MY FRIEND SONALI

Perfectly made for each other, isn’t it?

Well, this is me with my best friend, Sonali Suman.

I’ve written about so many things on my blog, but perhaps never written about this meek creature. Why should I’ve written? She was always with me by my side. We were inseparable. Two bodies, one soul…………………

When I was in class 6 [as she tells me], my then best friend Simi had moved to Bilaspur, Chattisgarh. I used to try on her land line the whole day but no avail. She was gone, and I was sitting here at home, crying.

I didn’t have her contact number.

But she had.

She could have called me up.

But she never did.

Perhaps, during packing, she had misplaced the number diary.

Whatever maybe, we reunited back after 3 years and that’s a different story…………………..

Meanwhile, Miss Sonali Suman had come and had extended her hand towards me, signalling friendship.

Till then, I had no idea who she was. Did she ever exist in our class? I had never seen her.

I was blinded with tears and here she was, ever ready with a hanky.

“I’ll never leave your side, I promise”, she said.

I smiled.

From then, it was always me and Sonali. We had become one of the epitomes of friendship in my school. I was bold enough to speak out the truth, she was tactful enough to handle all sorts of problems which would then pile up after I would have opened my big mouth. We were so different, yet so indifferent to the common problems we shared. We would laugh and laugh till the joke would shake off our head and then start crying. Thinking of all those mistakes which we made while conducting that Physics Practical. Thinking of the classmates who perhaps loved us but utilized us more. Thinking of that school which did give us education, but no more.

We kept on thinking…………………………..

Year after year passed. Both me and Sonali were always clinging on to each other: a crab like mentality had developed in me. Even if she would score a single mark more than me in any exam, I would be outraged.

“Talented!” I would snigger.

She would never even revert back.

I can guarantee you that even if there is another earth in this universe, you would never find a girl like this. A perfect multitask-er, She tirelessly types her father’s letters and thesis. She cooks food and cleans the house. She repairs all the electrical appliances of her house. All this at “intracellular” level. At “inter-cellular” level, she was the class monitor. So, both of us would set in a frenzy of motion once we reached school. She wrote quotes on the blackboard while I cleaned it. She would make a list of all those who forgot their notebooks at home and I would collect them. She went to call the teacher in charge during free periods while I took charge of the whole class meanwhile…………

And so that was that. We were always together. She was a House Captain and I was the School Captain. Again she was a House Captain the next year and I was looking at her tie with hungry eyes.

Still she said nothing.

I was always jealous of her even if we were nearly similar. But she never thought about me in this way.

She was with me during my toughest times. Helping me out with all my decisions. [Well, you know how decisive I am :p] Cared for me when all my so called best friends tossed me around like a rag doll. She was igniting others’ lives while burning her own.

We knew that though we would stay in contact forever, it would be never ever compact like when we were at school. After class 10, we had thought that we would be separated forever. But I’m thankful to God to have given me 2 more years to spend with this cute friend in my life.

Class 12th examinations…………entrance examinations……..the delayed results…………we stuck on together. Long hours of phone calls did not suffice us. We were always desperate to talk more and more, spend more time.

But man proposes and God disposes………………….. Soon she was packed off to IGIT Sarang. And the gap widened enormously.

Now she’s studying engineering and I’m back here at my hometown, missing her. Such a lovely child is absent in my life. I feel scattered and lonely. I feel ruthless. We call each other almost everyday. She’s adjusting to her new college and hostel life while I’m still struggling with my Class 11th and 12th books to become something in life. Surely, she has emerged as a winner. In this cut throat competition, she has managed to get a seat in Computer Science in a government college. I know that the IT market is down now, but it’ll definitely spring up to action after sometime. She told me all about how she was ragged daily by her seniors. She had to give introductions, catwalks and a lot more. God only knows how she’s suffering all of this in silence. And despite being her best friend, I can do nothing but sit and cry in silence.

I’ve become the same girl of 8 years ago, who was lost. Today I’ve grown up, but I feel the same void in my life.

I love you a lot, my dear Sonali and I’m proud to have a friend like you……………………….