My friend the movie star

I was the fat, shy, brown one (still am) and he was the lean, smart, fair one - but he never made fun of me.

His house had a very long front yard and a brick wall painted white with a red border. He had a TV and a top-loading VCR and an ATARI which made me very envious. We would watch Jamie and the Magic Torch and Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot and then play games on his ATARI. I remember one game in particular - pixellated cowboys on either side of the TV screen shooting at each other (this was no X-box 360, but we loved it to bits). He ALWAYS beat me at this because he had a slick technique for killing my cowboy with ricochet bullets.

His little sister used to peek her head round the door and smile her pixie smile when I was around. Perhaps she had not seen someone so short and fat before.

Once when we were 5 or 6, we decided to walk home (about 2 km, I think) after school - two boys in navy blue shorts and wrinkled white shirts weighed down by their school bags walking in the dusty summer afternoon swinging their water bottles blissfully unaware of the green buses roaring past them. I got a ticking off from my mother for doing it and then I heard her talking to his mom about what their boys had done (which meant that he got into trouble too!)

After we left school, I saw him once in my teenage. He had shot up to more than 6 feet, had a booming voice and looked like a movie star while I was still the old roly poly. I envied him even more then.

Last week, I rang Anoop on his mobile after a gap of about 15 years. We talked about our lives and our families. We talked about the good old school days. He sounded like his dad - at least, what I think his dad sounded like all those years ago. He sounded mature and decent and sincere. He sounded excited to hear from me. More than anything else, he sounded just like the friend I used to walk home with - swinging water bottles in the summer afternoon.