The last page

 A story dedicated to my friends and written on friendship day . 

It was evening, the plush Study of Alka’s posh apartment, overlooking the Arabian Sea , was illuminated by the soft golden rays of the setting sun as the splashing waves sang along with the cool breeze . 

65 year old Alka sat in front of her desk rummaging through her papers.  She had decided to clean up the drawers of her  study table and was at it since noon . However she didn’t go beyond a couple of drawers, as while cleaning up her stuff , she would sit , open the dairies , papers, old photo albums and read and re read the contents while reminiscing the old memories. 

She came across her old “Slam Book” , yellow with age, and her face instantly lit up . The old Slam book spoke volumes about her cherished memories . She started smiling unknowingly. She lovingly opened the Slam book , so well decorated with coloured pens and stickers and started flipping pages, one after another . Smiling , chuckling and at times even laughing all by herself. 

Page after page was filled with the most endearing messages from her friends in school and college. Some from special friends, some from friends a bit more than special and some from crushes . She smiled as she curled up on the comfortable sofa in her Study and decided to read each page and relive the memories of the day when the page was filled. 

The Slam book had place for a photograph on the left hand top corner of each page and was decorated with delicate red roses in the background of each page , now yellow and crumbly with age . 

“ East or West, Alka is the best”, “Alka , you are like the blue sea, you splash laughter in my eyes”, “ bane chahe dushman zamaana hamara, salamat rahe dostana hamara”, etc etc , some messages cliched, some imaginative, some romantic while some were comic ,  “Friendship is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel its warmth”, etc etc . 

Hours went by , it became dark as the sun had set , while Alka just sat staring at  the last page in her Slam book , as the small photograph of Danny smiled at her , the typical impish smile , the tousled hair and an innocent face lit up by the sparkling eyes. A myriad of emotions were going through her mind as her heart ached , longing for her hand to be held by Danny , longing to go double seat on his rickety old scooter, as the ice creams in their hands melted away,  longing to prance around with him all over Marine drive on the sea face , with the sea splashing in their faces and the wind blowing in her hair , without a care in the world . Danny was her best friend from school. They were together in college as well and gradually as they grew up, their ways parted while each one got busy with their own lives . Danny, after completing CA, had moved away to the Middle East to earn his living , while Alka had got married and was busy adjusting in her new life and the new relationship . They kept in touch with the occasional letters and phone calls, but slowly drifted apart.  Alka used to often think about Danny and felt that no one other than Danny understood her well . Theirs was a friendship made in heaven . 

“ Aaji, what are you doing in the dark “, said Priya, Alka’s grand daughter, as she entered the Study and switched on the lights. “ Nothing Priyu , I was just cleaning up my drawers, when I came across my old Slam Book “, said Alka , as she jerked out of her reverie. 

“ Wow!, can I have a look “, said the excited Priyu and together they sat and read all the messages again , laughing and smiling until they came to the page where Danny’s photograph smiled out of the slam book . The last page , empty , yet poignant with emotion was simply signed by Danny in the left hand bottom corner , with a single cryptic line that read “ I can’t express the depth of our friendship in words , maybe , being the smarter one , you can decipher what’s written on the blank page “ 

By now Alka’s eyes had welled up with tears as Priyanka prodded her for details .

“ This  last page is filled with pure everlasting love that will be with me for a lifetime “, said Alka as she fondly caressed the last page of her slam book and got up to light the lamp in front of her little temple at home , silently thanking God for the divine friendship .