Hero ! Here is a call for you… “. I opened my eyes and saw him standing my bed and handing over my mom’s mobile to me. He continued “Your Mom said.. he called 3 times since morning when you had not even reached home.”

I grabbed the mobile quickly. I had the pretty good idea who this caller could be, obviously no one except my roommate. I was not wrong. “Hey !… reached safely?”, the Voice came from other side. His melodious voice was a little slow than usual. Hearing his voice my heart started racing fast. My voice choked out of over excitement and emotional flood. My eyes responded to this excitement quickly with fresh chain of tears rolling out.

“Hi ! “, I said in a trembling soft voice, and noticed that Sameer was still standing there watching me with a big smile on his face. He was enjoying it.

“Wait a minute…!”, I asked my roommate to hold the call, and then turned back to Sameer and requested him to leave me alone. But he denied.  Probably he was enjoying watching me so emotional or he was eager to know who is this other person with whom I was so deeply attached.

Sameer rejected my request to leave me alone. After a great deal of efforts and bribery, he agreed to leave me alone.

“Had your breakfast?”, was my first question after returning back to him on phone. In return, what I heard was hysterical laugh on the other side. He was amused by all my communication with Sameer. My efforts to please him and to make him agree to leave the room. When he stopped laughing, he said, “You boasted that your friends follow you. What I over-heard was just opposite. Is that what you call following?”

We kept communicating for good amount of time. He told me that he was trying my mobile number since early morning but it was switched off. Then he called my Mom. He had not taken breakfast yet but he promised that he will make sure that he follows the scheduled routine now onwards and take meals in time. It was a great relief after talking to him and I started feeling better and a bit happier.