Afreen

In my world of friends and relatives, there are but a few who mean the world to me. Of those, two happen to be Nas & Rak, my best friends. N & R were my colleagues, however we were from different departments. We interacted with each other but only officially. It was only in 1998 when we came together on a Project and have been inseparable since. In the intervening 8 years we moved on in life professionally and personally, however our friendship only strengthened. We would still make it a point to meet and have a blast.

Nas went over to her sister’s place in London where she married and settled there with 2 daughters Afreen-2 ½ years and Khadijah-9 months. Rak still in Mumbai delivered a baby girl Simone just last month. Rak and I still met up in Mumbai, however with Nas phone calls were the only option. We would conference our calls to Nas and reminisce old times. We would make plans to go over to London to meet her but they never materialized.

Eventually Nas gave both herself and us a big surprise by coming down 4 weeks back with kids in tow. I would often speak to Afreen on the phone and hear her baby prattle. But what I didn’t expect was to fall in love with her when she landed in Mumbai. She had the most delightful mischievous grin and we both got on like a house on fire. My weekends were spent with Nas & Afreen either shopping or sightseeing. And when at work would call up to listen to Afreen excitedly prattle on the phone.

Last night I met Nas, lil Afreen & baby Khadijah to bid goodbye as they readied to fly back to London. As usual Afreen who by now was my favorite insisted that I carried her around. I had traveled from work to Bombay Central where Nas paternal home is. It was around 10pm when they accompanied me down as I headed back home. We hailed a cab and I handed over Afreen to Nas and kissed both of them goodbye. Afreen stared at me with her doe like beautiful black eyes but didn’t wave goodbye trying to figure out why I had so unceremoniously dumped her in Nas arms. That’s when I realized how much I was going to miss her. She eventually came around and waved me goodbye, but not before bringing tears to both Nas and my eyes.

My lil Afreen, I have already begun missing you. Well I guess this vacation; I’ll be heading off to London to see my lil darling!