Bithoor, 09.45 am in SAV Public School, One usual day of Sept. 2015 or so I thought.

YS: “Hi”
SH: “Hi”

This was the first time I met YS, sitting there at the last corner bench, calm, confident and yet clueless. Sharp at 9:45 AM, I entered through the defaced doors of that tiny white-walled classroom, which were pale and discoloured, making futile efforts to hide my trembles, arising due to the fact that it was the first day of my first board exam and also because of being completely unaware of what kind of mockery the question sheet is going to make of me.

‘Aren't you excited?’ I was an 8th grader and was asked this question right before the board exam by, well, a lot of faces I never talked to, rather just knew of their existence. I being a not-so-great deceiver would say, “Yeah, sure. Why not?” with zipped lips and tons of beratings outpouring in my mind:
‘Like why should I be excited? Is it a birthday? No. Getting chocolates? Hell no! All we are getting is a completely unseen piece of paper printed with an unpredictable questionnaire complimented by a completion deadline and a booklet of blank papers. I don't do well with that, my mind goes blank!’

Though I never knew why, no matter how much I studied, I always felt under-prepared, underconfident and indisputably nervous. Every tick of the clock would send me down a shiver and every tock would make me gulp in fear.

Rolling back to the anxious exam hall setting, I remember, after a few greetings and a lot of irrelevant grinning, I walked towards the seat arrangement charts glued to the blackboard. After quite a hustle, I managed to figure out my seat at the last bench of the second-to-last row, just beside YS, on her left. That is where we met and greeted each other for the first time, turning that one usual exam day into a handful of eventful days, sparking the start of something unexpected none of us would have ever thought of.

Those days of exams were the most memorable exam days, unlike before, which had been quite boring and stressful. Not remembering how exactly, but from not knowing each other to bursting into laughter just after a few minutes of being introduced to each other. YS and I shared answers throughout the exams, cracked jokes despite critical ‘answers-not-coming-to-mind’ crises, and occasionally were scolded by invigilators for such inappropriateness. Yet, no regrets. Hee hee…

Whatsapp, 10.35 pm, 18 Aug. 2021 (a few years after)

YS: You haven't saved MY NUMBER! I can’t see your DP.
SH: (laughing emoji) Yes, I haven’t. Wait, let me do it.
YS: Jaldi kar jaldi kar, mujh jaise VIP ko kaise neglect kar sakti hai (Black moon emoji).

After a long interlude of 6 years trapped in our busy schedules, it was the first time we got to interact with each other. Even after such a huge gap, the initiation of the conversation was not at all awkward, rather it slid smooth like butter. She kept yapping for hours, spitting out her 6-year-long stories & mishaps, frustrations & fantasies, dreams & dilemmas and I listened to her with endless patience, more attentively than I ever listen to my engineering lectures, occasionally stating my own opinions and narrating my college tales & tragedies.

The initial days of calls, chats & VCs, went so long that the phrase ‘Time flies away’ actually became the reality. It was a different kind of bonding that had ease, comfort and security without any tint of hesitation or fakery. Good night X 5 times, we’ve already said that yet the conversation keeps going on, leading to a never-ending chain of Good Night.

Prince's Home, 09.45 am, 9 Nov. 2021 (soon to meet)

YS: P, can you ask SH to come to your home? We need to yap. There's a lot of stuff pending.
P: Yeah, good idea!! We can recreate the reels I’ve saved.
(Phone ringing)
SH: (gasping) Hello…
P: Come to my place, YS in the house!!

It was an excitement I never felt in years, to finally meet someone so dear to my heart. We had been just connected virtually through waves for hours, but finally, we met that day. She wrapped me with a warm tight hug, and it felt like a promise to keep me safe forever, no matter what the adversities posed before, she’d be there for me.

YS’s Home, 08.30 am, 1 Oct. 2022 (‘twas my B’day)

YS: WTH are you doing here this early??
P: It’s SH’s b’day!
YS: Oh, Happy B’day! You never mentioned your b’day to me.
SH: (laughing) Sorry, but IK you’ll remember it from now on.

Again almost after a year, we’re meeting in person. This was the first b’day she was with me. But that year, it was a bit different in a not-so-good way. Both of us had bad experiences at our universities. That moment, I shared the same emotions as hers, & how we felt that college life was so complicated and different from our school life and how we had lost the people whom we once valued a lot. The feelings we had were unspoken, yet we understood.


CURRENT STATUS REPORT:

This friendship rekindled my broken trust, and it was royalty to have someone who knew me from my school days and still be an intimate part of this life. I could never have imagined such a simple bond that started within the exam hall would end in such grandeur. In this generation, usually, people don’t believe in forever but I do, and this is because of her.

I learnt a great lesson in this friendship: that both of the partners need to accept each other the way they are, their flaws & flaunts. The bond stays unbreakable if both commit and are honest with each other and most importantly,
‘Log isliye sath nahi rehte kyunki woh bhul jaate hain,
Log sath isliye rehte hain kyunki woh maaf kar dete hain’

This is dedicated to MY CONFIDANTE.