Kal – Yesterday and Tomorrow

Nice title … Saw it in a movie just released or about to be released. Had just been to Cal after a year and that makes an apt title for this. Oh yeah the Cal/Kal thing also works out just fine. But wait a sec!!! No, this won't be one of those changes in Cal story. Actually don't know what this is … so let’s see what it turns out to be.
So like I was saying ... was back in Cal after more than a year. Cal's changed of course. One more flyover, more cars, more people more malls, more multiplexes and the list goes on and on. For an Hon Bong, (Honorary Bengali, something that Jug Suraiya coined up to describe people from Cal who are not Bengalis but have the possessive feeling towards the city by virtue of having been born and/or brought up there), like me, the changes meant that next time I talked of good old Cal, I would also swell up with pride and equate it with the Delhis, Mumbais and the Bangalores.
But like I said, this isn't about Cal. Actually what got me thinking (for the critics YES I DO THINK, sometimes) was meeting an old friend. A family friend actually, our parents go back a long way and we get along pretty well too. I was meeting him after half a decade or so. Over beer and steak, we were discussing how 10 years ago we would have been playing UNO (that card game) sipping juice, sitting at home and nowhere in our minds would this insy winsy thought have crossed that a decade hence, we would be at a bar, having a drink and a smoke. How times change eh?
But then, this story aint about him too. He makes a guest appearance in here. It’s just something he said that caught my attention. Our parents have been great pals, very close knit group of friends they had, together for the last 20 years or so sharing joys of kids (even though they turn out to be like me but then who would have known), promotions, new apartments and the whole jing bang as well as sorrows of losses of family members, twists in life and more of that effect. (The greatest time I have had is watching, as a toddler, adults getting drunk and having amazingly loud discussions the volumes of which grew louder as the drinks progressed. Although the topics varied and were more often than not disconnected and totally incomprehensible to me, the sight of people arguing in alcohol induced vehemence still filled me with pleasure.
Anyway, so now that they are all semi retired and have almost no responsibilities left (having a son like me doesn't absolve any parent of having responsibilities EVER!) they have decided to undertake a trip to Goa. Thank GOD I didn't have similar ideas at that same time otherwise seeing me in Goa in alcohol induced incoherence would have returned my parents to an age where I was a RESPONSIBILITY that even Hercules would have found hard to shoulder. But I digress. So this guy says to me, "you know, we are meeting after 5 years and this was purely co incidental, the next time we meet up could be after 10 years or so. Do you think we will ever have such a close circle of friends who will be with us for such long periods of time? And more importantly who gel so well?"
Got me thinking, in this day and age of amazing gizmos to keep in touch we make do with an odd email or a sms or call now and then. Somehow the world has become smaller, and we have grown further apart. Interesting times to come.
And finally in spite of all that has changed, some things remain the same. I still love listening to Floyd and U2, none of the new bands have made a mark and Godfather, Shawshank Redemption Top Gun still remain my all time favourite movies.

Life – something's change, others remain the same. Like a friend of mine said – EXISTENTIAL DILEMMAS – can’t live with them but can’t live without them too