The court is adjourned...

Sid and I last spoke 10 years back.

I don't think we had a fight or anything. He just turned from my "best-friend" to someone I once knew. Of course, it didn't happen overnight. The only thing that came between us were...well...I guess...years. Back then, all we two cared about was the game of 7-tiles in the evenings or the odd trip to the nearby kebab shop for romali roti and kebabs that we used to devour on Sunday evenings. And back then, it cost just 10 Rupees! I wonder apart from the prices, what changed so much that we grew so apart over the years.

I think I just said it. We grew apart. The operative word being GREW! It surely did not happen overnight. From having no preferences or opinions, we started having a different take on the same things. We started hanging around with different people and at different places. And then a time came when there remained nothing common. Not even common subjects to exchange the odd pleasantries on. Nothing at all.

We all tend to have our own comfort zones. Places, people, things et al. we can relate to. Sometimes we do befriend those who're so completely different but then what we end up sharing isn't too much. It’s usually just the one or two odd things that brought us together. We tend to get too protective, if I may use that word, about these little comfort zones. As we age, the people that we let in start getting fewer and fewer. Till a time comes when we just stop letting anymore in. The doors are simply shut.

But it’s another thing that really got me thinking. It is our diminishing level of tolerance for people who choose not to go our way or at least endorse in spirit if not in letter, how we see things. They form the "others"...

Recently, a good friend of mine introduced me to her to-be-husband. Someone her parents had chosen for her. The chap seemed pretty nice. Very ordinary looking, but pleasant. He was from a prestigious B-School and that was on top of an engineering degree from a REC. He spoke well and dressed tastefully too. However, there was one thing that kept pricking me...it was his dry and dull demeanor. He never seemed to get excited about anything. All his sentences had a calm rather dead tone to them. I am sure he'd keep my dear friend happy, treat her like a princess but I am really doubtful if he'd be able to make her laugh. Something that I know for sure my friend loves doing. Anyway...

Did you see what happened here? While I was explaining the guy to you, whatever I said was HOW I SAW IT. It was all my interpretation of the person. So how can I say that she made a wrong choice? What if having a person you know would stand by you, come what may, is more important than the wise ones someone once she loved could crack? What if being pampered for life by someone coz' he'd be thinking he got a "better deal"...was more important for her. And there are a million more such things.

People are different. It’s their way of looking at the same thing that makes them different more than anything else. Also, just because I think going to a good engineering college makes someone better doesn't mean others will think so too. What is important is that I must learn to accept the choice the other person has made.

Hence, from this moment on my personal court stands adjourned...indefinitely. No more judgments.

Amen!