Last treat

I had received a call from my friend Bhumi. I was delighted to see her name pop up on my phone. We had been friends for several years and it is always pleasure to speak with her.

"Hello how Mumbai is treating you?" Bhumi asked with a cheerful voice.

"Mumbai is treating me like a royalty. Just how she had been treating me ever since I was born. How is New York the treating you? Have you adjusted yet?" I asked Bhumi. I was curious to know how my fellow Mumbai Girl was coping up with a new city.

" Quite ok. After all New York is not Mumbai. I am trying to adjust and enjoy. But nothing beats our spirit of Mumbai. Every now and then I miss Mumbai. Whenever I see the huge burger in here I definitely miss our vadapav, Misal Pav and sandwiches. The one that I miss the most is Pav Bhaji. Otherwise the daily food I prepare myself so that is not a problem. But I am missing the taste of my mother and grandmother's food. Anyway I am trying to cope up and survive. You tell me how is your new job going on?" She brushed off her own struggles while changing the topic.

" New job is going on well. At least the first week was fine. Let's see what is in my plate in the next week. But over all everything is very systematic here. I have pretty positive feeling that it will be really great. At least it will be better than our old company," I replied.

"Of course dear it will be better than our old company. You know Saurabh is joining me in the next week. If I remember anything that I need I will tell you and just hand it over to Saurabh. Now that both of us would be here I do not think we would return to India in at least 2 years. But when I am going to come back I want to visit your home and you are taking me to the Misal shop that you mentioned," Bhumi said with the futuristic optimism.

" Lady you have just landed there. What you are planning is still at least 2 years away. Hold your horses for now. Yet I promise you I will take you there. It will be my treat," I said to bring her back to reality, but actually I was already starting to look in the future.

" You are not going to get away so easily. How dare you tell me that Misal will be your treat? You are treating me in at least a three star restaurant. Anyway I have a meeting now I think I should hang up," Bhumi ended the call. But she gave me a dream that both of us are enjoying Misal.

Bhoomi was supposed to come to India for a quick visit in April 2020. Unfortunately because of pandemic it got postponed. Later she had rescheduled her visit in December 2020 but that too could not happen. The next visit she had planned in July 2021 that too got cancelled.

Finally in January 2022 I received a call from Saurabh, Bhumi's husband. It was to inform me that Bhoomi had died because of the complications of COVID infection. When he informed me that my best friend is no longer in this world I could not cry enough. I did not eat anything for 2 days because it was difficult for me to cope up with her death. I kept remembering the promise that I had made to her. I kept feeling guilty that the last treat was still pending with me and I could not get the opportunity to take her out on that treat.