THE SIMPLE JOY OF FAFFING.. with your besties!

 Over the last week I’ve had an unusually hectic social life and today was no exception.. There weren’t any exotic meals at fancy restaurants.. but there were evenings and afternoons of wholesome homemade meals with a lot of bonhomie chatter laughter and love at the table!

There were deep and intense conversations about love.. life and everything in between.. silly jokes and gentle teasing.. sharing hopes and fears.. dreams and desires.. joys and worries.. congratulations on victories and commiserations about defeats.. a lot of sharing and caring.. understanding and acceptance.. information and realizations.. discussions and debates.. planning and parley!

In short.. there was a lot of open and honest communication that happened and it was such a joy to know that the “ good old.. simple and old fashioned art” of heart-to-heart and truly meaningful conversations still happens.. It wasn’t just the idle “time pass” chatter about the latest fashions.. filmi Bollywood and Hollywood gossip.. and absolutely nothing religious or political either!

One evening we played cards.. all the “great gamblers” came over for an evening of “Teenpatti” which was full of good humour.. fun.. fake drama.. scrumptious food and lots and lots of laughter! It isn’t at all necessary to spend a lot of money to have a lot of fun! A couple of evenings we just hung out at home.. sat on the sofa.. cooked lots of “khayaali pulao”.. discussed probable and improbable travel plans and built any number of castles in the air.. but so what? A little dreaming never hurt anyone and it’s always lovely to have something to look forward to.. right?

Caught up with a very dear friend after 5 months and it was like we had met just yesterday.. the joy of meeting up.. catching up.. taking selfies (which is our tradition and way of tracking the gaps between our meetings) and talking about anything and everything under the sun.. When he left to go home.. it was with his usual admonition of “walk carefully and for God’s sake don’t fall down” because he’s so concerned about my issues with balance! Heartwarming to say the very least.. right?

As it turned out.. spent a lot of time with friends who live outside the country but are visiting.. discussing lifestyles.. challenges of living overseas and the constant coming and going to spend time with an elderly parent.. They are family to me.. and I am equally family to them so it is a very special bond that we share! The conversation just flows and it is always with regret that I leave to come home!

And then.. there was the icing on the cake.. the day when my bestie (who’s one of my favourite people on the planet) called to say he was free all afternoon and how about we spend some time together? Obviously I jumped at the idea and we shared a truly amazing afternoon where we discussed attachment theory.. good deeds.. helping people in need.. spiritual stuff.. lit a diya and prayed together.. talked about our childhoods.. how and why we are different people today.. and who was a part of making us so.. Time didn’t just pass… it was racing away and we kept looking at our watches to make sure we would have a chance to say everything we wanted to each other.. and we DID.. We were both very content and enveloped in a “happy haze and warm fuzzy” kind of feeling when we said bye to each other!

And then there was my meeting with my very own very sweet very simple “jigar ka tukda” friend who I affectionately call “Oliver Twist”! And why do I do that? Because no matter how much time we spend together.. it’s NEVER enough! She’ll always negotiate for half an hour more and sometimes settle for 15 minutes.. such a sweetheart! She comes from a space of the purest love and we love spending time together!

Nowadays the trend is to host fancy parties.. organize games.. even hire a party planner and serve unique cuisines.. and people love doing all this stuff... so good luck to them! And what about me? Give me a few hours with a close friend.. make sure there’s no agenda.. mobiles put far away.. and just let us “faff” and do nothing but spend time together.. it’s the ultimate therapy and all that we really need! Keep it simple.. smile wide.. laugh loud and love as much as you can!!

All the friends I’ve written about know exactly who you are so am not sharing names.. to all of you and all the ones I haven’t met lately (but very much want to).. just know that you are cherished treasured and most of all.. loved very dearly!!

Thank you as always for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I did writing it! Do share your name at the end of your comment.. and wishing you the simple joy of faffing with your besties.. today tomorrow and always!!