FRIENDS IN NEED

Not very long ago, just around mid-september I fell seriously ill. It started off with me feeling the blues a little more than usual. I thought it was just 'those days' of the month. Then it was followed by a slight stomach ache towards the right lower abdomen. I ignored it again. Periodic cramps had never been a reason for me to stop and hault my day-to-day super-active routine. But the pain did not subside even after my curse-days ended. As the pain increased to an unbearable level, with shivers and temperature shooting up at regular intervals, I realised there was trouble. So, I took a day off on the 20th of September and went downstairs to visit the lady doc who stays in the same building as mine, on the 1st floor. After the initial testing of the eyes and the tongue and a few presses on either side of my abdomen, front & back, she told me that she suspected jaundice and immediately scribbled down a blood and urine test from the neighbourhood lab. But she would rather I visited a good hospital and get a proper check-up. I was feeling so unwell that I knew I won't be able to make it on my own to any of the hospitals or labs. So I called up my cousin asking him if he could come to my rescue. He did, ofcourse... being the darling he is. I suggested we go to MAX Hospital (considered one of Delhi's best). There I got the initial treatment from the emergency doctor who gave me a couple of injections to bring my fever, shivering & nausea under control and then I had to give my blood and urine samples for the various tests. The next day, still with no improvement in my condition, when I went to collect the samples, the doc referred me to a lady doctor who immediately asked me to get admitted in the hospital's 'Saket' branch where they had an inhouse hospitalisation facility. From that day, the 21st of September, it was a slow curing process which had begun for the infection they had detected in my kidney which had spread onto my blood and urinary track.
The hospital stay, though long and boring, was quite a memorable one. And the few close friends I have here in Delhi, did their best for me which has made me even more closer to them than ever before. Here goes the list-

NIP (as I call him... short for Nabajit)-We are related in some way and have known each other since childhood, but more than relatives/cousins, we are very close friends and he always somehow gets a vibe if I am not well. He was the first one I called up on to take me to the doctor. Though he was not well himself, and had to take care of his 1001 things which he is always caught up with, he still came and took me to the doctor, waited there while I was getting treated. Then picked me up and took me to their place to stay over for the night just in case I feel worse in the night all by myself at my own place. Next day again he brought me to the doc to collect my reports, then drove me to get me admitted in the hospital, filled in all the forms and dealt with the formalities while I waited for the admission. He visited me at intervals during my stay in the hospital too. I can never forget this ever. Love u, Nip. I owe you a big one.
(P.S.- Please forgive me for texting you those stinky messages when you could not visit me for some days at the hospital. I was really sick of looking at the nurses' and doctors' faces and needed friends like you to be around more often. Guess I was asking for a little too much, but then I know I can demand of you whatever I want and be myself without any pretence, isn't it?)

JEENA (my-Xena-the-warrior-princess-of-a-buddy)-She broadcasted all around to all our common friends that I was sick and admitted in the hospital and urged them to visit me positively, almost to a bully-ing extent. And if that was not enough, the ones who did not turn up were not spared of her sarcasm and bitter remarks about their negligence and shameful attitude. Jeena baby, I know you care, but I think you overdid it with both the Sumits and Samrat...(those poor guys!). But she is the one person who visited me almost daily and called me up regularly to ask if I needed anything.
(P.S.-Girl, I want you to know that I used to wait for that time-slot when you'd come and visit me before leaving for your work. You really did a lot to cheer up my mood with your presence around. Thanks dear. Shall never forget this, ever. Also, couldn't have expected any less from you as you are my closest. )

NARO-My naga-friend who has a hectic 9-5 job in the Korean embassy. But once she heard I was in the hospital, she came all the way to see me from the other part of the city. I understand the distance and the nature of her hectic job did not allow her to visit me every day, but she was there on the day I needed someone the most (when the doctors were all on their weekly off on a sunday and the nurses were enjoying their own sweet high-tea while I was shivering with high-fever and extreme pain due to not receiving the injections on time). She went out all the way to find a nurse or a doctor for me and took control of the situation with much calm which had gone very much out of control with me shouting at the nurse and the assistant who had to be brought at my disposal. Thanks, girl. You were an angel for me that day, as always.

AKUM-Naro's boyfriend and my sweet buddy. He was there to see me everytime with Naro and also did his best that sunday to help. His jokes are hilarious which brought a smile on my face in the midst of my sick gloomy mood.

SHIVANI-Nip's gf... my would-be sis-in-law. She really needn't have bothered but she too did her best. She cooked for me while I was at their place. Also visited me in the hospital inspite of all her work. Thanks Shiv-ji.

VISHAK-Nip & Shivani's room-mate. We're friends and he didn't initially realise how sick I was when he saw me in the morning at their place with a swollen grumpy face due to the unbearable pain. He couldn't help laughing and making some nasty remarks, but I forgive him (yet once again...I hope u r keeping a count too, Vishak) as I know he didn't know how sick I was. Also yes, he visited me at the hospital and tried his best to cheer me up, failing miserably. But atleast he tried. Good try, Vishak. Really appreciate your effort. And hey, thanks a ton buddy.

DIPANKAR-My assamese friend in the office. He is my man-friday. I make full use of his being in the transport department of our organisation. Whenever I need to sneak out of office (unofficially), he is the one I need to call and ask for a cab to take me home. And voila! within seconds my work is done. He talks a lot, though... most of the times to a yawningly boring extent. But inspite of everything, he visited me in the hospital twice or thrice, each time staying for a long duration, chatting up constantly, telling me non-stop stories of his forgotten past hospital experiences. But for the first time I realised I was not all that bored of his non-stop gibberish which he's so good with. It helped to hear a human voice talking to me to kill the emptyness and boredom of my hospital stay. Thank you, my friend.
(P.S.- And now that I'm fit and fine, you can stop talking so much. (just joking!))

ANJULA-the baby in our group of four at work, who sits just next to my work station. She's more like a younger sister than a colleague or a friend. She kept abreast with the latest progress happening with my recovery and what the doctors have said, even while attending office, meeting her daily targets while also dealing with the various formalities she needed to cater to before getting into Jet Airways as an airhostess. She juggled through everything quite efficiently and visited me often, especially during the weekends. She's now in Mumbai going through her training for the airlines. But the help she offered to me while I was in the hospital will always be in my heart and mind. Thank you, little one.
(P.S.-I missed you all the same while I was in the hospital and more than ever, now... when you are not there sitting next to me at work, reminding me constantly to do my work while I am busy on the orkut or blogging during my work hours.)

GAURAV-The hunk of my friends from office.... good-looking, well-behaved and fiercely protective about me and Anjula. But he is a little immature, moody and short-tempered. Doesn't speak much and is shit-scared of my temper. On a Monday evening, knowing they would be visiting me the next day, I asked him if he can get me a print-out of the 'Hanuman-Chalisa' from work (I try to chant the 'hanuman chalisa' every tuesday evening, but do not know it by heart yet). He said he could. Later he must have realised that he had taken out the print-out in 'hindi' which I don't know to read fluently. But by that time he must've already reached home around mid-night and the cyber-cafes might have closed. So, he called up all possible people at odd hours of the night and the morning before they were to reach the hospital asking if anybody had access to the internet and a printer at their vicinity. I don't know how or from where he got it, but he produced a printout of the required Hanuman Chalisa for me (yes, in English) when they visited me the next morning before leaving for work. When Anjula narrated the whole story behind 'the print-out' I felt extremely guilty. But that's just Gaurav. 'Thanks' seems to be a very little word for whatever you have done for me, buddy.
(P.S.-After I was released from the hospital and joinned work, I was advised to have home-food for sometime. Gaurav's mom made it a point to send delicious home-made food for all of us (especially because she knows I stay alone and might not manage to cook proper meals during the week-days). Thanks to aunty too. What does one do to deserve such a royal treatment?!)

SAFAL-The cool-dude, Anjula's guy. He is level-headed and really defines the word 'kewl'. I have never seen him lose his temper and no matter what we say or do or to whatever extent he is provoked, he is always smiling. He can just let go off things till they cool down and the situation gets under control. He's our group's pacifier in our small tiffs and manages to make everyone laugh even under the most difficult of situations. But God save you if he has downed 2 bottles of beer. He will go on talking about anything and everything under the sun (or the moon) till we go off to sleep. Anjula & Gaurav used to drag him along with them when they came to visit me. My wildest guess says Safal would have generally just woken up, put on his clothes and shoes, brushed his teeth and come along, 'cause whenever he came to visit me, he was either eating at the hospital cafeteria downstairs or smoking or watching cricket matches (with Gaurav) at the hospital lounge, before coming upto my room to show his face, giving Anjula and me enough time to catch up with our 'girlie-talks' if there was any.

SHELTON-my friend from Goa who had stopped by in Delhi for his visa work, while on his way to New York City for a concert, with high hopes of me showing him around Delhi while he was around, was really upset with the whole thing. And he did drop in to see me in the hospital. He had also managed to smuggle in some local Goan pork sausages (my favourite) into my room and handed the parcel to me only after strictly warning me to eat them after I recover fully. He is another PJ-r(poor-joke-r) who has a tremendous stock of never ending PJs. And he used them to the full on me while he was around.
P.S.-That was really sweet, Shelton. I promise I'll show you around the next time you are in Delhi, provided I am not in the hospital. And hey, you can parcel me the port-wine bottles from Goa very soon as I have recovered now.)

And then there was GEETA and NIDHI from the office who visited me in the hospital. Though they are not close friends, I really appreciate their taking out time to come and visit. And CHOW (the kiddo) who called me up often, promising to turn up in a couple of days (but never did). His calls were very refreshing in themselves, though, full of vibrance and positive energies, urging me to get well soon. Of course, SUMIT VIRDI and SUMIT CHUG called up too with 'get-well-soon' wishes mainly because (you guessed it!) Jeena bullying them into it, but they did.

So, after my never-ending 8-10 days stay in the hospital I was finally released to go home and advised bed-rest for atleast 2-weeks till I recovered. So I went back home to the comforts of my ma & dad's pampering and care and stayed back for about a week before returning to Delhi to join work. NANDINI my friend in Guwahati came to visit me while I was there and it was nice to see her glowing with pregnancy.

Now I am fit and fine and back to work, but this long gap in between has made me a lazy bum and I still haven't been able to restore back my interest at work. Needed a break, got a break (minus the pain and suffering that came with the illness) !

CODENAME : JEANS 13

I had met her some five years back in my previous organisation through a common friend and we clicked from the moment we had met. She too was from my native place and her birthday was just a couple of days before mine. Being of the same age and star-sign, we had lots of things common in our natures and in our likes and dislikes. And we used to hang around together most of the times, especially to all our nocturnal parties after work, our three common guy-friends in tow.

She was just like me--impulsive, headstrong and very bluntly to the point. She feeded my number on her mobile as 'MY ASSAMESE FRIEND' and I feeded hers as 'JEANS 13', though I strongly believe now that feeding her name as 'XENA-The Warrior Princess' would have been more appropriate, her real name being JEENA.

She's a totally BINDAAS person and literally a human-rash of a friend to me, who wants to keep abreast of every latest thing happening in my life. She would need every painstaking detail about every single one of my boyfriends or dates--where we went, what we ate, what we talked about, how many times he blinked, EVERYTHING! (But I don't mind it, because it's sometimes nice to share these kind of stuff with your close friends and have them involved in your life's happenings.) After I'm done choking out every grudging detail, she'll proceed to tell me what I said right, what I did wrong, what she thought I should have done and what I must absolutely do the next time. Most of the times there would be grains of truth and genuine concern in what she says. But sometimes when I'm not feeling my polite self, I would go, "Sod off B**CH, Puhleeez. That's a load of crap" and hang up. Of course she is more likely to return me the favour twice as much at every possible opportunity after that. Very seldom but there are times when she asks for my advice but more often than not, she would tell me the gory details of her ventures. But if I don't completely agree with what she's saying or tell her like I truely feel like it is, she would absolutely lose her cool and she'll go on a rant about how wrong I am and that I don't know anything and that I'm always trying to take someone else's side. She sometimes even goes to the extent of accusing me of being judgemental or being jealous of her. But most of the times I take it in a good spirit.

Incidentally, such an incident happened just a few months back before our birthdays. She was very annoyed at a certain situation, and when I tried to show her the picture as it seemed to me, she could not take it and slammed the phone down on me. Next morning she sms-ed but somehow things got very ugly and obviously, I couldn't stop myself from adding some of my own venom. We had a bitter cat-fight through sms-s as I was about to sit for an examination and we ended up showing each other our bitchi-est sides. My relationship with her suddenly seemed to be a real chore if I had to mind what I am saying to her, all because of her fragile ego and her incredible self-absorbance and annoying sensitivity. So we stopped talking to each other. We did not even call each other up on our birthdays, we were both so mad at each other then. Her birthday comes first, so I wished her through an e-card. She did exactly the same thing. This got me more annoyed because she did not even come up with anything original. She was still copying my act. Then nobody said anything and we both went to a deep freezing zone.

This Diwali, she made the first move. By then, I was missing her-- being with her and sharing our spicy life-stories, and I tried to figure out why we had gone to such a bitter extent with such a simple difference of opinion. On the eve of Diwali however, she wished me through an sms to which I replied back on a light note which I'm sure must have brought a smile on her face (or atleast that was what I intended). I sms-ed trying to initiate conversations and how to broach the topic and also prepared myself for a brush-off. But with re-inforced positive feelings that I still had about our friendship, she must have found it difficult to resist my overtures. Neither of us apologised or said sorry till we met last weekend, but I did encourage her to mouth the string of her favourite abuses to me when we first spoke over the phone and returned the favour with pleasure.

Thus, the good cheer thawed the differences that had cropped up between the two of us, and it seemed like the festive time was the best time to get my buddy back in my life again...

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my BEST-est Friend !!

I had heard of HER much before I had actually seen or met her, and when I saw her for the first time, SHE exactly fitted into the picture I had of her in my mind. She was one of the 'three musketeers' of the PATHFINDER process of our organisation in the pilot phase when it had just come in, way back in February 2003. Monica-the girl with the most voluptious figure that I've had ever seen, was the proud owner of a scooty and she was more than happy to accomodate Radha-the cute, tiny one and 'OUR GIRL'-the tall, slender one with a beautiful oriental face, and nice straight long hair. SHE was one of the most elegant girls in the whole process.

WE had never interacted so much with each other till about the first six months or more of my being in the organisation, as 'we' were both in different teams and had never been formally introduced to each other. But we did exchange 'hello's and smiles when sometimes my ex-BF (who used to work in the same organisation) talked to her for a super-short duration during our tea-breaks or dinner-breaks. They had both joinned the organisation at almost the same time and I had joinned in a batch later. During those short-stop hellos, one thing that I always noticed about THIS GIRL was her bright, genuine smile that came in straight from her heart, lighting up her face, shining right through her 'spectacled' small twinkling eyes.... a smile that was so contagious, it could lift up any damned soul... and I often wondered if she ever had any problems in her life, or for that matter, if she ever took life seriously at all. I would imagine that she might have been the only child of very rich parents, never having to think twice about anything she wanted in life. Otherwise, how else can anyone be so happy all the time?! Sometimes, when I'd be brooding, complaining, sulking or engaged in an argument with my BF in the office and she happened to pass by us, he would ask me teasingly why I could not be like HER... so simple, ever smiling, no complaints or worries in life whatsoever! to which I would think, believe and curtly reply, "Maybe she doesn't have a boyfriend... like you!"

Time passed by and after about six-months in 'Pathfinder', I was put into a new process- WTS SELECT in the pilot batch, with another 20 odd colleagues, all thrown in from different teams of PF. And after a few more weeks, some more people came in to join us in WTS, 'our girl' included. Those days, I never used to interact much with any of my colleagues in the new process, as we had all come in from different teams and did not know each other much. I preferred to stick around with the BF in all my breaks. But slowly with time, I started bonding well with two girls in the team (Priya and Kalpana) and 'she' too developed a strong friendship with one of the other girls (Divya), who had been her batchmate from their initial days in Pathfinder.With some more time, we had a change of team-leaders, seating arrangements and our friends too. The BF changed his job and left the organisation, shifting base to another city. Both of my two fast-friends got married one after the other and seemed to bond better sans me, with their 'post-marriage' conversations. HER friend too got married and left the country. And destiny made 'both of us' sit next to each other at adjacent work-stations and have our lunch and dinner breaks together. In day to day casual conversations between our work, we discovered our common interests in books, fashion, cosmetics and some other philosohies in life and slowly we started taking all our breaks together at office. We even started meeting up on weekends for shopping and then started staying back at each other's places overnight, depending on which markets we were covering that weekend. I don't exactly remember when or how, but we 'clicked'. And from that time onwards, started a journey of our friendship that was never to end... and we became almost inseperable.

Beneath her ever-smiling face, I discovered her serious side. She was not at all the frivolous girl that I had imagined her to be. Although she was a few months younger to me in age, she was wiser and more matured. I would often turn to her for advice as I had full trust in all her decisions. I realised that she too have had her share of difficulties in life, that too at a very tender age, which had helped her be the person that she is today. Unlike her looks, she was very strong from within, and she was the ONE PERSON who stood by me in the darkest period of my life, helping me nurse a broken heart and recover faster than I would have otherwise had. She was the one person who you could trust to be at her coolest even at the most crucial of situations, and I grew habituated to her calming me down with her wise soothing words whenever I was stuck up in any kind of mess. She would tell me how she had once been of an impulsive headstrong nature and would react to situations just like ME (I was infamous for my hot-headedness). But with time and experience, she had learnt to deal with situations better in a calmer manner without losing her head over it. THIS GIRL with the wisdom of the sages also had the simplicity, straightforwardness and innocence of a child. She had the dreams of a little girl, no different than those of yours or mine. She loved to be pampered and spoilt and could be quite a brat at times. But you could never hate her for that. Infact, you could never hate her for anything at all. She is wise, smart, tactful, honest, polite and innocent all at the same time and can easily get away calling a spade A SPADE, sealed with her sweetest smile.

Somewhere down the line, we discovered that my mother-tongue (assamese) and her native-dialect (nagamese) were quite similar to each other. So, we would often communicate in either assamese or nagamese, especially in cases when we would want to close in from the rest of the world. I remember the many occasions when she would show her freakier side... We would sit at the 'smoking-zone' of our office building for hours, ME being the active-smoker and SHE being the passive one... scrutinising, commenting and forming an opinion on every passing being, thereby. We would gossip, bitch, discuss and practically 'live' in the smoking-zone area, especially on those sunny winter afternoons, as there was not much work in the process, leaving us with ample idle time. But once in a while, SHE would really get annoyed about every smoker's cigarette-smoke passing in right through her sparkling-clean fragrant hair, making it smell of cigarettes, which she would happily forget in even less than a minute's time, if you knew how to indulge her in one of her favourite topics of conversation... it was just THAT SIMPLE. (...and no prizes for guessing WHO had developed the expertise in that kind of creative conversations). We would 'share' both our lunches and dinners at the office cafeteria, shelling out only ONE single coupon for each meal between the two of us. This 'sharing of meals' is NOT ALLOWED, but we would still do it on the sly, justifying the case for the little amount of food we would both eat combined. It was too rib-tickling funny to watch her bargain with a sarojini-nagar-market (one of our favourite street-shopping-haunts) shop-hawker or with an auto-rickshaw driver. She has an even crazier hold in HINDI, much worse than that of mine, and I am actually better off to recognise and correct the mistakes in her hindi-grammar and accent. Another thing which made her absolutely lose her cool was when her credit-card-company people called her up, addressing her with a MR. before her name. If present at the scene, you could actually see those flames and fumes coming out of her red-ears and that little shiny nose. She always dressed on her own terms, as she did everything else. Once, we were asked to follow a tri-color ethnic dress-code theme to the work-place on some special-occasion day. Any guesses what she might have turned up in? What else than her 'maroon' codroy-pants and an equally contrast shirt?! But one thing about her dressing is that no matter what she wore, she could carry it off with an absolute grace, being the hard-core libran that she is...

She is the ONE GIRL I know, who is utterly stylish and has a great sense of fashion... and nothing fascinates her more than shopping, and reading fashion magazines... and/or the combination of both. She can actually go on shopping till she zeros her bank balance and then start on with her credit-cards one after the other or finally drops down dead out of tiredness. Before that, she wouldn't just stop. On so many instances of our shopping together, I literally have had to drag her away from buying something horrendously expensive which I knew she wouldn't even bother wearing once, after it reaches home. There were so many times when we would go shopping and come back dead-tired, only to glug down bottles of chilled-beer and just talk silly, covering everything from job-dissatisfaction, work-politics, ex-bfs, failed relationships, future plans, more shopping plans and everything else under the sun... oops! under the moon, actually... We would not know when in the midst of those senseless conversations (which made the most sense to both of us then), we would both fall asleep next to each other, with tear-filled eyes and beer-filled guts...

On the bullier side, you would want to think twice before taking her too lightly, by the looks of her lean, fragile frame. She was once being bullied by the two (well-built) sisters who shared a room next to hers in the same building. She took it all silently for over two months, and the day she left that place to move into a new place, well! ASK THOSE SISTERS !!

In due course of time, our process WTS went back and we were both sent to different processes, with obvious changes in our weekly offs and shift-timings. But we still managed to keep in constant touch and would visit each other at every possible opportunity, keeping alive our age-old tradition of shopping, beer-glugging, pork/pizza treats and more importantly, exchanging our latest novels, girlie-gossips and beauty-tips.

We have never ever been pretentious with each other. With us, what you see is what you get. We both know each other in and out and have accepted each other inspite of our individual faults and short-comings. Its not that we always think alike and never have differences. We do. But we have never had any of our differences come in the way of our friendship. I shamelessly invite myself to her place for those innumerable treats of naga-style pork-curry-rice and the ad-on side dishes which I relish so much, and she would watch me hog those sinful mouth-watering, fat-filled, calorie-filled pork dishes, reminding me of my modelling-diet-regime. On her part, she would shamelessly remind me every year, of her (upcoming) birthday long before its even due, dropping obvious hints at the much awaited 'gift' that would bring an instant sparkle to those already twinkling eyes...

Well, this friend of mine-WATINARO AIER (NARO-as everyone lovingly calls her) would be leaving for her hometown (nagaland) for good, in a couple of weeks from now and as she was going through her 'full and final' formalities on her last day in the organisation, I couldn't help but think over our 'past' times together in the organisation and how we had become such good friends in due course of time. I somehow felt very lost and alone (as if a part of me was going to be lost forever), as we spent the day reliving most of our break-times in the old 'smoking-zone-area' and at the cafeteria 'illegally' sharing our last meal at the office, together...

TODAY is special because its her BIRTHDAY. And on this day, if I were to make a wish, it would surely be to continue being HER FRIEND all throughout OUR lives and getting HER as my friend in all the future lives, if WE were to be born again. This write-up is not an adieu-note but only a 'thank-you' to YOU my friend, for being the best-est person I have ever had as a friend and just to let you know that I'll miss you a lot when you'd be gone.

Many happy returns of the day, girl!