Miss you,friend...

I clutched my hemp haversack tightly and held it close to my chest. The shirt I wore that day was pretty blah and on any other day, I wouldn't have dared to be seen in public wearing such an unimpressive piece of clothing lacking style or finish. But on that day, I was ready to sacrifice style for the safety of anonymity. If I could just get through the day without anyone trying to engage me in conversation...

"Are you waiting for the SVCE bus too?"

I turned around to see a tall boy. His father was on a scooter a few feet away. The boy was dressed in a white shirt brighter than the sun. An obscenely large silver belt buckle flashed at his waist and the ensemble was completed by a pair of brand new sneaker shoes.

"Uh..yes I am.", I replied.

This guy was dressed to get royally raped, I decided. What was he thinking?

"Oh good.I'm Vadivel. They said the bus should be here by 8.30AM."

"I'm Vikram. Yeah,that's what they told me too"

In a few minutes, a particularly unattractive yellow bus rumbled along. The sign in front read "27 Mambalam". Here goes,I said to myself as I got on board.

The bus was fairly full and I was happy to find an empty 3-seater in the first few rows. I love occupying the window seat in any journey. After a couple of stops,Sharada boarded the bus in K.K.Nagar. Seeing a cheerful friendly face was reassuring that this wasn't going to be the most humiliating day in my life.

Four stops later, an attractive boy got into the bus. He was tall and looked strong. He was dressed conservatively in a checked shirt and nondescript jeans. He stopped to talk to a girl sitting a few seats away from me.He then surveyed the scene and noticed that the seats next to me were unoccupied.

"Can I sit here?"

"Yeah sure",I replied and got my bag out of the way.

We didn't say a word to each other for the rest of the journey. Later that morning,I found out that he was in my class. I was too preoccupied trying to maintain a low profile to bother striking a conversation with him.

I'd attended the same school for 16 years and I'd grown comfortable within that well,never needing to step outside and 'fit' into new circles. This was my first day in college and I'd heard enough stories about seniors 'ragging' incoming juniors to make me want to get through the day unnoticed. And who really knew if your own classmates were any better or different!

Over the course of the next few weeks, that boy sat with me regularly and eventually we formed a fun group of friends who took the same bus every day, occupying 2 rows of seats to spend journeys playing charades, music games, sharing gossip or cracking jokes so inane you'd think we were high on dope! It worked just as well that we were all in the same class. The laughter never stopped in batch "D".

After freshman year (or 'first year' as we call it), the bunch of us never got to take classes together as a group. Daily jaunts then became more precious since those were the only times we could forget the miseries we endured in our respective disciplines or bitch about them passionately.

As the years rolled on, our friendship was cemented by laughter,tears,fights and apologies. I sensed a unique connection with each of these people and I was thankful that I'd never have to pick favourites. I couldn't possibly.

The aforementioned boy became one of my closest friends as life let me discover eventually. His temper and blunt attitude masked a sensitive side he didn't always expose. His success and good luck was congratulated and often envied. He was the only one to call me on my behaviour and eccentricities. I hated his guts but that's what made me grow to like him more. He could hurt my feelings in a second but he was just as capable of punching someone else who did the same thing. I remember the day I showed him an insensitive message I'd received from a project partner regarding a difference in opinion. My friend turned so livid that he leaned back to yell in anger at the project mate who was caught off-guard.

I'll never forget that moment.

It has been 10 years since the day I first met that boy.

This morning I filtered through my mail as I gobbled breakfast. I paused to see a thick golden envelope. The decoration was ornate and an image of Ganesha beamed over the letters

"Sai Koppaka weds Sandhya Kanury".

How time flies...