A Friend for Life

So it was the first Sunday of August and the world celebrated Friendship Day. All around the world different people celebrated it in different style. Some went out with friends, some stayed indoors, for some their husbands are their best friends and while a few waved off this day as mere stupidity. I remember as a child I never truly understood what is the significance of these specials days but I still knew they are being celebrated even before any of my friend did. Well its nothing special. It is something that happens with many younger siblings who get exposed to various things thanks to their older sibling. I had an Orkut account while my friends started with Facebook.

As a child I always saw every year on a specific day my sister and her huge gang would come together after school and celebrate it like festival. Laughing, giggling, and giving each others what it looked like a band. Later I found out its something call a friendship band and that’s its friendship day; a day celebrated for friends and friendship. Sister’s friends bought bands for me as well, for to them I was their little sister as well and I was little indeed at that time. But who do I give a friendship band to I could not figure out.

I have always been a very private person. Even now I have like four people who I call friends, rest are all over familiar acquaintances. This was there even back then as a child, therefore I couldn’t bring myself to think about even a single person I would like to give a friendship band to and put a seal on our friendship that I assume would last a lifetime. Looking at my sister celebrating this special day with her friends somewhere broke my heart and one day I rushed to my mom, and asked her, “Ma, who is my friend?” Ma went on to count the names of all the kids who were my play partners and classmates. But I wasn’t satisfied by the answer, so I asked her again, “No Ma! A friend who I can give a friendship band to!” It is then that my mom understood my dilemma, and she immediately knew the answer. She pulled me close and reminded me of that person with whom I love spending time the most, Jethi (Badi Ma).

Jethi lived in my colony and was initially a friend of my grandmother and Jethu (bade papa) was in the same office as my dad and grand dad. When I first met Jethi I was three and we were living in a temporary accommodation at the Ordnance Factory Hostel after all our quarters collapsed after the earthquake of 97. I first entered Jethi’s place out of the mouth watering attraction of Imli ki Chutney, and from there my relation with Jethi began that cannot described by a word or two. Every morning I would wake up and singing the tunes of ‘Yeh Dil Deewana’ I would reach Jethi’s place. Jethu would bring me food and Mou didi would collect my clothes from my house, Chandan Dada would be my playmate and my entire day would go by then at their place only. Time went by, we all moved on to different accommodations, but my ritualistic visits to Jethi’s place never stopped. A very significant portion of my happy childhood memories belong from Jethi’s place. From having a pet monkey and feeding him the rotis Jethi made for her family to becoming Gangu Bai and pretending to be a house help, I have done everything there. And in the middle of all the fun and games I never realised when she helped me memorise my lessons and taught a huge number of rhymes. Jethi was not just another elderly person I was meant to simply respect, or some ‘moholle ki aunty’ I needed to avoid. She eventually grew up to be a very integral part of my childhood, and my entire life in turn.

I grew up, made new friends and friendship day became a festive day for me as well. Buying tons of friendship bands and spending the entire day with friends also became a part of my life just as I once saw it to be my sister’s. But for me this was always the Saturday as the actual day for friendship was still reserved for Jethi.

Years passed, friends faded away, many people came and many vanished, some left me and I left some, but Jethi remained constant. And yesterday when I was coming back from Jethi’s place after tying friendship band on her wrist and saying my last goodbye to her, on my way I saw all these kids from school laughing, giggling and just hanging out and celebrating the day with their friends, and making promises to each other, completely oblivious the vastness and ambiguity of the future. And it made me feel proud that I at least managed to make one friend who indeed will last a lifetime. No matter where I go, how far I go and what I become, this friend of mine will continue to be so, she will continue to be my Jethi.

Happy Friendship Day…