I have a good childhood friend and the two of us were known as the "musketeers" by all and sundry. We were so close that upon landing in the United States for his post-graduation degree at Boston University, I was the first person he called, thinking that he had dialled his parents' telephone number.
Ten years down the line, he is still close to me, so close that we neither hear nor correspond with each other! So much so that the first overseas call that he made to me from the US was the last. And now I have lost contact; not only with him, but also with his parents who I presume have moved to another city.
Although distance is an invisible enemy that keeps people apart, out of sight need not necessarily be out of heart. In my mind, I know he is somewhere in Boston. Maybe he's living happily, presumably with an American wife, raising blue-eyed children.
I know, and have often heard that good friends must not always be together; it is the feeling of oneness when distant that is the proof of lasting friendship. There's no argument with that, but I have a complaint. Can true friendship exist when there is an uncomfortable silence between two people, that too a silence that has been unbroken for a decade?
Uplifting
We can't live on memories and be nostalgic. Hearing his voice, with or without an American accent, would have definitely lifted my spirits. You see, I don't have heartwood in that organ made of cardiac muscles that pump blood. I have a heart and my friend too, I am certain, has a heart in the right place.
In this shrinking world of the internet and time travel, where long distance is now measured in microns, I thought I had a chance to find out if our friendship has turned sour over time and has now a tinge of either orange or lemon.
Difficult task
An idea! Doesn't one find all the information that is required on the internet? Why not use it to find his whereabouts, I reasoned. A click of the mouse and there I go. Isn't that easy and simple, so why not do it? Just Google it. It didn't take time to key in the name, but the difficult task was to pick the correct one from a search result of more than a hundred Jason Abrahams all over Boston. Try Facebook. Hard luck, you require an "invite" to be on the friends'list. Hi5 - no entry. Orkut - out of bound...
I really feel like punching that ignoramus who said that one can find each and everything on the internet? I am sure that person must have been looking for an entry for "Bush dubya", or "Blair poodle" but not for lost friends and human beings.
No doubt, there is a maze of information, but trying to decipher the beginning and the end is tougher than solving the Daily Telegraph's Sunday crossword - in this case at least you have the consolation of finding the solution the next day. On the internet, there is no such reward.
As far as I am concerned, there's no such luck.
My search continues for the elusive friend who is now like the horizon that recedes whenever I approach it; out of reach, but not out of sight.
