Three’s never a crowd!

After quite a long time (4 and a half months, for sure), I called up one of my closest friends — to know that she was 4 months pregnant!! So much for being “close friends”!!! 😛

And after the inital whats and whaats and whaaats, I let out one string of abuses her way for not letting me know. And with that ever cheeky that-don’t-impress-me-much tone, she tells me, “Oh! I thought I’ll just give you all a surprise!” Apparently, in all that excitement and tests and waiting-for-the-confirmation delays, she forgot to call us. Then she thought about it a month later…by then she was sure she’d get killed for not having told us friends. And then, she thought ‘what the heck, let the baby come out…and i’ll let them know”. The ass! Hehe…she was quite sure then, that we wouldn’t be meeting till the baby’s out 😛

I’ve been friends with this mad girl since my 9th grade…and it’s always been the ‘heights of fun’ when the two of us, along with the third musketeer, joined together! All 3 of us are “younger sister” to some super brothers…and while we both have 1, she has 3!! Which explains her escalated level of madness!

We’ve stayed cooped up in her smelly bedroom from morn till night, pretending to study…while all we ever did was read novels and eat and make endless phone calls and eat and sleep and eat and gossip and eat and…oh, you get the picture, right? We’ve walked from her house, all the way to mine (some good 8-9kms) in the scorching sun, chattering away on about everything. We’ve spent hours together discussing loves, crushes and heartbreaks.

We’ve travelled all over Trivandrum for no reason at all (as a result of talking animatedly and boarding any damn bus without looking at the name board!!)…in fact, once we sat right in front of the conductor’s seat in the bus and refused to take a ticket 😀 Just before getting off the bus, when the conductor asked us for the ticket, she actually told him “Oh, innu ticket edukkan oru moodilla” (Oh, we didn’t have the mood to get a ticket today!) 😛

We’ve bunked our classes to join a third class’ PT hour {two of us were in the same class n this mad one was in another; so, while the every class had just one PT hour a week, we had one everyday…almost ;)}and play in the hot sun (guess we were the only 3 girls the PT master didn’t hate :D)! We’ve always wanted to be in the same class (precisely why the teachers conspired and always made sure at least one among us was separated from the gang during class hours) that she’s hidden under our bench, only to be discovered and thrown out by the teacher!

Edited to add this after this memory suddenly came back: We’ve lurked around after school hours, waiting for all the teachers to leave, then gone behind the school building and tried to understand what’s the ‘cool’ factor about smoking 😉 After a puff each and volleys of coughing fits and teary eyes, we ran off into the girls’ loo when we heard our PT master demanding who the smoker was (he saw smoke, apparently!) A poor 7th grade boy got caught and interrogated [they did the spell smell-check on him, but he came off clean :D], but no one ever figured out!

We’ve bunked school to attend the “La Fest” (an inter-school fest conducted by Loyola School in Trivandrum, every year), in spite of being warned against it by our class teacher–and then disappointed her by bringing her leave letters signed by our parents that actually said “Was unable to attend class since I wanted to attend La Fest”, instead of a cooked up “fever” story 😀

Long story short, we’ve been the perfect ‘undisciplined gang of girls’ at school (and SO NOT proud about it now 😦 ) By the time we passed out of school, we ‘grew up’ and vowed we’ll become better people. All that took to make us better people was to get the 3 of us going in 3 different ways 😀

We still get back to being the ‘undisciplined gang of girls’ whenever we meet (though we pretend to be civilised). All of us were mad enough on the other’s wedding and instead of gifts, presented the ‘bridegroom’ with condolence messages (through the bride of course! who wants to give away the disaster that’s in store :D)!?

I can’t believe she’s going to be a mom! I can only pity the poor baby that’s on its way (am done pitying the husband by now 😉 ). Love you girl! Can’t wait to see you!

Four women…and the cycle of life

ONE→ — she was a goddess! She had the heart of a…well…I can’t find a single person / thing to compare her with. Love seemed to be the very reason behind her existence…and love is all she ever had in her. From my earliest memories, I can only take out snaps of her angelic face…with that never-fading smile. I could never determine if they were wrinkles or laugh-lines that blanketed her face.

She was always concerned about every living thing’s welfare. Meet her for the first time in your life…and you’d still be asked the one question which was so characteristic of her: “Have you had any food, my dear?” There was not a single person who hasn’t felt warm being asked that. There were only good things she had to tell about people.

She was everyone’s darling — a hot favourite in that neighbourhood. The perfect woman: which put heavy demands on her daughter 😉 .

When she died at the age of 94, even the plants in the house seemed to wilt!

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Two→ — born the eldest in the family and followed by two brothers, she was a pampered sister; a disciplined daughter; a liberated wife.

Her childhood — in the role of a daughter — was a supressed one. She longed to wear glass bangles; but when she finally got  a few and wore it, her dad smashed them all into bits. She longed to dress up, but  feared her dad’s reaction to it. She longed to be liberated: and that’s when she got married.

The husband danced to her every whim; gave her all she wanted; treated her like his goddess. But alas! She never became that loving wife he thought (and expected) she would. Money became the reason and the ‘everything’ of her existence. Even when her seven kids grew up, she treated them all on the basis of who was richer…and who gave her the best benefits.

Throughout her life, all that ever mattered to her was money…and her own well-being. Anyone / anybody who came in the way was treated like dirt.

She is now 90. Health is deteriorating; beauty has faded; all that remains is the arrogance, self-indulgence and love for money!

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Three→ — probably was born as an angel and sent down to earth for the welfare of a few select earthlings!

The one person in the family who lived for the family. Right from childhood, she took it up on herself ‘to care’. Everyone was always treated like kings and queens by her. Even when they (almost always) forgot to care for her welfare, she’s never had a complaint.

She is beautiful, angelic. And has a heart that matches her face. Love seems to be the very reason behind her existence…and love is all she ever has in her. From my earliest memories, I have felt only the love that overflowed from her heart.

No matter how people treat her, she is always available and ready when they are in need. Nothing ever deters her from helping someone — even while she’s in the worst conditions.

She is everyone’s darling…and will always remain so. She’s the kind of woman every woman would love to be: which places a lot of demands on the daughter 😉

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From the cycle of life depicted here, Four→ is likely to follow Two→. But she’d be damned if that happens. Knowing her, am sure she won’t let anything lead to that!! She loves Three→ and that’s who she’d love and strive to be like.

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This is the story of four consecutive generations in a family…

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Oh! By the way… Four→ is me.
It’s too early to really write anything about 😀 😆