It was way back in my 8th standard when I first met Salma. She was new to “The East West School” and she was my classmate. Initially I didn’t interact much with her (I was very shy throughout my high school days). But she used to talk to me every single day about all relevant and irrelevant topics. Soon we got along really well and were known as good buddies.
If you have noticed me playing throw-ball, I have a very weird style of serving the ball and that’s simply because it was Salma who taught me how to serve! I have tried to change my serving style but I always like to stick on to the way she has taught me because every time I serve the ball, it reminds me of her. Oh, it also reminds me of the inter-school and inter-house competitions. It is an age old practice in our school to divide the students into 3 different houses- Green, Mauve and Yellow. Fortunately, Salma and I belonged to the same house, that is, Green House. As a team of two, we participated in vegetable carving competition and used fruits instead of vegetables; in rangoli competition, we used flowers and diyas instead of colour powders; in essay writing competition, we wrote poems with rhyming lyrics instead of boring paragraphs; we sang patriotic songs instead of filmi songs in singing competition; we neither spoke for the topic nor against the topic in debate competition; and guess what, we won prizes in all the above mentioned events. We also represented Green House for the basketball, throw-ball, tug-of-war, short put, high jump, long jump and other such competitions. We were always different from the crowd. Somehow we both shared a good rapport. She encouraged me like no one else did in school and made me feel special in all possible ways.
It was somewhere during the middle of 9th standard, Salma lost her dad. She was horrified and so was I. When she cried for days together, I made sure that I was always there for her, wiped her tears and helped her to get over the pain she was going through. This strengthened our friendship. Gradually she was back to normal.
In 10th standard, much to our surprise, we both were nominated by our teachers for the same post- Green House Captain. I was happy that she was nominated but sad that I was contesting for the election and that too, for the same post. The best thing about the election was, I voted for her and she voted for me. I won the election. She was happier for me than I was happy for my own self. She was not at all jealous about me becoming the new Green House Captain. We were and we are such true friends.
In 10th standard, we were taken on a school trip to Hyderabad. Due to personal reasons, she couldn’t come to the trip. I too thought of skipping it but since other classmates insisted me to not miss out on all the fun, I decided to go. Only after we left to Hyderabad, I realised that I missed her so badly. To make it worse, I got fever, cold and cough and I did not really enjoy the trip as much as my classmates.
On our farewell day, we both never cried or felt bad because we knew that we would stay in touch. After 10th, we joined different PU colleges. I made new set of friends. The frequency of our phone calls and hangouts gradually decreased. By the time I joined my degree college; we both had changed our numbers and completely lost in touch with each other. But she always calls me to my landline number on all my birthdays without fail. When I was in the last year of my graduation, I received a mail from my school which was regarding the school re-union. I was more than just excited because I knew Salma would attend the re-union and I hadn’t met her in 5 years. That re-union helped me to get back in touch with her and all other classmates. Though I met her after a really long time, we were still the same. We still felt like we were school kids. It was after the re-union party, she told me that she was going to get engaged and also get married in few months. It was then I realised how much our lives had changed. So we both decided to have as much fun as possible before she her marriage. We spent quality time with each other.
And then, on November 12th 2011, she got married. Just like how I always used to be there for her throughout our high school days, I was there with her on her D-day also. I had mixed emotions. I was happy that she got married but sad and scared that our friendship would change. As I was standing beside her on the day of her wedding, she was able to sense my feelings and that too just few minutes after she got married, she had all the time in the world to listen to me about all that was running in my head. This clearly shows how much she values me, my emotions and our friendship. She assured me that our friendship will always remain the same no matter what happens.
I know that she will keep up her words though her cell phone was switched off right from the very next day of her wedding. Let anything come on the way of our friendship and I’m sure that we will feel like school kids and still remain the same the next time we meet!
