Eternal Friendship!

This is a story about 3 people who met in school in grade 8 and were together next 3 years of schooling and later on 5 years of college.

Good enough time together isn’t it?

But we never became friends.We did not go beyond Hi and an immediate Bye to follow.

Since we lived in the same neighborhood bumping into each other was a normal affair which continued even after we graduated and went on for a fairly long time but we chose to remain just an acquaintance.

After about more than two decades of knowing each other not beyond names we landed up in place away from home.A small,quiet and warm country where we didn’t know much people.Coming from a place where we had a good social life we found ourselves getting lonely.

Through school social group we found out we were in the same country.It was good to see known names but again who would take the first step to write.

There was a comfort in the mind that somebody you know lived close by.

Our situation was weird we had known each other for years but never attempted to build a bond for our own reasons and now after so many years we had preconceived notions to make the first move.

Couple of months passed by and we continued the silence.My hubby used to travel 5 days a week and was only available in the weekends.Kids were busy in their school and activities.Homesickness had creeped in and that was surely not a trait I wanted to carry so I decided to make the first move.I sent a message to them and to my surprise I received a reply in few minutes.We spoke over the phone for the first time just to realize that we were sailing in the same boat carrying the same fear of rejection.

We decided to meet to soon for brunch.Only one drove so she offered to pick us from our homes which was very kind.

Then came the day,after seeing off the kids to school I quickly wrapped up my morning chores and got ready like an excited school girl going for a play date 😊.

I was the first one to be picked.Tough to believe but when we met there was a flow of emotions.After a warm hug we headed to pick the third one.On the way we spoke without any hesitance or awkwardness.

She was an amazing driver but there was something I discovered that day about her for which we tease her till today.Her amazing memory gosh she just can’t remember anything 🤣.With great difficulty she remembered the name of the place where the 3rd one was waiting.

Unfortunately we couldn’t locate it and I called her up.She read the sign board behind her and I quickly typed on the GPS to reach no where 🤦‍♀️.I called her up again and with the same level of confidence she read it.Finally I asked her to look around and tell me if there was any landmark or school.Thankfully it was a small country so we could take exits.She told me about a school and to our sheer luck I knew the place as my son went to the same area for his activities.We got there and saw her it was such a relief.We had never given each other such a broad and genuine smile in so many years.

The happiness of finding each other was very overwhelming.

We were still not very good friends so politely I asked her ,”where is the board you were reading out to me?” Sheepishly she pointed out because by then she had realized she was reading something on the opposite side.

That day I discovered something about both of them.Amazing memory and Unbeatable sense of direction.

All this hide and seek had got us late for brunch but we managed to get there before they closed.

One of them loved taking pictures-selfies of us and food.She wanted to put it up on social media and announce about this friendship that took off in a foreign land.She asked me to help with the caption which I happily did.

We didn’t want this brunch to ever end.There was so much to exchange,share and giggle about.People around could have never guessed that it was our first time.

Little did we know that this was the beginning of an epic friendship.In our case transition from just friends to inseparable friends happened in no time.We had actually surprised ourselves kicking it off so well and creating everlasting memories.We shared more than any relationship that pre-existed.

Can never ever trade this friendship for anyone.

We wasted too many years not talking and that’s one regret we carry.

They were both working and I was a home maker but we genuinely made time for each other.Our meetings increased from brunches to breakfast then to lunches.

We decided to meet as family with our spouses.Luckily that clicked – we were happy with the fact our spouses could bear each other as we were just trying to create more avenues to meet.From playing Holi to celebrating each other’s birthday and festivals together had become a ritual.

We have had some amazing and hilarious experiences in our dates.

Yes you read it right our meetings were no less than a date.

Unfortunately today we are once again in 3 different countries.

The amazing bond that we created in such a short while taught us distance doesn’t matter at all.Our hearts are connected (may sound like a cliche).We don’t need to be physically around each other.

Irony of life is such we had a lot of opportunities and time in our growing up years to bond but we were destined to meet overseas 😉.Waiting to meet again in our Homeland soon.Praying for this covid mayhem to come to an end.

Virtual Hugs till then 🤗🧿

(Some maybe able to guess the names 😉)