Yesterday a friend who I hadn’t seen in a really long while called to ask if I was free to meet for a drink in the evening. And while I had tentative plans with another friend, I decided to give this one a higher priority just because I thought it would be interesting to catch up with another travel obsessed individual after a significant gap. Besides there was a chance that the other plans may not even come through and who wants to get stuck at home on a Monday night!
We met at a relatively new pub close to my place, which he good-naturedly complained about (“we always have to meet by you”) knowing fully well that there weren’t very attractive options close to where he lived. Except for a couple of tables that were occupied, the place was fairly deserted. After he had sucked out every last drop from the straw of his Long Island Iced Tea, I got done with my beer and we had made a mess un-shelling peanuts, we decided to go someplace else.
The next bar, about a 1 minute walk away, situated on a rooftop, was buzzing with activity. Felt more like a Thursday rather than a Monday night. Busy enough to be fun but not so packed that you had to jostle through a crowd to not find an empty table! We asked for a table under the stars to which the hostess commented that only tables with high chairs were available in the uncovered area. Which made me laugh because immediately I pictured the two of us sitting at a regular sized table in booster chairs!
“That’s okay,” I said to her. “We are still a couple of kids”. She didn’t get the humor and maybe it wasn’t very funny.
“Two Long Island Iced Teas” he said to the server when he came over to take our order. He looked at me and smiled. “You don’t need another boring beer”. During the next hour, he drank three of them and I had two. We also ordered a pizza with lamb and sun dried tomatoes. He told me stories about his travels to Marrakesh, Dublin, Ladakh etc. etc. I felt a little envious as I wanted to be in all those places too. Next he was headed to Spain, backpacking for 2 weeks in January.
“Whatever happened to working?” I asked the doctor-dude. A question that I get asked all the time.
“I have a new mantra,” he responded. “Work for a while, save up and travel. Once your money runs out, look for another job.”
Sounded perfect to me. “You and I are lucky to have the choices that we do. To live our life the way we want to,” he continued.
Of course I knew that already, which is why I count my blessings every single day. I told him about my trips to Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Kerala and gave him tips for Spain.
“I want your life you lazy f***”, he said.
I wanted to slap him across the face because he pretty much had my life and possibly more.
“Sometimes I worry that the bubble will burst. That I’ll get sick or lose everything. Then what?”
It was a rhetorical question and I expected no response. We both got a little quiet for a minute, which is when we both realized that Louis Armstrong was singing ‘What a Wonderful World’ in the background. The timing was eerily uncanny.
As we parted ways shortly after, we made no promises to meet again in the near future.
“Every time you travel in the new year, send me a text and let me know where you are,” he said before leaving. “And I will do the same”.
I told him that I would. “I hope we both have a great travel filled year.”
“Stay safe,” he said getting into an auto-rickshaw.
“Happy New Year!” I shouted out after him, feeling positively buzzed.
