MII

I step down the stairs of Baphana MII classes and find Nikhil and Tejas waiting for Ketaki and me down by the roadside. It brightens up my mood just to see them there waiting for us…. And I wonder about the first time we had met. Did I ever think we would end up being such good friends? Well, frankly speaking, No!
Ketaki and I have been together since IInd standard. So when we got into the same college after X it was very much to the relief of our parents and a great joy to both of us. We being good friends, is anyone’s guess. But something worthwhile is knowing how we happened to know Nikhil, Tejas and Rohan.
It was the first week of college. Ketaki and I had just got some new friends in NMV. We wanted to sit on the bench just behind theirs. But there was a guy already sitting there. Too shy to ask somebody to get up and change the seat, I was ready to take some other place. Ketaki, being bolder (bless her), went up to this person and asked him to shift a bench behind. He reluctantly gave in. That day while returning home Kets and I decided to reach college early the next day so that we could get that bench before this guy! Well, this guy was Rohan! And for the next whole year Rohan and Tejas sat on the
bench behind ours. One can hardly keep form being friends when you spend the whole day of college sitting next to each other being able to hear each others conversations clearly even during the lectures. Soon slam books and phone numbers were exchanged.
I still remember the first time Rohan had called me up. It was a day before English exams (I unit test, XI std). He wanted to know the syllabus.
I happened to be in the same practical batch with TJ. Kets was in a different batch with Rohan.
Right on the first day of the year 2003, our Math teacher had declared a tutorial! ( I guess it was Permutations and Combinations.) She had alternate set of questions for all rows. So even though Kets and I were on the same bench we had different question papers.(TJ and Rohan took the same Q paper even though they were on the same bench, but that is not my point.) We were obviously not prepared. How do you expect one to study on the New Year’s Eve!!! So there we were depending on our luck and on whatever help we could get from people around us. The row next to Kets had the paper same as mine. So the guy sitting next to Kets had the same set of question as me. We verified answers via Kets. That day a new member joined our friends list, Nikhil.
During XII, I hardly met Rohan. But Nikhil, TJ, Kets and I being Computers Science students were always together in the Comp classes. We used to chat, sitting on the first two benches right under the teachers nose!
Some moment those were! Moments I’ll always treasure. Those walks to bus stop with Kets everyday and with TJ when she wasn’t there. My birthday which everybody else had forgotten… each moment special….each one cherished….
Friendships do come into our lives unexpectedly. Some are to last even if the path differs. I pray may these friendships be one of those to last long. No matter where life takes us may we always remain friends just as we are now.
I wave to TJ and Niks as I see them. Kets is walking next to me, busy talking about the fun they had at the Engg Mech lab….. And I smile …God! I love my life!!