The Journey (Extracts)

The moon continuously followed us. Its speed was same as of ours. It was a full moon and the yellow light filtered through the green trees and touched the road. The road was long curved in a special fashion and the jeep was running smoothly. In between some jerks were coming but they got lost in the way. The air was gushing inside and was playing with our hairs. I lay at the back seat of the jeep and was gazing at my friends who were asleep on the back and front seats. I was thinking about my future without them. These friends remained always with me. In every situation of life they supported me. In school, in coaching, in tours, in exams and in punishments they always smiled with me. I was thinking about the same moments which I passed happily with them.
Now the time had come that we all had to separate. Our 10th class board exams were over. The result still remained undisclosed to haunt us. So we decided to plan the last tour of our life in which we all were together. That also ended drastically and the trekker stopped to drop my friends to their respective residents. Lastly I was also dropped to my resident. I was exhausted and was extremely tired. So I went to sleep.
Like this many days and many nights passed. In between we used to gather sometimes, just to enjoy the final moments. No one knew, who was to land up where. I met these friends, three years ago. Three years ago I came here to take admissions in 8th class. How the time has slipped and is slipping, time itself can’t tell.

It was a fine morning of June 1997 and at about 8 the phone bell ranged. It was the same monotonous type of ringing sound of a telephone which was used those days. At that time there were no mobile phones or land line phones of different ring tones. They were one and only one of their kinds. Well I picked up the phone and the hello voice revealed that it was.......................