An Old Friend

How do you usually react when an old friend comes visiting unexpectedly? Do you feel out of this world? Ecstatic? Overjoyed? Out of words or breathe? And what do you do next? Welcome your friend with open arms? Maybe a hug? Sometimes with blasphemous words for having disappeared for so long, but definitely joyously? And then what next? Do you sit and have verbal exchanges over what you’ve done with your lives? Talk about old times and mutual friends, and enjoy the nostalgia? Swap pictures of families and that drooling baby or b.f. whichever it may be? Maybe a cup of coffee or dinner? And finally? You part ways again? Promising to keep in touch, whether it happens or not?

You might agree with at least some of these responses. But let me tell you, none of this is what I did when an old friend came visiting me. We had parted ways for sometime, especially after I left for Chennai and been so out of sync that neither knew what happened to the other. And then all of a sudden he turns up at my doorstep in Kottayam (I shall call the person he irrespective of gender, as the male sex has often ended up being a pain in the neck for me).

This happened last Sunday evening. I was busy with my dogs when he suddenly showed up. You can imagine mine and everyone’s surprise. But unfortunately I felt no joy. Rather it was with deep hatred that I eyed him. How could the wretched creature have dared to come back after all the pain he had caused me? How could he have actually thought I would be glad to meet him? And that too after the wounds he had caused, had just begun to heal.

I was completely distressed. I know you must be wondering what in the world could this person have done to upset me so much. After all nobody would meet an acquaintance this way. But I had literally cursed him.

And he had decided to stay with me for a couple of days. You should have seen me on the third day - begging God and every saint I knew to help me throw him out. My dear readers will have begun to wonder what on earth could my friend have done. Was he a murderer? A thief? A lover who dumped me? What?

Dear reader, he was all this and more. He murdered my happiness. He stole my peace of mind. He filled my heart with hatred for him and a desire for vengeance that I have sadly never been able to carry out. How much more would I have loved him if he had not given so much of pain – and that too at all three levels: physical, spiritual and mental.

Who is this fiend you ask who has ruined my whole being? Why nobody else but a sprained knee that has decided to plague me for sometime.