Neighbours Indeed

   How time has changed.. Or is it the people? It is difficult to answer. For the past few years (till 2012) we lived in flats.There were 6 flats on a floor. But we  hardly got time to talk to each other. Everybody seem to be running late for something or the other, barely able to have an exchange of pleasantries as we bump by each other. I felt as if I'm the only one without much to do even though I was working. This reminded me of an incident that happened some 30 years back.

Sometime in 1983, when we were posted in Pune, we lived in flats. There were 4 houses in our block. All four of us became good friends over our daily routine of buying vegetables from a vendor who came almost every day in the morning. Our children were small and not school-going. So after packing our husbands off to office, we friends spend time chit-chatting after our purchasing. On one particular day, 3 of us were at it as usual when we smelt milk getting burnt somewhere. So engrossed  were we in our chatting session, we decided that the smell must be from the 4th neighbour who has not joined us that day and decided to catch up with her later. So saying, we left for our houses promising to meet in the evening. When I entered my house, there was a strong smell coming from my kitchen. I ran over there and Oh my god, i still can not forget the sight! MILK!!!! It was me who kept the milk on the stove and forgot all about it. I could not even identify the vessel I had kept on the stove, it was so black!

  Thankfully nothing serious had happened. Cut to today. We neighbours meet just in the elevator or in the neighbourhood morning store greeting each other by saying,"Hi.. running late or got to pick the child from the bus stop" or some such thing. So, I wonder what has changed,"the time or people" ?   
(not advising to burn milk either!)