Happy Birthday L

Yes we met many years back

But the first time we met,

You’d too outgrown a nature,

And me a timid little girl.

I respected you for being our counsellor

And worked hard any task I was given

We shared only one

Or two words at the most

The hot Saturday morning

I still remember,

How you would scamper by

Dressed in short pink skirt

I didn’t know we would become friends

One we would take farther down the line

And here I look back,

I know nothing would be more beautiful

Oh yes, you didn’t talk to me for many days!

Did I fail you there?

Or maybe it was you

But we are still friends

How many birthdays have we

Celebrated together with letters?

This isn’t just another day

I know this is special

You haven’t grown a beard

Your hair hasn’t grayed

But oh yes, You are a woman now

And on this day special

May you become even wiser

May you talk even more

And may you have a great birthday

/Author’s note: L has taken two weeks’ leave from office and is somewhere in the wilderness where the mobile network doesn’t catch her. I have started missing her. The fact that we have always so many things to talk, be it by sitting in the middle of the town on the footpath, or by standing by the road near my place, or by standing and waiting for our friends at Zangdopelri parking, I miss the sheer absence of self-conscious feeling and the fun we share thus.

Yesterday, 14^th September was her birthday. I hope you will join me in wishing her a happy birthday and a fulfilling life without sickness and problems.