A Special Friend by Pradeeta Mishra

Starting a law college for me was like getting married, not that I know how that is, but I was making a HUGE shift from a small sleepy town of Bhopal to Bangalore! The entire duration of giving entrance examinations for law (CLAT wasn’t initiated then) and waiting with bated breath for results, is akin to waiting for a death sentence! But well, without being over-dramatic, I cleared my interviews for Christ University and hence, now I was officially a law student.

I remember vividly, how I had stepped down from the auto – rickshaw and stared at the sprawling infrastructure. More distinctly I remember how frantic and jumpy my father was. My mother kept calling him up – “What is happening? Is she anxious? Has the interview started?” Whoa! I was trying my best to smile and talk to everyone I met on my way. Inside, God knows, I was bleating like a tethered goat. The interview was done and results were out at 4 in the evening and Voila! I was through. Payment of admission fees and other formalities took our good 5 to 6 hours, running around from counter to counter, while I “oooh”ed and “aah”ed at the BIG city I was going to stay in for the next 5 years of my life.

The first day of my college is something I can never forget because of the sheer impact it had on me, plus it laid the foundation of a relationship I so fondly cherish.

“Where are you from?” a wheatish skinned girl with pretty eyes and an attractive smile, asked me as I wondered where have I come. I could make out that she was as nervous as I was, as we sunk into our cushiony seats of the massive auditorium for Orientation program.

“I am from Bhopal, you?” I ask, returning her beatific smile. It was just a beginning of friendship which words would never be able to wrap.

We breezed through the Orientation and again found each other in the Freshers’ Party. Her company was what I sought, unknowingly, when I needed assurance that everything is going to be all right. She was warm and a rather quiet one at that. Though when we were together, there were no frivolous words or unnecessary gossip. We would talk, laugh and sometimes just stay quiet.

“Hey there! Wassup?”

I had found a new set of friends and so did she. However, we ensured that our world was protected. Soon, time went by and we saw less of each other, though she always stood by my side, whenever I looked in her direction. I don’t know if I was doing the same. But our bond is something, even my best friends would find amusing. This is of the time, when people in my group, who were a bunch of really advanced and “cool” people, went a step ahead and stopped talking to me because of my new haircut. I’d been excited because I am on the heavier side and don’t really talk about myself, the new haircut had given me a look which I longed for. Imagine my plight, for these people I’d stayed with for a long time. The reason I was given was that they were “sick” of listening to me talk about myself all the time. I was broken because of this juvenile judgment and attitude. However, she was there once again. I had nothing to say. I was sitting alone, crying when she walked upto me and hugged me. It was the best moment of my life. It was the love I was looking for and a friendship which you can sometimes, only find when you are still growing up. Another time I was alone in my room for the weekend since most girls had gone home and I could not get tickets. She specially spent the night with me watching movies and talking about random things. Times come and go, but with her, my college life had become bearable and she taught me to love the silence which sometimes is necessary to de-clutter your brain.

College life, they say, is the best time of our life. And it indeed is. I always feared that there are certain set ways in which people from Big Cities behave, but well, there are pre-conceived notions, which you learn to break when you start living with a group of strangers and overtime, come to accept them as an indispensable part of your life. I would remember the best moments that were with her . The moments so personal, so special.  For me, it is one phase of my life that I would love to live, over and over again.

~ Pradeeta

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