Day Twenty One

Today was all about Chikoo and me. No friends or family. Just the two of us. And it was a wonderful day.

We visited North Calcutta and went to College Street and Coffee House. After a mediocre cup of coffee and highly questionable onion pakodas at Coffee House, we walked around for some street food lunch. We had veg chowmein, puchka and finished with a very refreshing glass of chilled nimbu pani (lemonade). Re-hydrated and full, we went around taking photographs. The rest of the afternoon was spent roaming the streets and lanes, taking pictures of the people, the roads, the shops, lanes, colourful doors and each other. Chikoo and I are very similar people. We like the same things, we discuss the same things, we wear the same clothes (yes, we were in identical shirts today) and we enjoy the same food. However, there's something subtly different about us. This could be simply illustrated by the fact that we both almost always wanted to photograph the same thing, but we'd compose our photos very differently.
We finally stopped our photo walk when our legs began to gave way and we just couldn't walk anymore. We took an auto to the station, a metro and then got onto a mini bus to get home. Confused about which stop to get off at, we got off a little earlier than we had to and walked from a place we recognized. Along the way, we sat down on the pavement to soothe our tired feet. There we sat and spoke for over an hour. We spoke, shared views, asked questions, gossiped and laughed. We didn't realize how long we'd been there until the light began to fade. We got up and walked arm-in-arm back home.

Today was beautiful because I spent it with a dear, dear friend who I hardly ever get the chance to be with anymore. Our lives have lead us down very different paths and have lead us away from each other. The days when we'd spend all day in class together and long evenings studying together or simply talking are behind us. Sometimes I forget what it was like to be so spoiled, to have a best friend so close within reach. And I forget how wonderful it is to have that. Today reminded me of those days and made me happy because I was now making some more memories to add to our existent treasure. There really is nothing like the warmth from basking in an old friend's frienship.

My picture for today is the one photo that both of us composed exactly the same way. Perhaps it means something.