An old man I knew.

In memory of late Saifuddin Uncle Lotia…

There was an old man I knew,
He had the smartest walk in town,
A walk, so straight and tall,
Yet, he wasn’t proud, at all.

A man so humble, in his words,
Yet, sarcasm filled the air,
His smile, so light and fresh,
That no one minded, what he had said.

A man a teacher not,
Yet he taught me a great more lot,
Not by words or formulas that I saw,
But in, the character and shape he sought.

He was a silent man, with a lot of work,
A space in corner, in his office, I recall,
His chair is silent, but something lives,
On his table, his presence still reverberates.

On his funeral, the town had crowded,
For his service and work in society was known,
Not in boast, or words that he would have said,
But by what he did, was evident and shown.

No phrases, or words, could ever define him,
For he was more, than one could say,
He lives inside, who knows him by his place,
A place small, yet everything on its own.

From an MSBian,

Ruqaiya Lokhand.

Friends For N-Ever!

I believe it was Grade VI where we learnt that;

Friendship is a priceless gift,

That cannot be bought or sold.

No wonder this poem was taken seriously only until the examinations, that we forgot what it actually meant. We never thought that its meaning could be deeper than Mariana’s Trench.

School life was the craziest and easiest, even though, at that time we all felt that it’s a really big thing if we have an exam the next day or a surprise test is taken in the class. What did our young minds know, that in practical life, these surprise tests and examinations are a daily routine?

At that age, we all were naïve; we fought and patched up our broken hearts every other day. Who knew we would all miss being children one day? All we wanted was, to grow up and control the world.

In all the experiences, friends were a major part, what so ever happened, it was mandatory to share it in the friends group. Without doing that, our day would be incomplete. Pranks and gossips would be the favorite part of our friendship.

We all considered that friendship is a very common thing, that everyone has a friend. In some way it is true. But, when people grow up, we never know how their priorities might change.

Seeing that school life was ending, and we all made like a thousand promises to stay in touch and keeping re-unions to water our plant of ‘friendship’.

Our fate took us to different paths, where Moiz and Hatim shifted to Dubai and Alefiyah shifted to Dares-Salaam. After school got over, we all had a different routine. Our studies were different and the environment was entirely different. Getting busy with life, we missed the happy days of bunking class in school because bunking in college meant a great loss in understanding the subject. Nothing remained the same, except the will to laugh together once again.

After one and a half year of shifting to Dares-Salaam, Alefiyah flew to Karachi for two weeks, where I and Alif met four times. All worries and tensions went out the window and disappeared into the thin air. We laughed, cheered and shared our feelings once again. After a long time we felt like life is worth living.

Our friendship is like Never Ever, because never, never comes, even when we die, our minds rest with the happy memories of our lives. Hence, our friendship lives through this phase to the other.

PS.Have a safe flight back home! 😉

With lots of love,

Yours sincerely,

Ruqai.