In which I make a friend
Sometime in the summer of 2006....
Friend: So, have you decided where you're going for college?
Me: Yeah, I'm going to the University of Nottingham for a BA in Econo...
Friend: Oh you know Pr!&@(#* N@#&r (name withheld for legal reasons. We shall henceforth call her . . . Khaleesi) is going there too?
Me:....... I don't know her
Friend: *Dubious look showing that our friendship is being judged right now*
*Awkward long pause*
Friend: She's from *Mad-School-in-South-Delhi*.
Me:...right...I've been to their fete once. And I know that their principal wears a lot of hair pins.
Friend: Ahem....Yeah, she's a really (usually a combination from the following adjectives) popular/shy/back-bencher/nice/trouble-maker/sweet/arrogant girl
Me: She sounds...interesting
This wasn't a conversation with a particular friend. This conversation took place numerous times with different people all of whom asked me if I knew Khaleesi. While the opinions of her varied greatly, the only thing everyone agreed on was that she was pretty. Meanwhile, the not-so-pretty and dubious looks that I received when I answered in the negative, got so irritating that I decided to embellish the truth (read: lie) - Yeah of course, I know of her. She's a really popular/shy/back-bencher/nice/trouble-maker/sweet/arrogant girl.
Suffice to say, I was pretty curious about this girl who sent so many tongues wagging. When we finally did meet, at a shady and popular *coffee* (read: shisha) place, I came across an admittedly beautiful girl. You know how people say there's something like love at first sight? I knew that this was well, not Ishq Wala Love but a platonic love at first sight. Let me tell you - a girl who comes wearing a red T shirt with red and white plastic pearls carrying a nautical red, white and blue bag and blue denim shorts is a big fat YES in this girl's eyes. First impressions matter. I'm sure mine was not of a weirdo chatty alien type entity. Come to think of it, Khaleesi has never told me what she made of me that day...thank you for that.
Once we were in college, it didn't take her long to drop the pretense and yeah, I let myself become HER best friend...and maybe she became mine too. Was it when our parents left us? When we moved to our new lodgings? When we realised what an adventure lay ahead? The impending independence awaiting? In all honestly, it probably began when another student was regaling us with her antics and both of us felt a need to discuss those, to analyse them, to strip them down to nothing and this was all conveyed through one look and a sly grin. I spent 85% of my first year in her room. It was Girl-Gossip-Central. In the first month of us becoming friends, she would invite me to her room after dinner to hang out and I would oblige her...It's not like I didn't have stuff to do, I did...I didn't want her to be lonely you know? So even though she would repeatedly and I mean repeatedly tell me she has to be up for class (yeah right), I would stay. I would stay till she would be falling asleep on her table. Because that's friendship. It's not like I was lonely or anything. In that room, I made friends with people without whom my current WhatsApp groups would be so painfully quiet.
From marathon America's Next Top Model nights (smize like you mean it) to discovering facebook (she was my first ever Facebook friend and remains my most ardent stalker) and discussing Delhi gossip in England (as you do) to hairstyles and accessories, from whose hot in Nottingham to whose not, her growing obsession with Man U and me pretending to care, we never ran out of things to say to each other. There are many other unforgettable moments that we've shared - our first-ish drink, her sitting in my room for six hours when my grandfather passed, me organising her cupboard against her wishes (I was just trying to help. It's not like I want your wardrobe. Whatever) and many more that I simply cannot put on a public forum and also, um, she doesn't enjoy long blog posts (Irony).
Despite my undiagnosed mental behaviour that frustrated her to the point of screaming, she always laughed and eventually joined in the madness. Seriously, if we're on a roll these days, its hard to stop. Thinking about her now, I realise that she has and continues to drag me out of my shell (I'm shy OK), to be adventurous and impulsive.
College may have (unfortunately) ended a long time ago, but we continue to remain close (at least I hope we will after she reads this). I am lucky to have many close friends (yes, I am working on your post too and yours too) but in her, I found someone whom I can tell anything and everything, who pushes me and loves me for who I am. And yeah, you're pretty neat too.
Cheers to you Khaleesi! Don't kill me and yes, I know I'm crazy/paagal/stupid. Have a good one.
Can I have that flat you promised me now? Or a diamond(s) is fine too. Just no more dairy please. I'm tired of me being your scapegoat for new products.
Friend: So, have you decided where you're going for college?
Me: Yeah, I'm going to the University of Nottingham for a BA in Econo...
Friend: Oh you know Pr!&@(#* N@#&r (name withheld for legal reasons. We shall henceforth call her . . . Khaleesi) is going there too?
Me:....... I don't know her
Friend: *Dubious look showing that our friendship is being judged right now*
*Awkward long pause*
Friend: She's from *Mad-School-in-South-Delhi*.
Me:...right...I've been to their fete once. And I know that their principal wears a lot of hair pins.
Friend: Ahem....Yeah, she's a really (usually a combination from the following adjectives) popular/shy/back-bencher/nice/trouble-maker/sweet/arrogant girl
Me: She sounds...interesting
This wasn't a conversation with a particular friend. This conversation took place numerous times with different people all of whom asked me if I knew Khaleesi. While the opinions of her varied greatly, the only thing everyone agreed on was that she was pretty. Meanwhile, the not-so-pretty and dubious looks that I received when I answered in the negative, got so irritating that I decided to embellish the truth (read: lie) - Yeah of course, I know of her. She's a really popular/shy/back-bencher/nice/trouble-maker/sweet/arrogant girl.
Suffice to say, I was pretty curious about this girl who sent so many tongues wagging. When we finally did meet, at a shady and popular *coffee* (read: shisha) place, I came across an admittedly beautiful girl. You know how people say there's something like love at first sight? I knew that this was well, not Ishq Wala Love but a platonic love at first sight. Let me tell you - a girl who comes wearing a red T shirt with red and white plastic pearls carrying a nautical red, white and blue bag and blue denim shorts is a big fat YES in this girl's eyes. First impressions matter. I'm sure mine was not of a weirdo chatty alien type entity. Come to think of it, Khaleesi has never told me what she made of me that day...thank you for that.
Once we were in college, it didn't take her long to drop the pretense and yeah, I let myself become HER best friend...and maybe she became mine too. Was it when our parents left us? When we moved to our new lodgings? When we realised what an adventure lay ahead? The impending independence awaiting? In all honestly, it probably began when another student was regaling us with her antics and both of us felt a need to discuss those, to analyse them, to strip them down to nothing and this was all conveyed through one look and a sly grin. I spent 85% of my first year in her room. It was Girl-Gossip-Central. In the first month of us becoming friends, she would invite me to her room after dinner to hang out and I would oblige her...It's not like I didn't have stuff to do, I did...I didn't want her to be lonely you know? So even though she would repeatedly and I mean repeatedly tell me she has to be up for class (yeah right), I would stay. I would stay till she would be falling asleep on her table. Because that's friendship. It's not like I was lonely or anything. In that room, I made friends with people without whom my current WhatsApp groups would be so painfully quiet.
From marathon America's Next Top Model nights (smize like you mean it) to discovering facebook (she was my first ever Facebook friend and remains my most ardent stalker) and discussing Delhi gossip in England (as you do) to hairstyles and accessories, from whose hot in Nottingham to whose not, her growing obsession with Man U and me pretending to care, we never ran out of things to say to each other. There are many other unforgettable moments that we've shared - our first-ish drink, her sitting in my room for six hours when my grandfather passed, me organising her cupboard against her wishes (I was just trying to help. It's not like I want your wardrobe. Whatever) and many more that I simply cannot put on a public forum and also, um, she doesn't enjoy long blog posts (Irony).
Despite my undiagnosed mental behaviour that frustrated her to the point of screaming, she always laughed and eventually joined in the madness. Seriously, if we're on a roll these days, its hard to stop. Thinking about her now, I realise that she has and continues to drag me out of my shell (I'm shy OK), to be adventurous and impulsive.
College may have (unfortunately) ended a long time ago, but we continue to remain close (at least I hope we will after she reads this). I am lucky to have many close friends (yes, I am working on your post too and yours too) but in her, I found someone whom I can tell anything and everything, who pushes me and loves me for who I am. And yeah, you're pretty neat too.
Cheers to you Khaleesi! Don't kill me and yes, I know I'm crazy/paagal/stupid. Have a good one.
Can I have that flat you promised me now? Or a diamond(s) is fine too. Just no more dairy please. I'm tired of me being your scapegoat for new products.
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