She sat in the first desk, nervous and conscious of the fact that every pair of eyes in the class room were fixed on her. A thousand thoughts running though her mind, she geared up for her first day in her new school. She didn’t know the language the students there spoke, they definitely did not understand the language she spoke. She was convinced she would for ever be the nervous misfit in this class. She wasn’t sure if the desk she was seated at was already taken by someone else; what if the person who sits here arrives and asks her to move over. Would they all laugh? Where would she sit then?
She felt the back of her neck turning hot. Cold beads of sweat broke out on her forehead, just then a cheerful voice greeted her from beside. ‘Hi! You must be the new girl who was to join today! I’m Aditi. Call me Adi’ and even before she could respond with a nervous hello, Adi sat down beside her and yapped away the rest of the study hour. By the time it was lunch she already knew Aditi’s entire family, her pet dog Dixie, the Chacha Chaudhri and Pinky comics that she was crazy about and how much she was in love with a guy called Salman Khan. By the end of the day the 2 girls were laughing and giggling their way to the bus stop. They were best of friends from that day on.

It was a boring ‘computer’ coaching class that wanna be geeks from all over the neighbourhood attended. ‘Summer holidays are for gali cricket and roaming there out in the open. How did I let mom and dad talk me into this?! ‘; Stan grumbled within. He tried his best not to think of the fish curry awaiting him for lunch back home and winced repeatedly to drive away the last bit of drowsiness that clung on to his eyelids and were trying to pull them shut. The extra attentive jerk in the first bench was stretching the class beyond it’s limit and shooting questions at the class instructor. ‘They do come in all shapes and sizes; don’t they??!’ murmured a voice beside him. He had hardly noticed this chap the whole time. He turned to look at him. He was like any other guy his age, bespectacled, wore a checked red shirt. But it was that impish smirk on his face and those eyes that set him apart and convinced Stan they were one of a kind. ‘I’m Dev! I see that you and I have just the same amount of interest in the proceedings of this class….Zilch!’ Stan smiled back. “I’m Stan and I am bored to a coma’
‘Whoa…I bet you are! Well, fyi I have no intentions of sitting through this torture in the afternoon session. You got a cycle? Or you rely on the public transport?’
‘Got a cycle yeah’
‘Well cool, smack up that lunch back home and get back here. We’ll take off to the WWA’
‘Women’s Welfare Association???!’
‘Yeah….They got ballet classes on there. Now shall I say we have a deal?’ winked Dev
Stan said ‘You bet bro!’
They became inseparable since then, and of course hardly seen anywhere near the geeks abode from that day on

Ayan looked around the hall. No pretty girls, not any so far, hard luck why does he have to land in such places all the time? He slept through the induction program and reached his hostel room, his room mate had not turned up until he had left for college. He could see some bags lying on the other bed. He looked hard at them and said to himself 'So that's whom I am going to spend the next 4 years with. I wonder what's this item piece like!' He turned on his heel on hearing a knock on the door. The new boy and his father stood in the doorway. The boy introduced himself as Raghu, a naive looking boy. After the initial pleasantries, the boy's father got up to leave. When he reached the door, he turned to Ayan and said, take care of my boy please! Ayan smiled, closed the door rolling his eyes. Raghu said 'Nevermind, my dad's not the best person to give me a decent intro!' Ayan smiled. Raghu walked over to Ayan's shelf inspecting his stuff and stopped near his guitar.
'I am guessing that's a guitar in there...of course, if they didnt make back packs in that shape!'
'Why, do you play?' Ayan asked with much interest
'Play?...well if there had to be anyone to kick Jimmy Page's a$$, it's gotta be Ragz baby!'
Ayan didn't even try to wipe that wide grin off his face and sat next to Ragz on the floor.
'Hmmm... definitely no pretty girls man' sighed Ragz
The boys burst out laughing, Ayan knew 4 years were going to be just as fine.

She sat in the flight flipping through magazines, not reading a word and trying to keep the tears that had welled up in her eyes from flowing down her cheeks. She had never been away from her family. The farthest she was away from her parents was in her college which was an hour’s drive from her home. And now she had to fly to a different country leaving them behind for a year on account of higher studies. She tried hard to block out the sight of her parents waving her goodbye at the airport terminal. She looked outside the window to see her city’s glittering lights beneath. ‘I’m going to miss you too’ she muttered. ‘But we’ve not even met…yet!’ said the guy seated next to her. She looked up at him, irked up. He smiled back warmly and asked ‘First time?’
‘Eh?’
‘I mean leaving home’
‘Yeah’
‘Mine too!’
‘You feel sad?’
‘Sad? Sitting next to a pretty girl like you? You gotta be kidding me!’
‘Are you always like this?!’
‘Only when I am trying hard to be cool!’
Before they knew it, they were chatting, bickering, pulling each other’s leg, telling each other about the loved ones back home and their plans in the new place. By the time the flight landed, they were sure of one thing, they had a friend in that city.


There’s no telling when you might stumble on that one person who would bring a smile on your face and would do anything to keep it that way. Love them; Cherish them!

P.S: Onnum illa…maha vettiya ukkandhu irukurapo I was contemplating how and under what circumstances I met some people in my life who changed it for the better or the worse :)
P.P.S: aiyayo….my blog’s starting to sound senti already….i’ll be back with something whacky soon ;)

Song On: In Dino (Life in a metro)
Mood: Cool

Posted by Sat at 2:54 PM
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