My 'GOOBE' Friends

It would be a tribute to my friends, an honour to me and you will be the victim as my memories flow. I will try n not to mention anybody’s name in here. It will be infringing into their privacy though they are they are my best buddies and also it is against Guru’s Data Protection and Privacy Act of 1999. Um… it is a group of seven people, four boys and three girls, a perfect mix to maintain the rhythm of our lives. It is almost half my life time (at present) since I have known them, most of them since 12 years or more with two of them joining us a year later. Well, it has been a journey, journey of our lives. The past, the present and hopefully the future. We were all tiny little high school kids when we all first met. Every one of us are unique in own way, talented and blessed in one way or another. We were at an age when none of these really did matter to us when we all first met. It was age when we tried to form meanings to our environment, our people. It was the tender age of accepting mostly everything we were offered. The age when we did not know the meaning of relationships or meaning of friendship. The early teens, the beautiful years of ones life, where you expect all the good to you. Good teachers, good pocket money, good parents, good friends, good looking people as friends, everything around you should be good. The age when we learn about ourselves, our body, mind and also think of future in really weird ways. It was the age when we all met, the age when we all were framing our meaning structure of our lives. So for many of us, the whole meaning of all the things I mentioned above revolves around these people. I am not sure of remaining six, but it is how I have frame worked my thoughts. Said that, I would say, I have been one of the few fortunate people in the world who are blessed with at least a few friends. I mean FRIENDS and not acquaintances.

With few secrets among us, we virtually know everything about everyone and we don’t shy away even if we have to confide for the silliest reasons. Many of us have taken similar paths in career and life style; however there are a few like me, who is still hunting to find a solid base to settle down. It has turned out that at every point of time since we have known each other, two of the seven has been doing similar things, like there are two electronic engineers, two doctors (though they specialize in different subjects) and now two girls are married. The days of our high school, college have been precious to us. It is not that we have no other friends than the ‘Goobe’ gang. Of course, we all have. There are many who have played important roles in our lives, many who have influenced us, a few who have been influenced by us. To me, all the new friendships developed are based on my Goobe gang. I guess they have set standards in my life. Oh! Yes, ‘Goobe’ is not our brand name, is not the way we are known to people, it is just the way we are known to ourselves. Goobe (Owl) is just apt and it rhythms with all our names (E.g.: Goobe Guru) and also the fact that most of we goobes were awake the whole night during our college days.

Over 13 years, things haven’t changed much (which I like) with each of us as growing as strong individuals. We all are now professionals or professionals-to-be and we do not have the time to meet as we used to do. The distance constraint, because many of us are in many different continents which sometimes even make a conference chat or call difficult. Of course, more responsibilities, family commitments all make us stay physically far from each other, we may not see each other for years, may not attend marriages or anything like that, we still have the same spirit, the spirit that binds together. I am sure the remaining six would agree to it.

There were days when we all watched a senseless movie together and tried to make sense of it within ourselves. The beautiful days of long and serious telephonic conversations. The serious silences, the little fights and misunderstandings, the offer of help in so many different unimaginable ways, the birthday parties, the meetings ahead of somebody’s b’day, the time spent in greetings gallery selecting cards and laughing at jokes imagining the person who the card is for. All these petite and lovely memories, locked up in me keep me going on. People say not to live in past, but I think, it is the past that makes the present and the present that makes the future. My hats off to my Goobe friends and my sincere thanks to God.