Some precious memories with friends

Many a times, my family and friends have caught me smiling when I am alone. Even during my solitary walks or while traveling, I smile to myself and suddenly turn around to see if anybody has noticed me. Those are times when I reminiscence about some funny past. And an important part of my past are my friends S and A with whom I have made some beautiful memories.

S was my playmate and closest buddy who lived next door and studied in a different school. As best friends we would’nt let a third friend intrude between us, except during group games. We played lot of games and made lot of memories. One of my cutest memory with her is while playing the pretend game of house. (ghar ghar)

Her school mates would join us along with a few road friends and we would assign ourselves different roles of a family and play. We would get dal, rice, and other kitchen items in small play sets and would imitate the way our parents behaved. We would get creative with the natural things available around us. We would make a small chulha with 3 small stones as base put some twigs and dry leaves in between and burn them. We then would put rice and water and put it to boil. When we needed oil for cooking we would use the berries of the red vine spinach( basale soppu) growing in the garden. We would crush the berries till it yielded a slimy liquid and use this thick liquid as oil . We would pound the hibiscus petals with water and pour the resulting gel in the egg moulds and use it as yolk while baking fake cakes with mud. We had substitutes for coconuts, a weed which had berries similar to coconuts. Sometimes the gooseberries which fell from the tree duplicated as vegetables and so many more substitutes like that replicated our toy house. S's sister and my sister were 6 years younger to us and of the same age. We actually didn't want them to join us as they were too young  but our parents would insist we involve them too. Not knowing what to do with the 5 year olds, we would say "You both are men" and give them a newspaper to read and keep them away.

We knew no Fischer price toy house or Barbie doll house then. We used our mom’s saree or bedsheets to make a tent. Sometimes, we would put up a tile house. There were lot of mosaic tiles around our house. We would build a home with those mosaic tiles like the way you build with a pack of playing cards. We would place narrow flat stones or tile pieces as sofas. But the best part of our house was the doggie which we had in our play home. Guess what played the role of a doggie?

 It was a big dead cockroach( I hear you guys saying “eeks”) It was S’s friend Haseen’s idea. She would tie a dead cockroach to a thread and tie it a plant near by and called it 'Ruby'. Now whenever, I see a big dead cockroach on the road or in the car parking area, (my house is pest free), it reminds me of 'Ruby' and  a smile plays on my face.

Another friend with whom I share beautiful memories is my namesake  and college mate. She is my teen friend and so the memories with her are different.

We both have learnt carnatic music and like pop music. During our free hours in college, we would practice Cyndi lauper, Stevie Wonder, Wham, BoneyM, Madonna etc.,on our college staircase along with playing hangman. She and I have bunked classes( our parents knew) and would practice at her home which was close to the college. We had sung George Michael's 'Careless whispers' for our college day program held at town hall, along with 3 other friends( they too knew carnatic music and were good at Ghazals also) and it was a hit . We were overjoyed with the response and decided we must sing songs on Sportsday which was to be a week later. We had decided to sing  "Hooray hooray it's a Holi… holiday". We decided to maintain the tune  but we reworded the lyrics and made it as "Hooray hooray it's our Sportsday today"  and also many other lines were changed, we included the chief guest's name as part of the lyrics. We were so busy composing the lines that we were left with no time to practice. But we were confident that we were good singers and so we thought we would pull it off.

We went on to the stage confidently and held the mike. As we started singing, none of our pitch synced.  The base shruti(sur) was different for each one of us (we generally practiced with ‘sa pa sa’ to get the shruti right) it was a total fiasco at the start.   We were rubbing our palms, seeing one another and finally got off the stage giving a below average performance. All this in front of our chiefguest Cricketer SMH Kirmani. This was one of the most awkard moments of our life then for us. Thankfully, we were five of us. Many a times, when I listen to that song, I am reminded of that incident and immediately can’t stop smiling and my palm covers my face. This was also a learning experience for us " not to be overconfident and one has to practice however talented"

These are just two of my  memories  with them,  that i often re- run when i am alone.There are so many more that i can write reams and reams  about my memorable past with these girls.

With S, my friendship is so famous in our neighborhood and family circles that whenever one of our name is mentioned the other name follows.

With A, an year after college, I lost contact with her after she migrated to the US. And immediately an year later I received a beautiful picture post card from Italy where she was on a holiday mentioning her postal address. ( We did not have a mail id then)

And from then on there is no looking back with this friend so much so that even our husbands are friends now. So who says, men and women don’t sustain old friendships after marriage. Atleast, it does not apply for people like us.

Also, some say:
“A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely.”

Well, I can’t relate to the above saying too. Atleast not with genuine friendships. My friendship with these two girls built in the primary years of my life are so strong that a customary call,  sms or meaningless whatsapp is not required to keep in touch with them. They are built on a strong foundation of beautiful memories that even if we don’t communicate for an year, we pick it up as though we met just yesterday. Two days back was S's  birthday (dec 21st)  and when i spoke to her after many months, I could feel the same vibes as 3 decades back. There are no put ons of best behaviour or artificiality after all we have been through some of the awkward moments and learnt some life lessons  together, no formailities here also since we are familiar with each other's quirks and idiosyncrasies. Some friendships , I believe are cosmic. I am blessed to have two such friends one from my childhood and another from college.

We have not just grown together playing games, silly quarrels, watching movies, eating together, going for live shows,singing on stage shows, bunking classes, manipulating our meter reading in electronics lab but even the talks we have had must have strengthened the bonds too.  We have talked, talked and talked on many days endlessly all through the night. They were  about our dreams, desires,dresses, problems, discussing our favorite actors, movies, music, TV serials , crushes, leg pulling fun sessions etc.,  You just have to name it and we have done/ talked about it.

Hey! But wait……don’t name" makeup". We hav’nt done that. Atleast not with the above girls.Funnily, as girls till date, we have never discussed make up. Not even during teen years.

But , I have had my make up session too.

 It was with this girl who was in grade 6 and I was in Grade 7 then. She was an Indian born and raised in Texas, my neighbors niece. During her month long stay in india, she joined us to play. Since she stayed close to my home, It was I and her who played often. As an Indian raised in the US and a Bharatnatyam dancer, sarees and colorful make up fascinated her. She would draw out the make up box and all the sarees from her cousins wardrobe and would often doll her up and I enjoyed being her make up woman. She also loved my mom’s silk sarees and so my mom’s beautifully maintained sarees were also the casualty.

 It was also my first introduction to the makeup box, a red vanitycase. It contained the eyeliners, the eyeshadows, mascara, lipsticks, nail polish ,foundation,blushes etc.,. I loved the colors, the textures and the shimmers and often experimented with them on her face. A purple saree on her and a purple eyeshadow, a Red saree followed with a pink eyeshadow. The worst part was when the greens, hotpinks and purples had to be cleaned off. It once stained a green chiffon saree of her cousin. Anyways, it was not me who faced the wrath.  This was a friendship just to give her company for a month, nothing at an emotional level. More like a a seasonal friendship. If she had continued her stay in India, perhaps I would have ended up being a make up woman:)

Today, as I stand in my balcony and watch all those little ones playing, I can’t stop smiling as well as nodding my head that childhood memories are  definitely the best part of our lives. 

  Do you have such friends?  Have you  made such beautiful memories?

This post written for Indiblogger's Dove guessing game with a friend.

Pic courtesy: google images