‘Generation Gap’, ‘age difference’ etc are few phrases that we hear on various occasions of our daily life. But have we really given a thought to the depth of these statements? Have we really searched for a reason for such gaps or differences?

I was a person who kept the concept of this G-GAP alive within my mind and no one had ever told me that all gaps can be bridged with the right materials. I had never tried to make friends with an older individual while acquainting the younger ones an even considerable thought. My expectations were all packed in a negative feedback system. It seemed like an unthinkable thing to bond with someone elder to me.

But you know how life teaches us things that are not fathomable for our minds. How we are made to taste the things that seem bizarre for the narrow way our thoughts are programmed to be. I was led through an experience that made me change all the wrong perspectives I had about the friendship between two strangers with a considerably huge G-GAP.

I was comfortably tucked into a cosy little single room when one Sunday afternoon someone just knocked on my door and announced that a roommate is on her way. She was from the other end of the country. Had no idea about my motherland or mother tongue. And was about 30 years more than my self. The last fact freaked the heavens and hades out of me. Everything that flashed through my mind was sceptical. Finally, she arrived. We couldn’t even break the ice before being accommodated into a tight filled space together.

Aparajitha was her name. Happily married and has a son, my age. She was settled, coordinated and experienced. I, on the other hand, was single, confused and way far from coordinated and settled. We were literally two poles asked to merge at the equator. But we did merge. The tight little space made us know each other with clarity. Two lives opened up to each other. Sharing thoughts and views on many things in our daily life. Learning from the other person’s life and experience seemed like a private coaching for us to get a better view of the world from different perspectives.

She talked about things that were simply thought provoking and encouraging. As the days passed we got used to each others’ habits and hobbies and instilled a feeling of mutual trust. We did not grow up in the same years, there was no common community ground. No common mother tongue. Not even a similar faith. But there were a lot of things that rang a bell of reminder within each of our souls. As she was leaving I could feel a part of my life being drifted away. A teacher taking leave. A friend saying farewell. A companion leaving a void. Above all, a new view was being brought before my eyes. No person can be beyond a gap of age, creed or sex if we decide to bridge it with acceptance and understanding.

Quoting Aparajitha Ma’am before I end:

“To live well and to let your soul live well are two different things.”