This post has been sitting in my documents folder for 10 days now. Every day I would read it, refine it, add some, delete some, just linger around dwelling in the nostlagia. Shobana’s post and the way she has beautifully described her college days(especially the bit about being ready to laugh) really gave me that nudge to hit publish.

Muzhugadha ship-e friendship-a……..This song is from tamil movie Kadhal Desam(KD). KD was released a year before I graduated from college. The orchestra sang this song in our cultural program in the final year of college. We final year students turned off the auditorium lights, waved lighted candles and got in to big trouble with our professors, inspite of getting prior permission from our principle and professor in charge of cultural program.

Any ways, coming back to the title of the post, it means friendship is the only ship that does not sink. Sounds cheesy right?! We (self and my three friends) heard enough of this song in college, but never cared much for this song. But this is what popped in my head when I was thinking of a title for this post. I kind of surprised myself!

At college, I had three other best buddies. Taking the first alphabet from our names, we were called the ‘STAR’ group. We were roommates. We were classmates. We were famous. Every one at college knew about us. We literally did E.V.E.R.Y thing together. We were and still are the fantastic four. When ever I run in to people from my old college, they enquire about my other friends and when I give them a detailed update I detect a mild surprise that seems to say, ‘Still tight after all these years?!’.

The best way to describe us to make comparison with The Golden Girls. Yaada Yaada introduced me to the reruns of this sitcom. (Yes, when every one is comparing them selves to the women from Sex and the City, I am making comparisons with the old women from Golden Girls. Not that we are THAT old, but this comparison feels more real.)

T is Dorothy. The tallest of the lot at 5 foot six inches. The rest of us are barely five feet. The final year hostel was far away and the four of us got couple of cycles to commute from our department to our hostel rooms. At that time T did not know how to ride a cycle. So she would sit at the back seat. I remember inspite of sitting at the elevated front seat, our heads being at the same level! Soon we shortys taught T to ride the cycle. The tall girl zig zagging weaving random patterns on the tree lined, usually empty road, screaming her head off as if she was riding a roller coaster and the three tiny tots running behind her yelling at her to steady herself. It was quite a scene. T is the ever smiling, sharp, career minded, always has time to hear my rant and say couple of nice words, most-complicated-and-mysterious-with-the-person-she-holds-the-dearest-to-her-heart kind of girl. She is a perfect scorpion, deadly with her stings, forgives but never forgets. I have known her for 14 years now, but when I sit down to write about her, it feels as if I know so little of her. Sounds quite complicated right?! Yep, that what she is.

R, is the sweet, mild natured Rose. Ha! Even their names start with the same alphabet. Now this one is very simple. Not simple as in simpleton. But she is simple as in unassuming, hard working, confident, down to earth, patient and innocent. Just like Rose she is also from a small town. Oh, her storytelling skills deserve a special mention. She narrated Bazzigar story to a classmate, for over a period of three days! This three-day frame by frame, scene by scene narration after starting with the opening line, ‘Sharukh Khan is the villan. He is the killer.’ She is an only child, just like me. But has always been responsible, unlike me. She has always been (and still is) the best daughter parents can ask for. Now she is the best wife on dreams about and a patient mother of two adorable kids. What I do with great commotion, ado and analysis, she manages to accomplish with no big fuss.

S aka Yaadayaada is Sophia. Always making off color jokes and very comfortable about it, she is the most out spoken of the group. She is also from a small town but one can never tell. She would put any city bred, uppity, ‘convent girl’ to shame with her talking skills and diplomacy. I still don’t know why but she picked me as a friend. It took me a while to get in to the right frame of mind and get comfortable with her as a friend but once that happened there was no turning back. Now, we live 20 minutes away from each other and reconnect every few days. If I sneeze she knows about it and if she coughs, I hear it. No matter how busy or hectic her life is, she always finds time for the three of us and updates us as to what is happening. We do pull her leg and call her SBC (S Broadcasting Service), but we all thoroughly enjoy the updates. Today Chula said, ‘Hey,we are going to see S aunty and V uncle. My daddy’s name is appa. My amma’s name is amma and my mommy’s name is S aunty.’ If that doesn’t explain how close we are, I don’t know what else does.

Your’s truly is Blanche. Blanche is stylish, sophisticated and has the most-male admirers. I ‘think’ (therefore) I am sophisticated and want to be stylish (but has never managed to accomplish it) and about the male admirers may be in the past but in the present….duh :(.

The four of us have had really great adventures at college. Yaadaa Yaadaa and self are perfect alpha males – big talk and lot of bossing over. The two of us have convinced T and R in to doing a lot of stupid things. In the third year, for a variety bit we decided to do a skit based on the national award-winning movie ‘Meendum Oru Kadhal Kathai’. The movie features Radhika(Sachu) and Prathap(Gappi) as the lead. Gappi and Sachu are mentally unwell. They have the metal maturity of a five-year-old. They meet in the hospital and some how Sachu ends up pregnant. Coming back to the point, we made T play Gappi and R play Sachu, made them repeat the ‘Ulagam urundai, laddoo urundai. Ulagathai Andavan seithar, laddoo-I amma seithar’(Meaning: The world is round just like Ladoo. God created the world and amma made the ladoo) dialogue in front of the whole damn college and our profs…..OMG, what were these two girls thinking?! For the rest of their days in college they were ridiculed like there was no tommorrow.

Then there was this one particular time that we decided to form a basketball team. The annual sports competitions were coming up and we didn’t want the lack of a basket ball team to prevent us from participating. So three days before the match we formed a team. As usual, Yaadaa Yaadaa and self made T and R give their names for the team. They practiced and we cheered. On the D-day, the game was over in 12 minutes. No prizes for guess who lost! Some of the highlights were the girls from our team running with the ball in their hands all across the floor only to deposit the ball in to the opposite team’s basket, playing tug of war and snatching the ball from a player from the other team, playing well after the referee had blown his whistle signaling the end of the game and the referee squatting on the floor in the middle of the game holding his heads with both his hands and vigorously shaking his head (can’t blame him. He was a year senior to us, a really good basket ball player and has NEVER seen anything like
THIS in his life before). We lost with a ridiculous score like ‘a zillion’-0 or something like that!

If we are still close, at least half the credit goes to our husbands. They understand how important it is for us to keep in touch and make the necessary adjustments. They tolerate the hour long phone calls, the numerous dinner and lunch plans we come up with without checking with our spouses, are okay with the fact that what ever brews at home, no matter how private, the others know about it.

Okay why all this sudden burst of nostalgia? R was here last week and stayed with us(Yaada Yaada and self) for 10 days. Our children played together. We cooked together, chatting like there was no tomorrow and had tons of fun. 🙂 Oh and the giggles, we did a lot of that…for no reason!

And this picture Boo sent on a e-card wishing me on my birthday, couple of years back…..

birthday

Just puts a smile on my lips and takes me 14 years back every time I see it. I treasure it. Thanks Boo. She always knows the right things to send/tell/talk!