Those who come and go, but stay forever

Did this ever happen to you? That you meet someone when you are on a solo trip or in a conference or something like that. You connect with them immediately. You have a good time sharing food, travel etc. But then they simply disappear from your life just the way they came; Without any drama. Like something that slips away effortlessly. After years, you will still remember the times you spent with them so fondly.

But now you are afraid to call them up because you are not sure whether they still remember you, whether the same vibe remains, what if they have changed, what if you have changed? It will spoil the memories. It is like a bad stamp on a beautiful postcard and you are afraid you will never be able to erase that mark.

Did that ever happen to you?

It was the summer of 2014. I visited Brussels for a brief period, for 4 weeks on work. For the first one week I stayed in a hotel. But then I met this guy at work, let's call him "RP", who was also from India. He already shared a flat with another guy. He told me I could come and share the flat with them for the remaining 3 weeks of my stay.

This guy loved cooking. So, he cooked for both of us every day. He never let us cut vegetables or help him in any way while he cooked. It was almost like he wanted that whole enjoyment for himself. Being the lazy people we were, we let him do his cooking.

RP cooked delicious meals, snacks and whatever we asked him for. He never minded. Only condition was that he would not do the dishes. So, it fell upon us, the other two lazy pigs, to clean the dishes after we ate.

RP was very amicable and agreeable. Only other two rules he had were he would not eat non-vegetarian food and he would not drink alcohol. But he smoked. Since he had been in Brussels for a couple of years already, he took me around during the weekends to visit the Grand Palace, Atomium and for shopping. It is sufficient to say we simply enjoyed being together. It was almost like finding your lost brother.

On other days, we would enjoy watching movies together or spend time watching YouTube or something like that. Or we would simply take a walk in the farmers market to buy some cheese or bread etc.

Eventually, my stay there came to an end. Back in India, I got busy due to project work. Within a few months, I left the company and shifted to a different city. I tried reaching out to him on his phone multiple times. This guy was a ghost. He was never on any social media. And I simply lost touch.

But the times I spent with him remain as very fond memories even to this day.