Monday, September 5, 2011

The gang of Girlz


Friendship, friends on a ship... The ship sets sail from the port and after a lot of turbulence, and some calm waters, beautiful breeze and sea gulls playing by as the ship reaches its destination, some friends manage to hold it together and some drown. Though most of the friendships drown and become a replica of Titanic, some sail through, this is a story about five friends who are sailing through for last two years, quite happily with each other. We do fight, get angry and scream at each other but we know how to manage it too. The gang of girls stands united. may be that's why Shikha has a cup which i gave, says, "Liverpool- United we stand."
This story is about my beautiful Happy Club which was formed after watching Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani-let me do the honours :P,
First the President- who else can be better than Me! (Jerry)
The Vice President- some people keep fighting for the post- i will give it to Nidhi Mishra (Needy)- Phd in Gerontology.. i always told her it would make more sense to research on the phenomenon called Pooja Sarkar! She says next time, i will better hire someone else.
Scretary- Kinjal Bodani (Kinju), an interior designer by profession, who has designed some of the biggest names of South Mumbai and has never managed to design any of our homes. huh.
Auditor- we actually have a certified CA who specialises in US GAAP, now beat it!- Shalini Jaiswal Gupta (Shalu/shal)
and free parcel- Shikha Sood (Tom), banker by profession, and the other profession is to incessantly fight with me and also keep a record of the same! that's why we are called Tom n Jerry, in every three minutes we clock atleast one argument, but we cant do without each other too.
On October 5th, 2009 when i came back from six months of bed ridden status, i was alloted a shared room in a new wing of my hostel, the most beautiful and one of the heritage buildings in Mumbai, the 156 year old Villa Theresa Hostel at Peddar Road. You can never miss this building you have to cross my place to reach Marine Drive!
and one by one I befriended these girls as we all lived in the same wing and we went on to become the best of friends. Some of the most beautiful moments of my life have been spent with these lovely ladies, whether it be asking each other to keep dinner, requesting the warden to not close the gate as some is "just" reaching the hostel, or signing each other's entry, washing cups and plates (i hate cleaning them), infact I once threatened nidhi and shikhu that i will eat on paper plates but i won''t wash my dishes, so shikha finally washed them..hahahaha....the deal was she wont do the dish if i ate non-veg..heck i love veg!grrrr!!!
Every night, however much tired one may be, we all used to gather at Nidhi's room defying all hostel rules and we would share our day's stories, and if her roomie wanted to sleep, the paltan would shift to Shalu's room and finally on the lounge with our laptops in arms. The one who dominated the kingdom was Kinju's colleagues- Bindu, Ashita and Pooja. I dont think any of us can ever forget them.
Nidhi's bosses and Shalu's travel to Thane every day....and her monday upwas (fast) were the best, as we all used to get to hog potato chips...and of course my DNA Money stories and Raj. We all know each other's bosses, colleagues, relatives, every gossip in the hostel and also which stocks to invest. my worst recommendation still lies with Shalu- Resurgere Mines.
The best scenes would be when someone would ask, : would anyone oil my hair" the first to jump out of the room would be Kinjal, saying, "kal mera office hai early morning" Liar!
the next to chicken out would be me, finally Shikha would come with a barter theory. But the best ones were when i used to be asked to oil Nidhi's hair, i would pour half the bottle on her hair and say, "ho gaya"...and yet she would be nice to me.
Those memories are simply etched so deep that everytime I think about them i cant stop rolling on the floor...
Once during Kinju's bday, while we were busy planning her surprise she did so much over acting the whole evening that we all felt like abandoning the entire party andthe height was when she went off to sleep at 10.30pm, trying to act like Marlyn Monroe and when i called her she acted as if it is so not necessary to cuk the cake as she is deep asleep, noone beats Kinjal in acting!
All these moments maketh our friendship a beautiful voyage, speaking of voyage, I cant help but recollect our trip to Kashid, a pristine beach 11 kms ahead of Alibaug. The occassion was Neha's bachelor party. Neha- my godmother-who has always taken care of me, i call her BSE, as she used to slap fines on companies left, right and centre while working their.
As we were on our way to Kashid, on a ferry, i was filing a story from Shalu's phone and my notes were on a piece of paper, i was doing an exclusive pre-valuation IPO copy of Nitesh Estates, and midway, Shikha offered to help, though i declined twice, everyone said, how she loves me and wants to help me. So i let her help me, and five minutes of holding the paper, she lost the grip and the paper was flying in the sky finally drowning in the Arabian sea. As the paper was flying i ran behined it and infact i would have jumped off the deck had people not stopped me, so here I was without my notes, burning with anger, screaming my lungs out at Tom and filing the copy while everyone was busy clicking pictures. Shikha is still serving the sentence for this behaviour.
We made some memorable journey's together which includes our trips to Shirdi, Shani Shignapur, Alibaug, Indore for shalu's wedding and next on the cards in my darling Nidhi's marriage to her beloved man.
we all miss those sleep less nights, talking about our break ups and bad times. we held each other through the toughest times of our lives. infact it was quite surprising that we all were going through the worst together and we all stood by each other like rock, may be thats why during these easy times, we find it funny that at times we don't have topics to talk. As we all loved going to amarson's park at Breach Candy, not always did we talk. Just sitting together on the rock, as waves splashed and watching sunset made us smile and be happy. A deep breath and refreshed we walked again.
I and Shalu now stay in Kolkata, Nidhi and Shikha are in Mumbai and Kinju is in Gujarat, but distance has not dampened the spirit of our togetherness. not even our anger at each other. and ofcourse the silly conversations. But yes, I do miss our sunday outings, not a single sunday have we all spent either shopping or eating out...trying new dishes at Smoking Lees, to ordering pizzas, farewell party at Under the banyan tree to Koyla, getting ice creams for each other and eaing dairy milk's without asking from one's bag :P i always did those who had the manners to ask never got from me!
And the bundles of chocolates and cheese and wine we had!!! Those were definitely the best times, and remember how I used to pre book movie tickets and everyone would be late by atleast 15 minutes because of me!
From taking each other to doctor's to celebrating christmas and Saraswati Puja, last two years has been one hell of a hallelujah time, we never came late, never missed our 10.30 pm deadlines, why would we, what we all wanted was to reach hostel and meet each other as there are abundance of stories to tell and hear,
I miss those times, screaming at Shikha for carelessly crossing the road, looking at Nidhi whenever I wanted some thing when noone would give, palying shalu's favorite song list, fighting for chocolates and pastries with Kinju, and yet we wouldnt walk without each other..its either we all are in it or noones in it! So now the clock has been timed as we all will dance the night out as we all eagerly await and keep shopping for my dahling needy's wedding in November!!! Wake me up when November comes!
Cheers to the Happy wala Club !!!