We met again.

Yet again.

After 5 years.

2020 the year, they said it was.

I loosened the tie around my neck.

Hemant followed the suit & threw his jacket off.

Wind blew hard that day.

As 5 friends stood at the edge of a cliff.

Rahul & Kaustubh looked all the way down.

Down at the ocean blue water,

A sight that Hardik was a bit afraid to jump at.

30 feet down and much more deep inside.

Decisions to be made, fears to be overpowered.

To break the cocoon of changed lifestyles.

I took my shirt off.

Some of us had lost the toned bodies long back.

Age had caged our hearts from flying.

But today 5 hearts fluttered so hard.

‘Let’s do it.’

‘Jump? But we haven’t…it’s been a while.’

‘A while? Been a long long time.’

‘We are here. All of us. It says, ‘We dive!’

Don’t remember who said that,

But all of us listened to that voice.

And we pushed ourselves off the edge.

Only to realise that we had wings all this while.

With arms spread wide & a deep breath held inside.

Five of us dived together from the cliff so high.

Within moments of adrenaline & fears escaping minds,

We made it to the reflection of blue sky.

Triggering the sands of time,  

We entered a world,

So different from the one above.

Time had played its trick

And I couldn’t believe what I saw.

I was talking about the latest book I had been working on.

Rahul had his own research firm back in town.

Kaustubh was back with the one he should have called back.

Hardik had come back to India,

And Hemant simply smiled watching us showered with joy.

In a land of money chasers and runaways,

A ripple was created along the water.

The only culprit had always been the Time.

To the tune of which we all had danced.

Until we stripped down the plastic smiles.

And all it took was one dive.

Water did not change the direction though.

It was a ripple after all.

It was a dream.

It was a naked thought.

It was short lived.

But nevertheless, damn good it was!