Four friends and a flight to catch

Four friends sat on the kerb, oblivious to the pounding traffic that the internation airport was accustomed to. They were all professionals in the true sense. Some were back from work, their formals and name tags intact. One was out on an assignment which had given him the opportunity to meet the rest.

They had been different people, but had bonded. Some had made each other's life difficult in college. Some had belonged to opposing groups when ego ran high and friends were lost. Others had been the lone light for the other during difficult times. Most of them hadn't made contact in the two years that had flown by after college. The pain didn't show now.

They had had their differences; some still had them. A few drank tea while the others savoured their soups. Yet they were there together, reliving a past they had lived through soulfully. The stress that work life brought along showed on some. Others were making a successful effort at hiding it quiet. The few that were open about it shared the frustration and it found empathy from others around.

For they had been together in times when life was carefree. College life brings with it a phase of total freedom and ownership. You knew that anything that happened to you tomorrow was because of what you did today. Yet, you made sure you lived today to the fullest. There had been no politically correct statements then; If I dint like you I told you just that. Oblivious to its holding on anything coming forward.

We had all been ready for a battle had there been one. But we hadn't prepared for the one that was storming in us right now. The dreams, that had left behind sleepless nights, were safe and locked up, while we chased futile targets. We sat there as friends while a life of corporate culture lay behind us. We contemplate on what we had made of ourselves. It was all what had put unto ourselves. True!

All of us, in our own ways, looked at a distant nothing, staring at the us that we had been. We had grown up after all. When the time arrived, we silently parted ways, promising to have more such opportunities to reunite. It felt like a chance to live the real us. The us that was threatened to oblivion by the us we were all hoping to be.