A Decade of Togetherness...:-)



It started 10 years ago...together in an 8th standard classroom in the third floor of the senior’s block of Ursuline Senior Secondary School, Cannanore, Kerala. Three individuals in the last but one bench of the third row; three girls born in the year 1988, of the same height and the same length of hair, little did two of them know they had been destined to be together for a large part of each other’s lives...!! Especially when they hated each other so...!! They were Namitha AP and Naimika Ramesh.

From Day one of the 8th std they had been together. Unlike most kids of that age, all they had spoken to each other was, “What’s the time...?”, “12:10”. That was it...the rest of the day in class was spent in silence...! (Okie...dats it...guess I’ll switch to first person narrative...the research paper attitude seems to be getting the better of me...!!) So, from the next day, we did start talking, but realized that we couldn’t stand each other...we absolutely hated the other...!! I was a little reserved and straight-forward and couldn’t stand the way she would joke about every single thing and I guess she hated me already before she knew me...! We would fight every single day...!! I would go and complain to my folks at home about her...and wished our places would get changed as schools tend to usually do, just when the teachers felt the students were getting too comfortable and happy in their bench mate's company. Phoo...but no...That was not to happen, thanks to our same height...and also to the fact that I managed to absent myself exactly the same day the teacher decided to shuffle the students. So, there again, everybody else’s places were changed but we were still together...!

She was such a liar...Gawdd..!! That female...She conned me into believing that the other bench mate, Lakshmi Menon was the owner of lakme and that’s how it got the name...(a very convincing tale indeed...! That Lakshmi’s grandfather was the founder of the company and that ‘lakme’ was a portmanteau of ‘Lak’shmi ‘Me’non...!! How mean...n I was such an idiot...I believed it also...!). This happened yet again...I meant changing of places, but we still ended up sitting together...little did we know that this was part of a larger plot by the almighty...! Again in the 9th std, 10th std and even in the 11th std, we sat together. Even if the teachers changed the seating arrangements, we would still somehow be in close proximity to each other...either to the left, right, or to the bench behind or in front of the other. But as years passed, we started getting along pretty well...I mean...obviously! When you keep bumping into each other you have no option but to get along right...!! And we learnt to do that over the years...i learnt from her...she learnt from me...we learnt to appreciate and like the differences that were unique to both our characters...and yea...with time, we did start liking each other...and by the time we reached 12th std (which was when we got separated after years of being bench mates. But guess we still managed to find time for each other...waiting for my auto and her van at the gate after class in the evening, and lunched together, and since we had both been brilliant as far as math was concerned, we’d chosen not to do Math in the 11th and 12th, we had those math hours that we spent together!) we'd become thick friends. [Does it sound a little wierd...i mean we are both very much straight...hehe...;-)]

After the 12th boards, I didn’t know what I’d do, neither did she, we’d both given our entrance exams for what and why, both of us didn’t know...!! Suddenly one fine day, as we talked, we decided to do English...Functional English...!! And yet again...we landed up in Malabar Christian College, Calicut again in the same class, bench...and in the same hostel, same room and the same bed too...!! Initially it was rosy, and beautiful...we didn’t have issues like others did; making friends, getting used to the new atmosphere etc. We had each other and were so happy and comfortable that we didn’t even care how things were otherwise..!! But of course living together brought with it, its share of problems too...there were the all the nice moments, insane amounts of fun and of course tonnes of fights...! There would be days when we'd wake up and decide not to talk to each other (just like that...mutually...we would just get the vibes and know it...we didn’t even have to make a formal announcement of the feud...!) We would leave hostel, walk to college together, sit on the same bench, eat lunch...all of it together but utter not a single word...MUM we used to stay...!!! And when we thought it was genuinely too much, one of us would make the much needed confrontation, the apologies and the revelation of what it was that was bothering whoever it was that started with the whole non-talking mode first...! And then again teasing, making fun...all part of the reconciliation...!! We would fight...we would cry...and then make up to it...and everything would be fine...just like it used to be...!

And no...it was not as if we were so into each other that we didn’t have other friends...no we have an entire circle of wonderful beautiful people for friends...!! We used to forever be referred to as Namitha-Naimika and never individually...the twosome became our identity in college...it was as if people were referring to a pair of twins...! There have been times when we'd be so mutually fed up of each other...!! But towards the end of the three years, we knew we would not under any circumstances be together thereafter and used to listen to songs from KANK and cry (thinking not just about us...but the entire set of friends from college!)...and rightly so, she is in Chennai now and here I am, in Bengaluru! But even now...we are in touch (obviously...du-uh..!!), via the phone; meet up every time we are both in town etc. It’s not like we need to call each other frequently...there have been times we haven’t called each other for nearly 1-2 months, but we still know we’d be there for each other. And every time I call up with a problem without even starting to tell her, she would know...and she’d be like...”hmm...so what have you done now...how badly are you screwed up...?” I’d only have to tell her...and if she had to...she’d give it to me...royally...then gather her wits back...and then slowly counsel me into seeing things in perspective...! Sometimes I get more violent reactions from her than even my parents...! And yea...now we’ve also received an acknowledgement from Airtel...!! Yesterday I get a message from the saying, “with STD at only 50p/min! Make calls to your favourite Airtel no. 1234567890 and enjoy your weekend with endless conversations”...which happens to be her number...!! yay yayiiee..!! Airtel says that it’s her number that’s my favourite..!!!

I’m yet to call her...haven’t told her what Airtel thinks...;-)! We need to fix up a date for our decade celebration...and yea...this idea of the celebration of a decade of our friendship came up when we were in Calicut itself...!! And now it’s actually time...how time flew I do not know...i still remember us...in our maroon pinafore in school...from absolute hatred to this kind of an understanding and love, we’ve come a long long way and this definitely needs to be celebrated...!



Three cheers to us..!!(Touchwood...!!) Love us both...and love you loadzz...miss u pooh...!!!