Greener Grass

‘Please wait. Doctor is yet to finish his rounds.’ smiled the pretty receptionist showing her pearl white teeth.


I could already see dozens of patients waiting in the hall showing various stages of displeasure for being made to wait. I choose a spot in last row of chairs and started people watching. What fun people watching were in Pre-technology era? I could see almost all the faces glued to their gadgets.


It was then I saw him coming inside the waiting hall. Here he was standing tall and successful, Siddharth , my college batch mate. From his social media posts I know he has become Vice President in one of the Fortune 100 companies wherein I was just a… He never bothered to keep in touch with any of our batch mates but he was a good friend during college days.


Last thing I want now is small talk about how my career is going. I took the newspaper lying close to me and buried my face completely under it. Few minutes later I peeped away from the paper to see him seated far away from me and buried into a gadget.


Receptionist was calling people by appointment number and I was sure I can escape from him.


‘Aditya ..’ receptionist called my name to my utter dismay and handed over the fee receipt.


‘Aditya..long time man..’ Siddharth came near me and hugged me.


After initial talks on look how have you changed, we spent next thirty minutes in discussing college memories, friends and went through whom are you in touch with etc.


Siddharth repeatedly insisted on catching up post the doctor appointment and we did go to the near by restaurant. We never touched upon jobs, family but spoke only about professors, batch mates and hostel life. Despite my initial resistance, I enjoyed my time with Siddharth rekindling old memories.


‘It was fun meeting you Siddharth. You should come home. Why don’t you come this weekend?’ I asked him.


He was silent for few minutes and said ‘I got divorced two years ago. I avoided meeting our batch mates or any of my friends to avoid questions on it. Thanks to you, you never talked about family. ‘


‘I was worried you will ask about what I’m doing. My career graph is going poor.’ I admitted and we laughed together looking at the irony.


We are in the same game but different levels; Dealing with same hell, but different devils

 

Thanks for the feedback creativemumma. That line sounds catchy

 

Thank you lavii. Yeah education has no relevance to people's character and we are surrounded with lots of insensitive people around.

 

Many thanks Rajeni

 

Thank you