Dost

Dost*
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' kaise ho dost?'
( how are you friend?)
Is that what he would always begin with ,
My friend from another part of the world,
When we would meet ,
Crossing several fields
Like those two little boys
From two different sides
In a flick that championed the blooming of friendship despite odds;

I did not belong to his religion
He did not belong to my customs,
Yet we had been friends
For we met crossing fields several
While ploughing our lands,

We both had been farmers
Tilling the arid earth of our region
Toiling hard to grow green paddy ,

We met at sunrises
At sunsets too,
Crossing several fields,

And if we had some time to spare
We would both sit under a single tree
sheltering us from scorching heat of summer,
And sand mixed dust that blew from desert lands not faraway,
Talking about how the monsoon last year came good
And how we both reaped corns,

' kaise ho dost?'
I would also ask him
Sometimes
And he would smile.
(* Dost: friend,
Written for ' Kaafiya milaao ' )