I got some
great news, which I look at as a brilliant Christmas present, the other day. I
was at the grocery store when an email came in, which I was able to check while
I was shopping (one reason to love smart phones), that made me giddy with
excitement. It was from my best friend, Nabeel, and in it he said that he was
in The Hamptons with his sister for the holidays and that he was free after the
New Year before flying back home to Stuttgart. Yes, Germany.
Nabeel and I
became fast friends and close friends during my last two years of school in
Hong Kong. He's Pakistani, from Bristol, and I think we were in the same
English Lit and/or Geography set at Island School. We also lived close to one
another. I was at the now leveled 21 Tung Shan Terrace on Stubbs Road and he
was at Villa Monte Rosa a couple miles up the road, if you went by car, but
only about a half mile or so walk if you cut behind Tung Shan Terrace and
across Bowen Road.
After moving to
America, before the mass use of email and the internet, Nabeel and I kept in
touch with letters. As happens when you get older and busier, the letters
slowed down and eventually ceased but we were always in touch via mutual
friends who'd travel to the States or when I'd travel to England and visit my
sister. When the internet and email exploded, we kept in touch that way but
with both of us busy - on the phone today, I just found that he's only home
something like three days a week traveling for work to Moscow, Köln, Vienna,
you name it - our correspondence is irregular except on our birthdays and
holidays. Nonetheless, when we do catch up, it feels like it always has and
that no time has passed between us.
With Facebook,
although he's not on it, we manage to keep up with each other through mutual
friends who are. And, thanks to all of this social networking and digital
communication, Nabeel and I will be getting together tomorrow. Naturally, I am
thrilled and counting down the hours. He and I have gone through a lot since we
last saw each other in 1997 during the handover of Hong Kong back to China.
We've experienced personal and professional ups and downs. I've gotten married
and become a father. We've talked about Jude being the next generation of
Hong Konger, at least by blood or association anyway.
Tomorrow, we'll
catch up, reminisce, talk about what's to come and when we part I'll be happy
but I'll also be sad. I'll feel emotions for the same reason. Nabeel and I are
friends regardless but, as classmates do, he represents some of the best days
of my life and reinforces the longing for those days or, at least, the feelings
of those days. For those who know me, I've established a life here in America
but I've never really felt like America is home. Hong Kong is. Always will be.
I know we all have to move on in our lives but for nostalgia, history, not
forgetting where I came from, remembering the 'good old times' I will never
completely let go of Hong Kong and Nabeel is a huge part of my Hong Kong. I
believe that wherever we would've met, Nabeel and I would've become the same
fast and close friends that we are. Our friendship is extra special because it
was forged in such a special place that Hong Kong is and a place that I call my
home.
I
have a brother but the way things in our lives developed we never became close.
I love him because he's my brother but I don't know if I can call him 'my
friend," if that makes any sense. Nabeel, in my heart, mind and soul is
both friend and brother. I love him and I cherish our almost thirty year
friendship. And I can't wait to see him tomorrow.
