Final Kiss

‘So, are you leaving?’ she asked with a somber look on her face and mysterious depth in her eyes.

‘Yes, I have to.’ I said.

Silence stood like a living entity between us.

It was here that I first met her four years ago, and here I am, after four years bidding her farewell.

How time flies!

The four years seem but a moment.

After a long pause, I managed to say, ‘but before I go, let me thank you.’
‘For what?’ She asked as if she did not know.
‘For everything.’ I responded quickly.
‘For making me what I am.’
‘For adding a beautiful chapter to my life.’
‘For making my life memorable.’ I continued turning nostalgic, ‘do you remember all the fun moments we had?’ I wanted to take her down the memory lane just to delay my departure. ‘Do you remember our friends; they were all real characters’ now, we stood in the past.

I continued,’ I can never forget the Madness of Mudassir ‘mady’, how his ‘pagalpan’ always made us laugh, how we all loved teasing him. He really was a punching bag for all the class. But let me say, he sings quite well -do you remember the songs I used to sing with him, specially the one I had written for you, I hope you liked it-and what can be said about subhani’s spontaneous sharp witted answers, what a funny guy he is. I can still picture the innocent face owais used to make whenever faced with teacher’s wrath, as if he is the only saint amongst us all satans and how can I forget some incredibly strange voices out of abbasi’s throat without anyone getting to know that it was him. Reminiscence of fahad’s ‘uncensored slip of tongue’ in business communication class still titillates me. Farhan’s ‘clean’ jokes, imran’s self pampering, sadaf’s innocent questions, anish’s scolding to farhan-now that is called woman empowerment, hira’s unwavering punctuality even if ‘mauj barhay ya aandhi aaye’, qayoom’s meticulously made lecture copies, faham’s flattery of teachers,javed’s freezing ‘thand’ attitude, shahab’s gait, shahani’s originality, under nourished mairaj, and over nourished anser…………..Phew! What fun, what times, what memories.’

Wanting to hear from her, I asked, ‘You too must have enjoyed it all; you too must have laughed at all, do you recall?’
She was so lost in the thoughts of past that I had to shake her back into present.
She finally spoke, ‘waqar, I do not only remember all this but it will reverberate deep inside me forever.’

‘Forever’ she repeated sighing deep.

‘Every good thing comes to an end, that’s the norm of life, fresh water runs on’ waxing philosophical she continued, ‘so you too have to go ahead but remember wherever you go and whatever you do, my name will always be associated with you. Please take care of it’

‘I will.’ I assured her.

She held my hands into hers and said, ‘you have a new life waiting for you but I hope you won’t forget me.’

‘I can not.’ I replied with strange certainty.

‘Whenever you need me, you will always find me here’ she said as her eyes went wet.
‘Thanks.’ I muttered overwhelmed with emotions I gave her a final kiss on her forehead.

Time was up.

‘Good bye NED.’ I said to her on the way out waving my hand in the air.
‘Good bye NEDian, until we meet again.’ I heard her reciprocating.