J in Bangalore

My friend, J, who moved to UK along with her husband is coming to Bangalore on a 3 weeks vacation.
The reason I am mentioning this here is because I saw a curious phenomenon. J had sent an email telling S and I about her impending visit. And we are very excited about J's Bangalore visit.
Then, it happened. Multiple people in the organization started pinging/calling/walking over to me just to tell me about J's impending visit to Bangalore. And they casually start "Hi Vidya... do you know J is coming to Bangalore" and I am like "oh..yeah...she told me..."
Then I started thinking about this. Why are these people, who normally never talk to me, pinging me to tell about J?
Several conclusions:
1. It was very evident that J has managed to retain good relationships with all ex-colleagues not just S and I
2. These people, who still, are in the organization, are really happy about the prospect of meeting J as much as S and I

3. May be they want to see me green with envy (and they largely succeeded !!!) showcasing the fact that they too are J's friends :P

Reality Bites

Yesterday night, I called up Jo, who is currently in UK. It had been a while since we had talked and there was so much I wanted to share with her. Especially on the Gossip Front ;)

I had several guests at home. Despite this, I dialled her number and started talking to her. I told her how much I miss her companionship in the office and checked with her how she was faring in the new place.

After all initial pleasantaries, I started with a routine "Yen Gotha..." (you know what). Just then I realized that I was about to tell her about our office's "Gossip of the year". With this, the other realization that all my relatives had stopped talking and were listening to my conversation hit me hard. It was as if they knew instintively that I was talking something secretive.

Immediately i told Jo "hey, guess we have some company. So, hang on there... I will get into the room and we can continue talking". I said this and walked into the bed room. Settled on my bed, sitting cross legged. I continued where I had left.

As I was talking to her I sensed that to me, Jo was very much in the room and sitting right in front of me - eyes wide, listening to every word I was uttering. She was staring at my face in rapt attention, which pleased me a lot.

Just then, few of my relatives came in and asked me if they could sit on the bed. Without even waiting for my reaction, they made themselves comfortable on my bed. I was furious and extremely annoyed that this nosey bunch was not letting me talk to Jo. I opened my mouth to say something nasty... that was when I heard a weird sound "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ".

I turned from my pillow to realize that it was my cell phone alarm, which was giving me the wake up call. And the above mentioned episode was actually a dream :D

I instantly felt a tinge of sadness at having lost that proximity with Jo. This song came to my mind at that very moment summarizing my feelings perfectly:

Jeevan Ke Safar Main Raahi
Milte hain bichad jaane ko
Aur De jaate hain yaaden
Tanhaai main tadpane ko!!!