Deep Thought

Yesterday my cousin brother came to my place to stay over for a couple of days. The last time he did that was when he was a 4 year old, I think. Now he is in second year college.
It’s been fun interacting with him .He is a college goer. And most of the things that he talks about are possibly almost the same things which used to be on my mind when I was at his age… {20],, im still not over the hill thankfully but nonetheless its giving me a feeling of déjà vu.
One of the things that struck me was this whole world swearing by hanging out with friends. I mean friends are like such a big deal. When I was a teenager and all that people used to talk about friends...Hanging out, soul sharing. They used to glorify these absolute bum chums having masti and what not. It was a thing like if u did not have friends and hang out together you were an outcast.
In school I never belonged to any particular group. I was a Bengali girl who was in the science stream and whose second language was Hindi, and I lived almost in the locality of the school [15 min distance].I did not have a single person who had the same combination as of the above, leave alone sharing the same hobbies. Nevertheless I talked to everyone, everybody spoke to me. Opinions clashed, differed or were the same but there was no major feeling of belonging to any particular group ever.
Today on hindsight I think it the best thing. If you aren’t type casted in a particular camp, you are by and large NOT “having problem” with most people.
But back then I used to always wonder why was I the only person not having the glorified friendship everybody swore by. I remember trying my best to fit in the group and hanging out with people I thought were most similar, but I never got the feeling of this amazing masti that people around me did. I tried doing that with most groups and still no such luck. I mean I did enjoy but nothing like the stories they spun. So I thought I was weird, until I met my second cousin and later many others who felt just the same. So at least I knew I wasn’t the only weird after all.
So by the time I was in college and university I purposely was friendly to all. I was used to it by then after 14 years of school, not to belong to any particular group. It felt weird. I did not try to be part of any group as such. But naturally I got closer to people who say returned my way home, through the same mode of public transport, at the same time.[but still they are exactly not friends are they? Maybe or may not be. Not necessarily at least]
By bro too now talks about hanging out with a lot of people. Lots of groups.tution friends, school chaps, college guys.etc etc.when I asked him does he like really have some amazing time, he says no. Most of the times he’s like indifferent, meaning it wouldn’t have made a major difference if he did not meet them, infact watching TV and maybe some highlight of some match was better, but he still hangs out. There are times when some of his earlier friends come down, call him and sometimes they don’t call him to hang out. So he is in a dilemma as to whether they are really his friends?
The only thing I can tell him is that most people are acquaintances. Some closer, some far off. Only very few are real friends~ the people you would call just to hear that persons voice no matter which part of the world you are in, and can be sure that he/she will reciprocate too. The people you know you can be yourself with, without being judged or made fun of are very very few. It is these people that we meet on our journey called life and they are the people we should cherish and care about. We don’t need to specifically meet them always or hang around to keep up the friendship, for they are the ones who would always be there just a phone call away, whenever you need them. They are the actual soul sharing bum chums.
Rest of the people are contacts, acquaintances and people you talk to, leave behind when you leave institutions. You just tell a hi and a hello or a general query /small talk, when u happen to meet them and vice-versa. The world seems to be full of them...Gosh!!