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Guest column: When a phone call makes your day
The other day when my phone rang I answered hesitatingly, thinking it was a telemarketing company as the call was from an unknown number.
Man is a social animal and has many relationships. The best among such relationships is that of friendship. There is no axe to grind among friends, just pure love and selflessness that exudes warmth and happiness.
The other day when my phone rang I answered hesitatingly, thinking it was a telemarketing company as the call was from an unknown number. I could not recognise the female voice at the other end, though it seemed familiar. When I asked her who she was, she answered, “Manju — Manju Bhardwaj,” the wife of my best friend.
When she chided me for not saving her number, I sheepishly excused myself, saying “ I will do so immediately after your call is over”.
Later, after exchanging pleasantries and talking about weather she told me that she was suffering from viral fever. Confined to bed, while scrolling through names on her phone, she thought of calling me.
I was elated and thanked her for remembering us.
Reliving happy times
We talked, reliving the happy times we had often spent together – the nostalgic memories of she and her husband visiting us at Shillong and our visiting them at Nagpur on our way to Bangalore. Who could forget that evening when the couple with another family, also friends, landed at our home in Chandigarh as they could not find any hotel accommodation? We had dinner and spread out mattresses in the drawing room to make them comfortable, which they have always maintained was much better than a hotel stay.
I recalled when Bhardwaj and I were posted together at Delhi and worked in the same office. Manju used to pack sprouted daal with cottage cheese for his lunch, which I used to devour. I also can’t forget how her husband, always a go-getter, once helped my cousin get delivery of a revolver from customs at the airport when I was busy at work.
Proud of a friend
One definitely is proud of a friend like Bhardwaj, who as an Air Force officer worked with very senior officers, including with the wife of the chief as a secretary of the Air Force Wives’ Welfare Association, conducting himself well with ease. He was much liked by his seniors and colleagues for his ability to get things done in the right manner in the best possible way.
After retirement he is running a big business successfully, which is creditable. He has a charismatic personality and enjoys life to the hilt.
But I digress. Getting back to the phone conversation, Manju then asked me about my wife and children and how they were doing. She remembered her visit to Canada and a very pleasant stay she enjoyed at my son’s home in Vancouver. She was all praise for my grandchildren who she said were very well behaved and loving. She said she could bond very well with them as they reminded her of her own two grandchildren. I told her that my grandchildren too remembered her as they had enjoyed “Manju aunty’s” company.
An avid traveller, she also complained that whenever she asked her husband to go for a trip with her, he always dismissed her idea, so of late she had started going out with friends. Fresh after returning from China she was all set to go to Abu Dhabi next month.
Now in her sixties, Manju felt she had very little time left to go out and experience life.
Then we hung up and that was it – a simple phone call of 10 minutes, which left in its wake a feeling of warmth and happiness while remembering the good old days of yore.
And yes, I did save the number of my old friend.
(The writer is a Chandigarh-based freelance contributor. Views expressed are personal).
