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Just read Astromate's beautiful story on old friends. I was lovely. I read it on an old smartphone which I began using recently.I just cannot type on the text or Body.. only the subject line responds to the touch qwerty ... Maybe I just don't know how to use it. But what does it matter. I have my old trusted Desktop which is dusty and old but easy to use... About the truth of the tale it is for readers to decide.

The picture from google images is not a real snapshot. However it somewhat resembles my home which also needs plenty of repairs and painting apart from those carried out recently which some of my "friends" on PP already know. Well... where do I begin.. I came to the city from a suburb in another state way back more than thirty years ago. At that time the house was a one storey one. We huddled into two rooms and lived happily for one full year.None of us felt the need of separate bedrooms.

My mother, however, began complaining about the meagre accomodation and the lack of "air" on ground floor. So much hard earned money was spent in constructing the first floor to which we all moved leaving the ground floor for guests or if any tenants came by.But as you know funds were scarce so the  inside doors had to be crafted out of light frames and cheap plywood. The outside of the house couldn't be plastered. This was maybe somewhere in the 80's.Plaster came two years later... There are still snapshots of our home without plaster when I got my lovely life partner... They bring back old happy memories.

After forty odd years the house is quite old and the walls are shedding their plaster and flakes of whitewash are falling all over the place.Many outer walls stare with gaping sandy cement holes. In several places the plaster has fluffed up  ... The plywood doors open and close nicely during summer but in rainy season they swell up and we have to wrestle with them..  The roof was repaired about three years back.. but again it leaks in monsoon. The skylights let in rainwater when there are heavy showers. Bathroom cisterns cannot be used since the concealed pipes have sprung leaks under the marble. Foul smell from dead pigeons and pigeon poo waft in through the open windows.The old ceiling fans are noisy.Furniture is old and uncomfortable.

I feel quite ashamed at having to entertain guests in the shabby home of mine.By now my dear young Astromate must be thinking... so what's the point bishu is driving at ? How does it relate to "Old Friend" Let me tell you in whispers... I am very fond of my unkempt tiny first floor home and wouldn't opt to live anywhere else. This house has something which a new apartment will not have "memories" I love my old friend of forty years though made of lifeless material.

This is all I had to scribble.