That You Always Stay Happy My Friend

THAT YOU ALWAYS STAY HAPPY MY FRIEND
author: Rizwan Ahmed Memon

Village Akil

Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan

December 20, 2013

Dear Alan,

 

I saw you the other day on the street, and I wanted to talk to you. You just walked away. I know it has been so long since we ended our friendship, but I still have the same value, same respect, and same time for you that I gave you in the first days of our friendship. I miss how you joked with me and how you teased me by asking English questions. I miss the days when we spent all day long in the fields chatting and joking. I miss the days that we spent at the river. I miss the time when I taught you English in the classroom. I miss being your teacher. Friendship is a delicate thing, and not everyone can take better care of it. We just care for sometime and let it go other times. As a result, this fragile thing breaks up. We lose it. I knew that you, too, someday would break this delicate thing.

After a year or so of our friendship, your behavior was full of bitterness and harshness. I liked the way you talked to me as freely as brother talks to his elder brother. Your way of telling me to do things made me realize that you are my family. Your informal way of talking to me always showed that this was the high point of friendship, but you fell from that top and you made me fall as well. All of sudden, you changed. Your every careless word was damaging our fragile friendship and causing me great pain. Despite all this I tried to keep this fragile thing alive as long as I could.

In 2010, when I left village and home, and went to university, I missed you desperately. I counted the days on the calendar and looked forward to holidays so that I could come home and see you. I had a thousand friends at the university, but I always felt your absence.

I still remember when I came on holidays and came to see you; you treated me as a stranger. Even with strangers, people talk with politeness. You told me whether I was in village or university it was all the same for you, and that you didn’t have time to go out with me. Your rudeness and your attitude surprised me a lot and I went through a lot of pain.

I know now you have realized that whatever you did was wrong. Alan, we have grown so far away from each other that we can never be friends again. I remember after your wedding, you were always busy with your life, and you perhaps forgot that I existed and that I was your friend.

The word is you are going to be father soon. Oh! I wish I could see your son and congratulate you on being father! I remember when you were alone and in sorrow, you always sought my company. When life brought sorrow on me, you left me alone and became a stranger, and lived your life happily with your family. You always valued your happiness. Oh, if only I had realized this before I became your friend. Well, Alan, I am still alive. Your betrayal did cause me pain and disturbance, but I have come over everything. Despite all that bad things in the past, I still pray for you and pray that you always stay happy, Alan.

Your old friend,

Rizwan