There are just four friends left who have been my lifelong friends dating from my pre business school days and one of them in fact went to business school with me. Two of them are in the USA and two are in India and Sultan is one of them. Our friendship goes back to our bachelor days of the early 60s. It flourishes still and luckily for both of us our spouses too became great friends to each other.
Sultan incidentally is the gentleman (SA) in my blog post of the same title,
Sultan and Farida got married on Januray 21, 1968. They had a quiet celebration of their fiftieth anniversary earlier this month in Mumbai for which I could not go for obvious reasons.
I rang them up early in the morning to wish them and all three of us took off reminiscing about the engagement party, the wedding party and the reception.
I asked for some old photographs as I had not taken any at that time as I was about to leave Mumbai for further training to the South and was living an almost nomadic life out of a suitcase. Sultan and Farida too soon left for France for an extended stay there. It was in the early seventies that we got back together in Bombay.
I received three photographs from Farida which are reproduced below. Readers will remember those days of Black and White photographs!
The top photo shows from left to right, me, Farida, Sultan and Farida’s brother Jaffar.
The lower photo shows, from left to right, sitting on the floor, me and Sultan’s and my late friend Vishnu. Sitting on chairs in the middle Farida and Sultan flanked by two ladies from the family.
In the top photograph, Farida is not being shy but laughing at some joke that I must have cracked. You can see the bemused expression on Sultan’s face and the grin on Jaffar’s.
This is a more recent photograph of Farida and Sultan. Look how gracefully they have aged. I have no doubts whatsoever that it is because of Farida who has kept Sultan on the straight and narrow for all these fifty years. I wish that I had aged as gracefully as my friend.
Wow, 50 years is a long time for a marriage. Long marriages are less and less common here in the states as time goes by.
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It is not so bad here Mike but, there are increasing number of cases of separation as well as instances of Senior Citizens after the children have flown going in for divorces.
Aw, that’s really sweet. The old pictures are great and I also love the more recent photo of your friends.
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They are both great people SAW. They are gentle people with great sense of humour and tremendous resilience. Both have handled adversity very well and come out of them stronger and more gentle.
You remind me that my mum and dad have their 50th anniversary in May and as the oldest, it falls to me to make sure we do something for them!
Good ageing is about attitude, mostly, and you have that in bucket loads! There is not much we can do to change our inherited characteristics or the events of our lives, which leave their mark
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Had my late wife been alive, we too would have celebrated our 50th later this year Kylie. Thank you for the thumbsup for my attitude.
Great pictures! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
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Entirely my pleasure Monk.
another lovely nostalgic post. I love old pictures.
and that they have both lived and enjoy their lives together is wonderful.
but you don’t think you’ve aged gracefully sean? I beg to differ with you.
but then maybe that’s part of your charm. not thinking it!
and yup. you were a cowboy definitely. 😀
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Tammy, I am really blessed for having you for my cheerleader! Thank you.
Fifty years is a long time to stay in touch—wonderful that you have managed that! Apart from my siblings, I can’t say I’ve known anybody that long. Ours is a very mobile society. Perhaps that is an explanation!
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I am in regular touch with the other friend in India whose friendship goes back to sixty five years STLF. I am in irregular but affectionate touch with the two in the USA whose friendships also go back to fifty plus years.
My, my, weren’t you handsome then, as you are handsome now. Of course, the politically correct will now tell me that you’d still be same wonderful person you are even if you hadn’t been/weren’t the handsome devil you are.
It’s strange though, couldn’t help thinking that your friend Sultan (what a name – isn’t it a title given to rulers, say, in the tales of 1001 Nights?) looked much older than you on the wedding day? Having said that, descendants of certain races appear to not show any age at any particular time. So, when older they may be taken for older and when older for younger than their years.
Talking of weddings, and I may have mentioned this before: There is an Indian restaurant in full view of my abode. And when the Indians arrive for assorted festivals and, of course, weddings, it’s breath taking. The robes, the colours. The people, their attire – stunningly beautiful. The women exuding … I don’t know what … such dignity, resting in themselves. And, as the Angel often says “Only you, Mama”, they receive my freely given compliments most graciously should I be downstairs and cross their path rather than watching them from my window.
Fifty years of marriage? That’s grand. It’ll be sixty years for my parents, November next year. I keep egging my mother on to last till then. And beyond.
Heartwarming post, Ramana,
U
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These two photographs were taken at the evening reception Ursula. The clothes worn during the wedding itself was full of colour and typically Indian traditional attire. Had my U been alive, we too would have been married for fifty years this coming November.