Good from far

… and far from good!

Long years ago, when I used to be a student, a batchmate who still continues to be a dear friend had this special maxim coined for young men. Those young men who could create a certain mental diversion and had the potential to take you down a kuchcha track ( Hindi for dirt track) when you are cruising well on the highway to achievements. A dash of handsomeness and intelligence was enough to leave us distracted. Our university, world famous for intellectual pursuits was not lacking in this department as well.

A strong warning from her to me or from me to her, and both of us would resume our highway positions. We carried on, the two of us on our unhindered path with the maxim tucked away neatly in the recesses of our thinking brains… No charmer could sway us, no swashbuckler could make us swoon and we two giggled away merrily at our own maxim, applying it every now and then on the handsome guy who just dashed by…

And then the bug almost bit both of us 🤣 Of course, the bug was brought in by two different guys, not the same ! For a small period of time, no reason was reasonable enough, all shades of grey more charming on them and we two had rose tinted glasses on all the time, mooning over the crushers! But just when the university was about to write us off as two more casualties of the age old malady; sanity returned. In my case, a wee bit earlier than my dear friend, so I had to live the life of a cynic for some time before I regained her company. In that beleaguered stage, I almost felt like a pariah! The ways of the world, I tell you!

Must say, that not giving in to the whispers from the writhing heart, held us in good stead as students, at least. The heart after all should follow the mind as is its position. We were annointed with various titles and monickers by friends. Not that we didn’t give wistful looks to the pillion seats of bikes whooshing past us or that alluring cup of coffee under the banyan tree, shared with a special ‘someone’; somehow we two managed to remain unfazed…

Anytime my heart meandered or my eyes held a besotted look over a whiff of handsomeness; my dear friend would mutter under her breath ” Good from far, n far from good”. Rolling our eyes n tickled with mirth… we would carry on and on… two friends from different provinces, different family backgrounds, disparate ideological influences and very different tastes in books and people…but with only one aim, to do well…all within the same precincts of our JNU.