What else?

I call it the WES - 'What Else Syndrome'. (Ok, honestly I don't call it that - just felt that this might be a good opening sentence for this piece.)

Surely not something that has been discussed much, but this has been keeping me on thoughts for quite sometime now. I remember, when in school or college, I used to have a lot of friends. 'Friends' has been used in the loose sense of the term, because I am in touch with or think about barely a few of them now. And, as we know, real friends are for life. Anyways, with these friends would pass almost each day during and after classes. I remember our house was the hub of meetings during weekends and vacations - even in evenings. The point I am trying to make is whenever we met, in groups of anything from 2 to 12, we would always make a boisterous group - and the portion of discussions on serious topics started cropping up with age. But never, and I mean without exception, did it happen that we would sit idle or think about what to talk about.

Years on, now it's a different story altogether. I get to spend time with people who I am sure are very good friends. Its still fun of the highest degree when we are together - still in groups of anything from 2 to 12. But keeping the jokes, banter and laughter aside - there is very little that we talk. I mean, no discussions - only incidents. I was there, he did that, you know what happened, etc. But once these dry out - there is not much else. (This is not always apparent because we are more than capable of going on with the frivolousness for days on end. I talk to one of my friends over chat almost everyday - and we just keep laughing recycling around 50-odd funny incidents in our stock.)

This is more evident when there is a one-on-one meeting with my friends, either in person, over phone or on chat. No one has anything to discuss other than updates on the happenings. No music, sports or other interests discussed at all. A typical chat even with one of my closest friends would go like this -

I: Hi
He: Hello, what's up?
I: Not much, you say.
He: Going on..
I: Ok...
He: What else?
I: Nothing much, just the usual.
He: O, ok.
I: So, what else?
...

There is something seriously wrong. Is it with growing up? Is it with the so-called maturity or responsibilities? Is it something with our profession? Or is it something with me - do you find my feeling like this just an isolated observation? Let me know.