Chaddi Buddy

Friend's are siblings God didn't give us...

That was what Del had said to me as we'd chatted one late evening months ago. As I further ponder over the idea I can't help thinking what would we ever do without friends.

I'm one of those people who has a lot of friends but few F.R.I.E.N.D.S. if you know what I mean! As a child too (I have no siblings) I had just one imaginary pal. As I grew a little older she sublimated in thin air and for the next few years, actually practically two-thirds of my childhood I spent time with Sameeha - the girl downstairs.

Sameeha a.k.a. Sana and I weren't really the best of friends; but we were all we had and so we derived cheap thrills from the craziest of adventures. We'd wrap curtains as sarees and wear her mom's pencil heels. We'd fight over who got to be Akshay Kumar's wife; being the more submissive and compromising one I was forced to settle down with Sunil Shetty ('yuck'). We'd prepare dance sequences for an imaginary audience or for Christmas get-togethers at my home. We'd record songs after learning the lyrics on the tape recorder (we were the cassette generation!). Kitchen toys, dolls, lipsticks, earrings...

*******

Sana's baby girl turned one last week. As I sat on the pale brown couch in the party hall I smiled to myself as I realised how we'd grown together; grown from being girls into beautiful women. What amused me even more was how the girl I'd fought with, laughed with, cried with...was now a complete woman - career, motherhood and all. It's beautiful how individuals who were once naive and carefree suddenly (or gradually) become mature and responsible. Though our basic personalities remain the same we are pushed through a phase that renders us more polished as we move out of it.