After a gap of seventeen years, he was back from United States of America. It took him seventeen long years to realize his mistake and the courage to admit it. For us it was all done and dusted.
Initially of all us tried contacting him, but to no avail. He never attended our calls or replied to our any messages. It was from his neighbor we came to know that he shifted to United States of America. We enquired about all the possible options to get in contact with him. All our efforts in getting in touch with him went in vain. We left all our hopes and continued with our daily life.
One fine afternoon, when I was busy in my office work, I got a text saying that my friend was back in town and want to meet all of us. Everything froze around me, and all of a sudden my adrenaline level shot up. Just as I was recollecting all the past memories I got a call from one of old friend. Even he received the same message about meeting all of us. We were sure that it was him who texted the messages. We tried reaching the same number but the call couldnt get thought, as the number was switched off.
All of us decided to meet in the evening, to discuss about this stuff. We selected Hotel United-21, property of Panoramic Universal Ltd. in thane for our meeting. It was a general meeting, and we decided to meet up over a glass of alcohol and discuss the issue. Everyone was to be there by 8 pm, and I was pretty sure that everyone would be there on time. I left office around 7.00 pm and I asked my driver to drive to United-21 hotel which by the way was really near my office.
There was a reason of selecting Hotel United-21 thane as our meeting point. Hotel United 21 is centrally located from our house but the reason to select this hotel was because it was nearby this place where it all started.
That time there was hardly any traffic in thane. It was only in recent years, thane got very populated and developed. At that time, I was commuting in a rickshaw, when I met him, for the first time. He was smart man and had confidence written all over his face. After I got down from the rickshaw, I paid the fare and proceeded towards my relatives house. I thought I kept my wallet in my pocket but accidently I dropped it on the ground. It was him who gave me my wallet back, I was really happy as I had some money in it which I needed to give it to the relative. It was then, when we first started conversation with each other.
I thanked him for his help and also offered him a tip of 1 Rs which he gently refused. He said he didnt do it expecting something in return. Also he works for a good company which made me think what he was doing there at a very odd time. Even he was there to meet someone, and we continued our journey together, as even he was going to the same locality.
All these were going on my mind when the driver suddenly pulled the break. We were almost reaching Hotel United-21 when there was an accident.