Different Phases | Different Faces

Do you remember the time when it was your first day of school? Amm…tough... huh!! Let me share with you mine. If I try to recall, I can only see a crying and howling kiddo gal who just wanna say NO to this brutal change that has been imposed to her, who just don’t wanna get out of the friendly surrounding of her warm abode, who just do not want to miss the tenderness of family and be exposed to this bizarre world. I was so small still, it was so difficult to trust new faces, to smile when there was no pain, to be calm even when everyone around was ensuring that it would be all right …..but no one cared about my panic and this Change was inevitable..!! SIGH!!


I went to school, and with no logic, no brains, no reason, I started developing this strong liking for some people, some teachers and of course the fellow students. I hated Mrs Smith, who used to keep giving me diary notes for something or the other, Sister Molly who used to scare us with her cane. I still don’t know why talking is such a big sin in school even if it is a free period….Giggling is like a heinous crime and schools do not find laughter as the best medicine but something like killing black sugar/cocaine. Why it was necessary and why I had to follow? Among all these alien facts of life, it was a mandatory norm to have a best friend and so I had to look for one. “Madhu” seemed to be the best option as she was also blessed with as many no of diary notes as I had and used to stay near my house (For sure an achievement). "Why don’t you give me bread and butter in the tiffin and why these paranthas??" That was the question I asked my Mom for a long time who says we are not copy cat even when we are kids... it’s in the genes I suppose, and now the same kid inside craves for the same paranthas overlooking the big glass window of a big MNC.


I grew with the same attitude and came to senior school. Madhu somehow managed to fail in 4th standard and then her family got relocated to another city. Long distance relationships were an issue then too. Sections changed; from VC I came to V1B.... again the same problem of long distance...!! The best friend thing now changed to gang of close friends...Now the idea was to have fun and talking on phone for hours and going to each other's place for spending/killing time or sharing the latest crushes and talking about things which the world feels is an offence to even think about..... Shachi Sharma, Disha M Daniel, Veethika Sharma along with a lots and lots of more friends came into picture. We used to take vows that we are the best friends ever and will never part but it didnt take a lot of time for us to drop the flag of friendship and getting trapped into real world competition, results, grades, extra curricular activities, responsibilities, family, IIT, Tuitions and Ranking etc etc...!! And in a blink school got over and we entered into the “Mature” category of species. We filled hundreds of slam books writing all the major good things we could say, signed School shirts, promised to keep touch and planning get-togethers regularly...and said Final Good Bye to the most carefree days of our lives.. – School days were over!!


College and Hostel was an entirely new planet to peep in. Here I was told that now I am all on my own....I will learn to face the actual reality of the world here. Again, new faces, new environment, no family, It was tough....Thanks to a few school friends who came along and were the only saving grace in this strange phase. Friends were supposed to play the role of family and Hostel was supposed to give a feeling of home away from home...!! That was the instance when the first time I realized that how much I value my family and how much I love them. Well, the chapter had started and there was no point in looking back. I was not lucky as my college was not as rocking as portrayed in bollywood/hollywood movies...... “No bunking? What? You can not bunk”?? That’s what we are seeing in all THE movies... Why the hell in movies, heroes and heroines do not need to follow the 75% attendance rule? And the marks of internal exams would be added in the final semester. Duh!! I was never disappointed in my life so much as I was now. Engineering is tough. That’s what we had heard. But we humans are amazing in figuring out workarounds for every tough situation. The genuine habit of loving and being loved could not sweep its way and sooon we had a big gang of best friends ever who had to eat, drink, sleep, study (that was rare), gossip, and party together.


It was indeed a proud feeling even if all of us were being ragged in tri-color salwar kameez and two 'laddus' made out of our hair dripping with ‘banfool’ oil: P Again the world was just friends and family took a back seat even in holidays. "Oh Mom, I don’t want to go in those boring parties...can I go to Shilpi's house till d time u come" "Papa, I am just coming in an hour... going for group studies bhaiya, u know its tough to study alone". Ghar had become a resort to relaxxx and have goood food!! Every good thing has to come to an end…..and so had to be the case with the college and the real world stroke back. We were scared, down trodden...not to leave college but to leave friends cum families behind. Friends, who were strangers just 4 years back, now were the world.

We moved on....


I came to another city, stepped in the corporate world.. !! I was earning now and my parents were proud of me..."You know my daughter is in one of the most reputed organization of India"... But who knows, the daughter was scared, as sacred as she was on the first day of her school plus missing the best time she had in college.... she had to deal with this CHANGE in her life. An Entirely new city miles away from familiarity, new surroundings, new job and again new faces. But man is a social animal, indeed he is but so are women ? !! Somehow I could see a lot of people with the same kind of feelings concealed, same apprehensions and kind of same fear and so it didn’t take any more time for us to get together and crack this new encrypted code of our life. Acquaintances turned into camaraderie and then to an intact bond. Again the wheel of life started moving fast… there were friends and roomies, to share, care, emote, party, to celebrate b'days and making each other feel special. Now if there was a problem in the electricity bill, I would not call dad or electricity department.. it had to be Kohli first :-) Kohli, Chiggi, Singhal, Himanshu, Ekta, Priyank..........................and we had a lovely gang again to rely on, to call them our world, and to sing together the rhythms of friendship. Strange world, no rules...... i so much believe that the same equation of love makes a lot of sense in friendship too... "Dosti kee nahi jaati, ho jati hai"!!!

The series of life didn’t change the pattern when the projects changed, location changed, country changed, relationships changed….and it went on and on.

We love our parents and relatives, we love all our friends from school, college, work….who at some point of time touched us deeply, we always try to make it a point that we remind them that how much we miss them, how much importance they hold in our lives, how having them in our life makes a difference… but as the series goes forward, some bonds seems fading, we lose touch, we feel insecure and then get more and more merged in another colourful and challenging phase with new faces. Phases change, Faces change…but you know what’s the beauty in this pattern…? Love never dies!!! We might have the feeling that it has faded but what’s needed is to just give it a small wispy puff of warmth and it will start blazing as it had never shined before.