Dove guessing game with my friend!

Growing up in a family where the parents were transferred from one place to the other in a couple of years, my friendships lasted good only for those years.  quickly adapted to the changing environment and hopped, skipped and jumped from one friendship to the other like it was no big deal. And it genuinely wasn't a big deal at all. You may think horrible of my parents now since I had no real friends. But, no. They knew, they understood and they managed it well. While it maybe true that we kept relocating to a new place every few years and left something behind everywhere, my parents never made me miss any of that.

My first badminton tryouts and games and scores were kept with my Dad. He also taught me cricket, lagori, kabaddi and kho-kho. He trained me, no matter what time of the day, no matter how tired from work he was, he was there to make up for new friends after we moved. My first make up experience was with my Mum where she let me experiment with all the colours and different items in the make up kit on her and smiling obliged when I asked her not to wash any of it off for quite some time. My sibling was the one I played "ghar-ghar" and "doctor-doctor" with. We used to roam the housing society, hand in hand perfectly comfortable in each other's presence and not really having a complete craving for a "friend". We also stood up for each other when the other was lying through their teeth to get away from trouble from Mum & Dad!

Then again, friendships were forged and broken. One of my friends, let's call her K, used to blackmail me into studying (the below average student that I was). When I had this craze of Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (Harry Potter), she always said "if you get good marks in this exam, I'll give you a printout of his photo." Being from a middle class family and kids of parents working in the service industry, printer was a complete and unnecessary luxury, the printout was a real driving factor. This other friend of mine, let's call her S, used to coach me in high jump at school in order to be able to participate. The never tiring "high!" in a super high girly pitch sure gave me all the more reason to try and jump higher and higher. My friends from college, P & A are the ones I discovered, crushes and lust and teenage love with. The trial room visits to the mall, trying on clothes too expensive to afford and clicking pictures in them, the common Facebook addiction, cyber stalking of our latest crush, bunking classes together and enjoying vada-pav and samosa-pav at the local thela wala were just some of the mischiefs we got into. As I grew up and went to work, my office friends were very kidnly helpful to initiate drinking and all night partying. There also came the time where we fully understood the meaning of meeting deadlines and fun late night work at the office which as ever combined with yummy sandwiches and chai or coffee and bitching right through the night of the boss having an affair with his PA!

Friendships may or may not last. What does last is the memories (and photographs if you clicked them). I personally do not believe in Best-Friends-Forever. I believe friendships come with an expiry tag. As and when a person grows and matures, their needs and wants change accordingly which the "BFF" may or may not provide for rendering the friendship redundant and lack luster. What I can tell you is that relationships will never be as smooth as this. Cheers!