 |
| Stay blessed, and madly in love. |
I don’t remember how we ended up as friends. I am just glad that we did. We value the same things in life, we have hearts drunk on love, we enjoy solitude, we vouch for the off-beat. We had awkwardly hugged each other (I guess the only time in the decade that I had known you) on the day you had left to start off a new life in a new country. We are never expressive about how much we love each other; it is understood and treasured. Bruised egos often got better of us and we had spent long months sulking over petty arguments, and then one day we would miss other so much, and without any apologies and explanations, our conversations took off from where we had left it. We had seen each other at our best and worst; and I had learnt resilience from you. You also taught me by example to follow my own heart, and not bother about others’ opinions. I am still learning to do that.
For six years we were inseparable; through all the ups and downs in our lives. I would never forget the last night of November in 2004 when you had shyly accompanied me on our family dinner. But it was fate that I had forced you to accompany us, you met your husband that night. I recall with a smile the awkward phone calls, when he called you up on my phone, in the beginning of the courtship. And now you are planning to have a baby with him! I can’t believe we are old enough to talk about bringing a new life to this world; I mean, the things we still discuss and laugh about, doesn’t speak highly of our maturity levels, do they? And when it does happen, I am going to pamper your baby so much. We would have so many tales to tell them, won’t we?
The past decade of knowing you had blurred the lines of friendship and sisterhood. You are definitely in the latter camp now, after all that we have shared and been through, and yet decided to stick together, no matter what. To the world, we had always been a weird duo, sitting at some corner in silence for hours, lost in our own thoughts, interrupting it with occasional jokes that only we understood; wondering at the things that interested ‘normal’ girls but never us; sneaking off to the hostel terrace at midnight to talk about our hopes and dreams, because it was only in the cover of the dark night we got the courage to spill our innermost thoughts; roaming wherever our restless feet took us; the study nights that inadvertently turned into gossip nights; and you introducing me to so many firsts: the first ride on a city bus (where I painstakingly counted the coins), the first sip of wine on my birthday, you were even my chaperone on my first real date! So many memories. So many stories. Remember the brain we stole to study for anatomy exam, and wearing black goggles, to ward off the stinging sensation of formalin, when we studied it later that night?
I was always in awe of the long line of your admirers everywhere you went, and how calmly you handled the attention. I had a few favorites of my own and wanted you to end up with one of those few, and fretted about the possibility that you might choose “laughing cobra”, because of the sheer determination (or desperation) with which he pursued you. Thank God, you found Divy! I never believed in love at first sight, until I saw it happen to you and Divy. It reinforced my belief in love at a time when it had dwindled to near extinction.
Tomorrow you will turn a year older, and I wish you were here; we could have celebrated it together, and followed it up with our usual never-ending conversations. And hey, I miss telling you the little things that goes on in my life. I miss it so much, your sane advice and even when you doubled up with laughter at the comic situations I get myself into.
Happy Birthday, Devi. Have a blessed life ahead. All the best for your exam, do well. And yes, go make a baby too.
Love and Hugs,
Mon
P.S: I miss you so more than I can describe in words, and I know a lot of words.
Dialect of Heart 