A Few Good Friends

Friendship Day, unexpectedly, turned out good this year. I have 4 close friends, who have been part of my life, one time or the other. I have some very special memories of them, with them. When I think about special friends, it is them who I remember.

Keeping Memories

A & S: They are my childhood buddies. A has really been one [our dads are also best friends] while S has been a buddy who I have known since childhood. I got close to S after we went separate ways after Class 10^th. With them, I am in a space, where I can pick up my phone and call them up even if I haven’t called them in a while.

S messaged me on Friendship Day, and that really set me into action. I could not talk to her but I let her know that she remains one of my favorite friends.  I always enjoy our easy banter whenever we talk, and god willing, I might meet her this month.

I did manage to call up A before the day ended. I had been guilty of ignoring her calls for a while [not really ignoring but not getting time to call her back]. I admire her a lot. She has literally picked up the pieces of her life and turned things around. She works in a Public Sector Bank now and doing well professionally. Though I often pull her leg about being the khadoos aunty types of Public sector bank, but in my heart I respect her to take up the challenges life threw at her and come out with flying colours.

L & E: They were my room-mates during Graduation. L was my batch mate while E was a year senior. Both are married now and have a daughter each. Both of them are around the place where we studied but not at the same place. 

I messaged E remembering the old times [she had recently spoken to me]. I hadn't spoken to L for about 1.5 years. I don’t know why! I had her number which I wasn't sure was working. I asked E for her number. Luckily she sent me 2 numbers. The first number was switched off but the second number was picked up by the lady herself. It is called destiny. If you are meant to do something, you would. Anyways, we did a quick catch-up on what was happening in our respective lives. It was good to hear her voice.

Although all of them are my close friends, Friendship Day specifically reminds me of L. When we were in hostel together, Friendship Day used to be special. We would always get something for each other – small things but memorable and special. Every year, I would write something for her, which she would get emotional reading. We always made it a point to talk to each other on Friendship Day, after we passed out of college. But life took its course. Things happened in my life and things happened in her life. And we lost touch. But I know, on Friendship Day, she waits for my call as I wait for hers. She has called me up when I was hoping but wasn't expecting; and this year I made it even.

I have written about L here and here.  

I have written about all 4 of them here also.

You may wonder, why I don't have any close guy friends. I don't have any logical explanation. I had only one guy best friend ever, which was during my post graduation. I was wise enough to marry him ;-)

I have written about him here.

So, how was your Friendship Day?

Happy Friendship Day!

I remember back in college, FRIENDSHIP DAY used to be quite an occasion in our hostel. I shared room with 5 other girls and all of us were quite close. One was my batch-mate but in science stream and one was a year senior in a different stream. Those were the days when I really understood the meaning of friendship. Till school days, I never dwelt on anything serious with any of my friends at that time. We were too guarded to discuss our fears and insecurities. I was not too sure whether the other person is worth our trust.

But once I moved out of home for my Graduation, I was on my own. There was nobody to turn to but in a way, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. There are a lot of things which you can share only with your friends, who are at the same wavelength as you. You are close to your family, but friends have a different place altogether. I made my first real friends in hostel. With my best friend, who was also my room-mate, we shared so many wonderful moments, which I cherish till date and will continue to do so forever. I told her every single thing about me, my insecurities, my failings, my nightmares and my fears; without any fear of being judged. And she never judged me. Somehow she always made me appear right, at the time, under the circumstances. I would always love her for that. That was the time when I understood that nobody has perfect lives, and it is quite OK to have insecurities. That was when I found a new confidence in myself and my abilities – confidence to stand up for anything I wanted and got it. I remember how she used to wait for me to take lunch, and in return I used to do same when she used to be late because of her classes. We used to have long chats on our lives. I have cried a lot on her shoulders. She was very compassionate yet a very naïve girl, almost gauche.

I always remember a very funny incident. We were studying for our exams, during our Final Year. We were sleeping and studying alternatively throughout the night. When I woke up sometime around 3 am, I saw her very tensed and searching for something. She said she has lost her spectacles, and the irony was she was not able to find it without spectacles. What we had done was, we had put one of the beds on another bed to make space in the room (most of the girls had gone home and only we were there for exams). We used to study on top of the higher bed sometimes; she had been doing the same, and slept while studying. When she got up she could not find her spectacles. She was almost into tears imagining all sorts of things – how would she write the exam with her “eyes”! Then I searched around the bed, and found it lying there. We were really into splits on that because she had gone completely overboard imagining all sorts of things she would do to write the exam.
I spoke to her yesterday after 7-8 month. She thinks I have forgotten her but I have not. How can I? I even wrote a poem on her, quoted on one of my earlier posts.

There was another friend, a year senior to me, but our wavelengths matched so much that we were quite close. She was also room-mate. I have kept in touch with her since then. She has had an inter-religion marriage and it all happened before my eyes. It was so weird how her love story started. If It is not fate then what is it? It is common knowledge that girls’ hostels are flooded with random calls from anonymous guys. Some girls used to pick up calls during night just to have fun, without knowledge of warden of course. One of our room-mates was quite a pro in talking to such calls – giving tit for tat to the foul speaking guys. During one of such calls, the guy who called was quite nice and spoke well to her. She passed on the phone to my friend also for a chat. She also took it to have fun. She used a pseudo-identity and gave him a false name. The guy called up again later, asking for the pseudo-name; somehow the call would always reach my friend. So the story started and after years of hardships and struggle, they were finally able to marry about a year and half back. Now she is expecting her baby this September. She is happy with him but keeps cribbing about how she has no career. But I love talking to her. She is quite talkative and warm, so even if you have some work, you really can’t put her off and keep the phone down.

I am also close to two of my school buddies, actually we have been friends since Kinder Garten but the friendship really grew stronger after college. All three of us are in different facets of life, lost touch a couple of times, getting busy with our respective lives, but now somehow fate brought us together and even if we do not talk on daily basis, we always reach out to each other when we need to talk about something. Knowing each other’s families and growing up together, there have been a lot of things in common and there is a lot of understanding; so we are on same wavelengths.

So to all FRIENDS, who have shared some wonderful and some crucial moments of my life, this day is a celebration of a beautiful relationship we share; and that you are my pillars of strength. I don’t know if they will read this or not, but nevertheless I cannot not acknowledge this.