Amidst 'umm's, and 'ahh's, while trying to salvage a discussion that turned to friendly banter, making headway to the precipice of never seeing each other, tackling each other’s every sentence struggling for the right words with nervous smiles and quick shakes of the head, making jokes to alleviate the grim situation and a strangled-sounding laugh punching a fist against our thighs, I received a news alert through my phone while having coffee with a dear friend in a café we frequently visit, one of the days last week.

We were arguing whether we have developed a tendency to tune into what may go wrong in the world today, instead of how well things are going. The bone of contention continued on whether the negative stories in the media are outweighing browsing positive ones. If so, did we really deserve the “doom scrolling” dubbing as we are presumed?

The news that came through was about the plan to put Ethiopia’s most enduring and celebrated novel - Fikir Eske Mekaber on the TV screen by a local company. Not because it was an opportunity to deflect or use it as an alibi to retreat from the conversation, but it was with wide grin eyes that sparkle and gleam garnished voice I conveyed the news to my friend.

He received it with an unrestrained smile, agape in wonder, noticeable tension leaving his body. Speaking in a bubbly tone, encouraged by his rapt attention, I chattered the literary prowess of the novel, with a superlative draught to express the author Haddis Alemayehu’s academic merit in conjuring timelessly relevant characters, and a theme that kept generations woke.

The pain I endured reading it all the way and after, how wet the book used to get as it was tarnished by my tears, how I used to stare at the picture of the author with frustration, the depressing years I had in my youth, it was as though I was actively involved in a close family story. There were only a few moments, I wept just so in my life.

Pretending to never heed what came to my mind next, I made a futile effort to intensely concentrate on something else changing the topic in any way possible that never paid off. What made me surprised and incapable of speech, garnished first with a fake smile as if I wanted to laugh it off, was that there are only a few of the many stories that have successfully made the transition from narrative fiction to the screen.