Just Friends....Best Friends...Friends Forever...

There is such excitement in writing today’s blog that I am already feeling lively..Feeling young.. Feeling full of energy and can’t wait to get this posted…!!  That’s what F.R.I.E.N.D.S do to you in life…and this one is about how my friends have helped and are helping me stay a better person. As Jo keeps saying, relatives are gifts from god…they are sold to you in a package when you are born, with “ goods once sold cannot be returned” tag… But the real gifts in life are the friends that you had….that you have … and those you will make.. For, it is always “You” who will choose …to be friends with someone…!

There is something about those school days in primary..when you wait for that PT period…despite the fact that you are scared of PT sir twisting your ear till it becomes red…you still crave that period more than the Social Studies or Moral Science…The rush in getting out of the classroom…running to the ground and making 2 teams…to not even think of getting stinky shirts and dirty trousers and play for the whole period like crazy… to queue up in front of water taps…to wish the teachers who walk from classrooms to staff rooms along the corridors…and feel awesome if they wish back…

You make your first bunch of friends there…and sadly…those bunches of friends rarely stay..Except for a few who landed up with you in high school…or in your same neighborhood..Or finally met you in Facebook and were shocked to see you married and a couple of kids..:-) Yup…my LKG to 7^th standard friend finally found me in Facebook and when he spoke to me, he couldn’t believe I was a father of 2 kids.. I don’t know if he meant that I don’t look like one or I lack the capacity to make 2 kids…but just to clear the doubts, I cross-checked with Jo…:-)

But may be that I belong to an internet-free era ; that I lost out on some of my best buddies during primary. I remember some of them distinctively and will never recognize them now..Who knows if they are in this same building and I cross the paths everyday :-(

 

But I did make some friends who have stayed with me even now..And I will never let them fade away from my life..when I speak to them, irrespective of the topic of the conversation ;  the mind reminds you that you are a little boy…Try this with your school friends…you will feel like a 10 year old, even if you are talking about how Afghan bombs got shipped to Syria…

I remember being irritated for the first few weeks in Joseph’s having got shifted to Mysore.. I couldn’t believe I no longer will be with those same set of 60 classmates everyday…I bet it’s the same story with you if you have shifted schools…Others…please go to the next paragraph directly:-)

But then again, the journey continues and you will make new friends…but till 10^th standard… friends are confined mostly to your classmates and a few of the neighborhood kids… may be they should reduce the class timings and give some social life to kids too….I can’t believe they made me spend my most energetic 10 years of life till tenth standard..Sitting in a wooden bench for 9am to 4pm..

But the moment you come to high school…things start to change a little…and in some cases…more than a little… it all depends on when would be the first time you notice that your voice is not getting better despite gargling 3 times a day OR you notice that you have started to look at your friend a little differently..Despite knowing him or her from KG1 :-)

Now, this is where you start making another kind of friends… these are not impulsive… not necessarily the one who sits next to you in that bench…not even the ones who play with you in PT periodJ but these friends are mostly someone who talks to you more…who likes to be with you…who share similar thinking…who goes to tuitions or swimming pool or cricket ground..…or someplace everyday with you…and most importantly.. Among many of the buddies ..there will be one..Yes..The one who always comes to your mind when you listen to Kishore Kumar’s killer romantic songs…

It’s the summer of the year that you finished your Tenth, that  will you realize what every teacher kept saying in the class….” These are your best days of life…enjoy these”… whenever teachers said this to me, I always thought they have no blinking idea about life outside school and hence they are saying it… I wanted to tell them, look at all the people outside school.. They have nothing to study… they have money in their pockets and cars and bikes to show off..They are always having fun..There is no exam to worry them week on week.. They have partners..They do what they feel like.. no curfew…no need to come home early… no need to keep parents informed about your location…” and I am sure many of you also thought that these teachers don’t want us to look at those in the college and dream of the fun they have…the bikes..No uniforms..Just a couple of books stuck to your trousers behind..Girl on your bike..Movies at will..Cigarettes and tea Adda’s..

Trust me..I never knew I was so wrong during those days till I was like 25 or so…and you have no idea how hard it is now to go back to School… Anything you do from that age onwards is just superficial. I did go back to Joseph’s a couple of months ago and I literally wanted to rewind the clock and be there once more.. Try going back to your school with a couple of your classmates……you will go end up touching the same corridors where you stood in queues for the assembly.. The same steps which you ran like a hare..will stare at the classroom benches for minutes together.. will look at the staffroom..The sports room where you took the football in 15 seconds and rushed down the stairs like a blizzard to reach the ground in another 30 seconds..You will drop a tear..For you will only now realize why our teachers kept saying .. “these were your best days of life…:-)”

You will miss parking your cycle..rushing to classroom and throwing the bag at your desk..running to stand in assembly line…those one-arm distances..walking in a snake line to classroom..opening the chapter madam said… to see half the class go to other room for the third language lessons..to giggle at biology classes..to play games when the Maths sir is absent for the day..to throw paper aeroplanes at the class lead for writing names on the board when you are caught talking..to stand in silence for 2 minutes when old ex PM dies..to raise hands to give stupid answers which a while ago in your mind was the best answer…to write lyrics of songs that you and your bench mate loved and watched in Rangoli..to share a double meaning joke.. and sometimes laugh despite not  knowing the second meaning in it just to feel part of the gang…the animosity against the other gang.. to do silly things to fight and be sarcastic … to apologies to your buddies later..to go after class to eat Egg pffs and thumbs -up..and when there is no money..to eat Pani puri…and on difficult days ..to share the only packet of churumuri…but never saying no to having fun…

And how much you cried with your friend because he or she lost someone at home..god bless you guys if you didn’t have to do that ever…for that is as hard to see as anything in life..

Most of us lose lot of friends in that summer of Tenth..for life dilutes that classroom into many options..many colleges and in my case..another city…  For the first few weeks..you sulk..not being with your buddies..and then life teaches you your first lesson… CHANGE…and change becomes the constant thing you will experience all along …you start accepting what you got and make the most of it..and once more…you will make new friends..New gangs… you continue with a handful from yester years…and this time…just like you imagined in school.. There is no uniform.. Nobody would know if you bunk classes…movie halls will be most likely you will meet your classmates more often than classrooms.. Classes are boring…canteens are more interesting..A whole lot happens in library.. There are so many couples ..And so many boys and girls you will notice are rich and so many are not… Now I know why we all wore uniforms in School…

You will find all kinds of people…people who still crave for the first bench.. who keep raising their hands before they have a question in mind…people who dream with their eyes open..People who draw names in the notebook..who draw names in their hands…some use pens and some knives..People who run back to home to get ready for tuitions.. People who forget that they have a classroom and go straight to canteen..People who are always planning a skit..Planning the college event..And people like me with withdrawal symptoms…

Coming to PUC where everyone who met me wanted to know my SSLC marks more than my name were never going to be in my friends list… and soon I found that I was alone…in the last bench… but life in college is never going to let you fail…for it will give you your share of buddies… slowly you get on and find buddies with similar frequency.. Everything in college helps you to have buddies… Canteen helps..Movies help..Notes help..Corner seat in library helps..Dark staircases help..Holding hands help..Singing old Hindi songs helps…Kinetic Honda helps…college event helps…to participate in that helps..The college bus helps..The lectures help..Practical classes help…the clean notes and zoology drawings help..Chemistry labs help…physics problems help…trigonometry sucks but helps..Language classes help..Bunking them helps more..One day picnic helps..Walking along corridors helps…Valentines Day helps..Friendship days helps…love letters help..Eat out helps..Tuition classes help..Attending friend’s friend’s sister’s marriage helps..Playing the game of stare in your eyes helps..Losing it helps better..One phone call a day helps..Failing in a test helps..Taking help from the one who has passed it and looks sexy helps..Being honest helps..Being naughty helps..Being imperfect helps…cultural fest helps…ethnic day helps..Ice-cream shop helps..Parking lot helps..Being sick and missing a day helps..To know someone missed you helps better…summer vacation helps…coming back to college helps..:-) 

Being a teenager has its own divine blessings… like Aamir Khan says in Rang De basanthi… You make life dance when you are inside Campus and life makes you dance once you are out…  wait for the next part of this blog..To see how life made most of us change….