A phone call from the opposite side of the Globe

This afternoon I got a phone call from Nihar Sircar, from Toronto. We haven't seen each other for 45 years. Of course we have been contacting through the net, and that also from a year or so ago. The phone call from the opposite side of the globe from a person I haven't met for 45 years, simply thrilled me. I remember Nihar as a stout young man, with determination. A wonderful goalkeeper he was. I remember once we went to St. Paul's to play a friendly football match. Nihar was our goalkeeper. In one of the skirmishes at our end of the box, one of the forwards of St. Paul's punched Nihar in the stomach. Nihar was not a person to take it lightly. At the first opportunity, he punched the opponent's forward in the face when he was going to head the ball. It was a hard punch which made him bleed from the mouth. So that was Nihar. I wonder if Nihar remembers he and Lawrence Keelen punching Br. Mark when he attempted to stop a fight between the boys. That was a hilarious scene. During one of the Puja holidays, a few of us who did not go home, went for a picnic to Kettle Valley. We were to do the cooking. Nihar and Subhomay Bhattacharya had taken charge of the food department. But, unfortunately, the fire couldn't be lighted, no matter how they tried. One of the women tea pickers was watching their vain attempts with curiosity. Finally, she came down from the hillside and lighted the fire. Ultimately, food was ready, but what it tasted like, don't ask me. We were hungry young men, anything would be gulped down. Subhomay Bhattacharya met an untimely death the following year during the last rites of his grandfather. A young life snuffed out.
Nihar and I talked for about ten minutes. We were trying to recall the names of the students in our classes. He was one year senior to me in school, with Safiul Huda, S.Bhattacharya, Jeffrey Knight, P.K. Dev Barman and others. He has invited me to visit his house in Toronto. God knows whether that will ever materialise. But the sincerity and the warmth were touching, and these are the qualities that bind us Goethalites. Thank you, Nihar.