The sky is getting darker by the minute. There is a strong breeze making the leaves fall. The occasional lightnings light up the sky. The living,dead and the lifeless being set for an inevitable rain. Amidst all these, my mind started wondering, how does one say goodbye? No,not the kind where you will meet the other person the next day. Neither is it the one that is permanent, final in every sense that you won't see the other person ever after that.I am talking about the kind of goodbye said with the promise of keeping in touch whatever may,even though you both know that the frequent contacting is going to simmer down into occasional festival texts and then fade into mere memories of a long lost beautiful period of life. That goodbye. How to put that into words or action?
The reason why I am pondering over is, the academic year is coming to an end and there will be a lot of faces that I will have to bid adeu to. Some familiar. Some not so familiar. Some I hope never to see again. And some faces which seldom fails to bring a smile on my face, faces etched into the best memories of my college life that it hurts to think they will soon be leaving. The rain has started falling. A slight drizzle at first, filling the air with a fresh earthly smell emanating from the soil. Then the skies opened up, pouring down in a rage. The birds are seeking shelter under the trees, drenched. The usually crowded streets are now empty. The rain is descending in torrents and even the possibility of sunshine before night seems a distant dream.
Returning to my embryonic train of thoughts, how to say goodbye to those people ? Google is suggesting me to tell it in foreign languages like French or Spanish. ' Au revoir' , 'adios','Sayonara' (Even Japanese !) . Screw that. I might as well go and say a plain old goodbye. Or maybe I will go and tell them that
I wish, forever wasn't a lie and the time between hellos and goodbyes stretched on for eternity. Or maybe,just maybe, I won't need to say anything. A smile, a sad longing smile and they will know everything that isn't spoken. The rain is beginning to recede and the streets are coming back to life. The birds are coming out with an added vigour to soar through the skies. Behind the clouds, the sun is longing to peek through and bask the earth in a heavenly glow.
