Going Down

I distinctly remember having mentioned that incident when my best friend asked me what our family sport was, and how my smart-alec reply set his sport-promoting campaign back by three years at the least. My friend was very disappointed, and he stated categorically how he was sick of being bigger than me in every possible aspect. Before I could point out that that remark was in some ways highly offensive, he had walked away. But back home I had a long hard think (You have to if your mother won’t let you read during dinner) and concluded that keeping myself away from sports just to watch him scowl was surely not worth it. And before long I returned to sports, and the grin returned to my buddy’s face, which broadened considerably when I lost to him now and again; no matter what we played.

But I think an explanation is due here, about how I was ‘into’ sports in the first place. You see, growing up in a society with a hundred and twenty-six families, you are bound to get mixed up with a number of kids your age. I must say that since we moved into this one and I made friends with a few of them, I began to thoroughly enjoy my life at home. I had buddies at the school, no doubt, but most of the time I spent with them was devoted to doodling on the notebooks and scarcely letting something sink in. Meeting my new friends in the open space flanked by our residential buildings, I realized that kids like us do what they actually want only when they are free. And for eight or nine years of my association with them, evening time was when we all were free.

Living in a comparatively small housing society earlier (to be precise, around a twenty families) I was used to being mixed with kids of startling age differences, and the only times we talked were when two of us chose the same hiding spot. There, by coincidence, I was one of the youngest, and most of my time was spent following the older kids. Here, on the other hand, I happened to be the eldest of my group, and those older than me had already gone busy. I wonder today how discrimination takes place in so early a phase of life. Even in small friends’ groups, the wittiest and coolest of the oldest kids was the one we all gravitated towards. He/She invariably had a very close sidekick of the same age. When I say sidekick, I merely imply that when talking about the two of them, the sidekick’s name was mentioned second. Apart from that both had equal power and influence over the rest of us. Another constant position was that of a witty youngster whom everybody was fond of, and I as a young one strived for that position for the brief while I lived in that society. When we moved, though, I was suddenly promoted to the leader’s position, and I also learned with joy that I was considered witty. I never treated others in the group the way I was treated before, or so I hope. Anyway, a short while later they all laughed themselves silly when I made a fool of myself. Thereby breaking the useless ranks forever, we became a group of seven close friends.

I don’t think I should mention their names here, in case this document is dug out when they all apply for a job. Allow me to resort to codes, and I would like to point that these were the codes we assigned to ourselves. My best friend mentioned above proudly designated himself as Pillar. The one who loved his name called himself Winner, which we changed to Winnie in no time. The handsome one we called Silver, and the same-aged witty one Moon. When he stated that it made him ‘girly’, we sadly switched to Bogies. Then there was BB, same age as Winnie, who was the unanimously elected jokes target. Finally the youngest of us was Mind-It, who was undoubtedly the wittiest. I shouldn’t bother you with what they all called me, not when you know my name already.

Not all our evenings were devoted to sports. Sometimes we just walked about, and had spirited discussions over subjects you might have guessed : electronics, cars, movies and the likes. In these discussions you had to be very careful and supply genuine information, because otherwise you would be contradicted and become the verbal punch-bag till the next time BB showed up. Sometimes we all took our bicycles, and came up with games for them as well. They were a lot, and I think only two of them I can mention here. The first one, called Parade, was designed by Pillar. We would get into our positions and ride around the premises. I was at the front, to warn any oncoming traffic that a band of crazies followed me. I was immediately followed by Pillar, who held hands with Winnie or BB, and they both rode their bikes one-handed. I guess that was our deadliest stunt so far. Following them were Silver and Bogies doing all sorts of other stunts developed by Pillar, and the rest simply followed. The other one was exclusive : It was usually opted for when there were very few of us down there. It mainly involved me riding on the pillion of Winnie’s bicycle, except that I was the one who pedalled. He controlled the handles and so we had the bike going. We were often joined in our crazy stunt by other pairs including Silver, Bogies and Mind-It. I don’t recall Pillar ever being a part of this. Anyway, his was a sports bike which he rode individually when we went like this. As for BB, I don’t think any of us trusted him to control even the handles well, for though he showed aptitude at riding on rocky terrain he was always a novice on concrete.

As a matter of fact, in all our years spent together, we went through all sorts of phases and cycling was one of them. We stuck to a single activity in a phase. The cricket or football phases lasted the longest, usually during all our summer breaks. Now badminton is competing with them on that score, as that is the one sport all of us are really good at. Some phases involved merely walking around the society premises and talking over things. There was this one year when me, Pillar and Winnie were fascinated by make-believe, and we spent an entire year playing in an imaginary world of magic, monsters and whatnot. We even used junk from home as cursed objects and magical artifacts. Now that I think of it, we had built up quite a great story. It was only when Pillar remarked that we were getting a little too old for all that, did we stop and resume with the sports.

I said earlier that evening time was when we were all free. But even a day’s holiday suddenly made us realize that we had the whole day in each other’s company. Picking one of our places as HQ, we dropped into our own houses only for formalities like lunch and dinner. This time together was devoted almost entirely to cards and the rest to video games. My greatest friends share my love for playing cards, though there was only one game we were all particular about : UNO. They say it is based on sheer luck, and what cards you get, but we developed tactics for ourselves. There was a time when we were more ruthless and mean to each other in UNO games than we would have ever been in life. As for video games, we each had one. Video game meets usually took place when there were only three people around, and mostly me, Pillar and Winnie. They came to me for the classics Wolf and Dave, and we went to Winnie’s for the sensational Legend of Zelda on Nintendo. Pillar had a variety of games, ranging from tiny ones on game CDs to Pokemon and WWE.

However may have I described him earlier, Pillar was my first best friend and to this day he remains my single best friend. I’ve had a number of groups, of three, four, not forgetting our own super-group of seven, but it was scarcely just the two of us anywhere else except at home. I am not exaggerating when I say we grew up together; it was almost like having a brother next door. This, more than anything, has led to developing such friendship that we have insulting matches and still leave the arena unoffended. A saying goes, ‘A good friend knows all your adventures. A best friend has lived them with you.’, which I think applies the best in Pillar’s case. From pretending to go to Hogwarts together to exploring unattended drains, we have had our adventures. I don’t intend to offend any of my other best friends, who are yet to have adventures with me. But I can surely say that whenever I need company I am sure to find some next door.

I like to think that Winnie and I are almost alike, but for the fact that he loves Physics and Maths and is unquestionably good at them. But having him around I could always count on for a person willing to discuss intellectual matter (as he calls it) which the others come down to escape from. Totally unlike Pillar and me, my friendship with Winnie is based on mutual respect if anything. A time before the others got so close to me, I used to look for Winnie if Pillar was unavailable. Then, when the both of them got excessively serious with studies, I spent more and more time with Silver and Bogies. They were most relieved to join us and leave the tiny kids, though they are still most enthusiastic around them. It was a while before Mind-It, the youngest, came along and we considered him a sure asset, what with all the wit. He is, in my opinion, a bit too frank and expressive for his age, but you don’t want to look at his age if you want to enjoy being with him. Same goes for BB; you want to ignore his craziness. He is a tad too wild to start with, but on the other hand serious and hardworking when required. Anyone who has met him will heatedly deny this but he has a peculiar respect for the rest of us. He has the knack of appearing unpleasant at first sight, as one of my other closest friends experienced recently. He’s the sort of guy who clicks a Diwali cracker pistol in his mouth to give the impression that he was smoking. Not only do you appear decent next to him, but you also enjoy his company if you’ve known him for as long as I have. Plus, if it’s a nice day.

Sometimes, after walking around a couple of buildings in absolute silence, Winnie expounds on his theories of the indefinite future, which are ridiculous yet unpleasant to contemplate. I remember when he made us promise not to leave this society when we grew up. He allowed us to go for short periods, for ‘higher education or whatever’, but he wanted to make sure we all lived in the same place all our lives, may it or may it not be this place. When he says that, you laugh at him, but later you hope that though it’s impossible, you will still remain in close contact. I think all of us have grown so cosy about the fact that we are all at a yell’s distance, that I cannot imagine how we would take it when forced apart as I know we’re sure to be. But I believe that, with connections this strong, we will always find a way of reuniting. I am sometimes envious of how informally some of my other friends act around their oldest companions, and how they are not individual but family friends for a long time. But I only have to give a yell, and watch these guys burst into my house, chatting with my parents and grandma. Some of them lie flat on the mattresses in the master bedroom while others go into the kitchen to help themselves. I watch them, and appreciate that I couldn’t ask for greater closeness and informality, the kind of which will keep us as great friends as we are even after we have all gone our ways. Keeping that silver lining shining in my mind, I shut the door behind me - and go down.

From home to the school on goto