Friends and Retirement

People who work in  the government offices are of two categories---those who will keep in touch even after you leave the place and those who will forget you the moment you go out of sight.Even amongst those who keep in touch it is generally a short-term affair.Gradually, people begin forgetting you and ,unless you have developed a closeness in your relationship,you are soon out of their radar.Since the time I joined the Government, I must have seen hundreds of people retiring on superannuation.Honestly,I have not visited anyone of them since then.Of course, many of them have talked to me on telephone or have met me in my office, generally to sort some matters relating to their days in the office,but hardly any, if ever, visited my residence.The reason is obvious.None of them had any intimacy of relationship with me.They were just acquaintances, not friends.Since I had not visited anyone who had retired before,it  was natural for me not to expect  anyone coming to see me at my residence after I had superannuated, especially as , after quitting the office,I had moved my residence to a place not very near from  my previous place of working .But a significant development intervened.Immediately after I retired from the job  it was diagnosed that I was suffering from cancer of gut i.e. esophagus.I did not spread the news but people came to know of it of their own.I was flooded with phone calls.A large number of people also paid a visit to the hospital room where I had been kept.However, when I shifted to my house, the stream of visitors dried.The ones who  continued to come were relatives.But an acquaintance, whom you may call friend too, because we have known each  other for the last thirty-five years, has continued to come and meet me in my house.What could be the reason?Is it the dreaded disease?Or does he really consider our relationship some thing really important?Or is it because he was born a Christian and pity is something he has ingested with his mother's milk?Let me see for how long he continues to make these visits.Whatever it is and for whatever time these visits continue ,I will relish them for, they give me  a sense of having been important however false that sense may be.Importance, as we all know, is a mirage