Mikan-chan
This is going to be a personal post, that I write more for myself than anyone else. Feel free to skip this because this is mainly reminiscing about the fun times, and the changes through the ages.
I entered PUC (which is 11th and 12th grades to the rest of you) utterly alone, to a place I had never even heard of. All my folks knew was that my aunt taught there, and what better way to keep an eye on their daughter than to send her off alone? So anyway, I landed there, completely cut off from my school friends (phones were an unheard of concept -especially for chit-chat, and we did not see each other for 5 years after 10th grade)
In this scenario, I latched on to whoever I could find. There was S, who was a calm curly haired presence, and a possibly even calmer Y. There was hot-headed T, and the foul-mouthed A (to who I owe my knowledge of a wide variety of colourful language skills). None of us were close. None of these people actually gelled together. It was like working with a bunch of acquaintances. I found solace in the library, where the librarian was kind enough to let me lounge while I waited for my aunt to finish teaching her class(We hardly had any classes now that I think about it). About a quarter of a year passed uneventfully. I was learning to wear whatever the hell I liked (this was for like two months. After that we had uniforms. Ugh), getting to know the teachers, and randomly striking up conversations with the aforementioned people.
One day, we had a late entry into our class. She was a tall, graceful, pretty girl, and was so quiet you wouldn't know she was there. She had just come from Pune and our college had agreed to let her in. We started talking, because she caught her bmtc in the same place as mine, and we had a short walk to get there. That's how it all started. Walking.
She was quick to make friends with a bunch of guys and girls who also walked to the bus stop. Our class timings got more erratic, which meant I had to go home alone(I did not like waiting for my aunt - teenage rebellion is very immature). And soon, I was talking regularly to a whole new bunch of people from my large class. We were around 10 people I think. She made me be friends with everyone. She got me out of my shell, and we started taking long diversions to reach the bus stand. I think I knew the area around my college like the back of my hand. We would leave college at around 12, listening to music, and I would reach home by 5? This started getting very normal.
How did the name come you ask? Well she was the perfect friend. She was fun, never judged, always had a funny story up her sleeve, was great (excellent) at math, she was always up for whiling away time doing absolutely nothing. This was the time YouTube was getting famous, and I was a huge fan of anime. I started watching this series called Alice Academy, and shared it with her. Soon we were both hooked and fan-girling hard - which is where the names come from. The one thing that struck me the most, was how the story centered around two best friends. That's how I always looked at it. Two best friends against the whole world. To my immature mind, she was all I had, and all I lived for. We had our own secret language, and she was pretty much the only person I ever bothered writing letters to. (Yes kids, writing letters was a thing. And writing secret notes in class was the best).
I introduced her to the whatever it was that I was reading at the time, and basically we all had a blast. She came home a lot of times, and we used to skip college just to watch things on YouTube.
After those two years were done with, pretty much all of us lost touch slowly. It was very gradual, but I never wrote much to her. Our texts were far and few. But whenever we decided to call each other, we always made the time to catch up, laugh about those times, and spend the rest of the day smiling to ourselves (at least I hope she did. I know I did).
She had called me almost four years ago to tell me she was getting married - alas I was too late, and I don't think any of us could make it to her wedding. All I could do was wish her luck, and catch up. She called me a few days back (after a long hiatus of just texting back and forth) and turns out she is leaving for the UK, as a nurse. I couldn't be more proud of her. I don't think I could share this link with her, because we never really spoke about such things.
But if she were to read this - Mikan-chan, you have been all that I could ever ask for in a friend. You made me a different person. Thank you for all the golden memories. Thank you for sharing my weird sense of humor. Thank you for putting up with my jealous little rages and mood swings. I hope I see you someday, when you are back in India. Maybe we both will be old, just the way it was shown in Alice Academy. Maybe we would both be bent with age, and share a cup of tea, remembering and laughing about the old times. (I hope BarOne is still available :p)
Until next time,
DragonRider
I entered PUC (which is 11th and 12th grades to the rest of you) utterly alone, to a place I had never even heard of. All my folks knew was that my aunt taught there, and what better way to keep an eye on their daughter than to send her off alone? So anyway, I landed there, completely cut off from my school friends (phones were an unheard of concept -especially for chit-chat, and we did not see each other for 5 years after 10th grade)
In this scenario, I latched on to whoever I could find. There was S, who was a calm curly haired presence, and a possibly even calmer Y. There was hot-headed T, and the foul-mouthed A (to who I owe my knowledge of a wide variety of colourful language skills). None of us were close. None of these people actually gelled together. It was like working with a bunch of acquaintances. I found solace in the library, where the librarian was kind enough to let me lounge while I waited for my aunt to finish teaching her class(We hardly had any classes now that I think about it). About a quarter of a year passed uneventfully. I was learning to wear whatever the hell I liked (this was for like two months. After that we had uniforms. Ugh), getting to know the teachers, and randomly striking up conversations with the aforementioned people.
One day, we had a late entry into our class. She was a tall, graceful, pretty girl, and was so quiet you wouldn't know she was there. She had just come from Pune and our college had agreed to let her in. We started talking, because she caught her bmtc in the same place as mine, and we had a short walk to get there. That's how it all started. Walking.
She was quick to make friends with a bunch of guys and girls who also walked to the bus stop. Our class timings got more erratic, which meant I had to go home alone(I did not like waiting for my aunt - teenage rebellion is very immature). And soon, I was talking regularly to a whole new bunch of people from my large class. We were around 10 people I think. She made me be friends with everyone. She got me out of my shell, and we started taking long diversions to reach the bus stand. I think I knew the area around my college like the back of my hand. We would leave college at around 12, listening to music, and I would reach home by 5? This started getting very normal.
How did the name come you ask? Well she was the perfect friend. She was fun, never judged, always had a funny story up her sleeve, was great (excellent) at math, she was always up for whiling away time doing absolutely nothing. This was the time YouTube was getting famous, and I was a huge fan of anime. I started watching this series called Alice Academy, and shared it with her. Soon we were both hooked and fan-girling hard - which is where the names come from. The one thing that struck me the most, was how the story centered around two best friends. That's how I always looked at it. Two best friends against the whole world. To my immature mind, she was all I had, and all I lived for. We had our own secret language, and she was pretty much the only person I ever bothered writing letters to. (Yes kids, writing letters was a thing. And writing secret notes in class was the best).
I introduced her to the whatever it was that I was reading at the time, and basically we all had a blast. She came home a lot of times, and we used to skip college just to watch things on YouTube.
After those two years were done with, pretty much all of us lost touch slowly. It was very gradual, but I never wrote much to her. Our texts were far and few. But whenever we decided to call each other, we always made the time to catch up, laugh about those times, and spend the rest of the day smiling to ourselves (at least I hope she did. I know I did).
She had called me almost four years ago to tell me she was getting married - alas I was too late, and I don't think any of us could make it to her wedding. All I could do was wish her luck, and catch up. She called me a few days back (after a long hiatus of just texting back and forth) and turns out she is leaving for the UK, as a nurse. I couldn't be more proud of her. I don't think I could share this link with her, because we never really spoke about such things.
But if she were to read this - Mikan-chan, you have been all that I could ever ask for in a friend. You made me a different person. Thank you for all the golden memories. Thank you for sharing my weird sense of humor. Thank you for putting up with my jealous little rages and mood swings. I hope I see you someday, when you are back in India. Maybe we both will be old, just the way it was shown in Alice Academy. Maybe we would both be bent with age, and share a cup of tea, remembering and laughing about the old times. (I hope BarOne is still available :p)
DragonRider
Comments
"We never spoke about these things"--It's one of those profound and heartbreaking things about such friendships. Sometimes you're sure that it means a lot to both regardless of the fact that it's left unsaid. At other darker times, you wonder if it did or if you're being fanciful in retelling the past to yourself.
The fact remains that it's a cherished friendship of your early times though, and that in itself is enough.
Don't know if this makes sense to you :)
It made me realize how beautiful a friendship is.
And while never speaking about how we felt does seem like an opportunity lost, I doubt I would ever change a thing about how special it was.
I guess the only thing that might be possible is that she felt differently? And that I was the one who had my whole being on the line here...
Oh well..