Brother From Another Mother

8:00 am
He is nowhere in class.

8:30 am
He is still nowhere in class.

8:45 am
No, still he is not here.

And just before the lecture came to an end, there is a knock at the door,
"May I come in sir??"
No,
Obviously no must be the answer of this weird question. He has missed the all lecture and now he is asking for permission to get in, no, if you are thinking that he is so sincere person who is only asking to have a seat in class, you are making a mistake. As it was the first lecture so the attendance was to be taken at the end of the lecture and thus the man had appeared 🤗.

"Sorry Sir, but u don't know what happened to me today.. "
U might have looked at the face of this guy who pretended like he had risked for his life only to attend the class.
"What" sir asked..
"Spokes of my bike's tyre broke down, have you came across the hell sir, I tell you it was in mid way and the nearest mechanic shop was no less than 5 km from the place. I got to push my bike alone all the way without any help and then I got that done and arrived here. Tell me, do you see any of my fault in it."

We all have a friend like this one who comes always late in class and make "so called genuine" excuses and even managing to mark his presence.

Do you know what blessing is..
"Calling a friend for help even in midnight and he is in front of you like he was already there." The real blessing.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. We are all tought this moral in our childhood very well, but how many of us have a friend who always proved it to be true..
No matter what the figure is, but yes it is one for sure.. the Roll No 24..
Though he never attended classes on time but always came first when it was the matter of friendship.

No, he is not my neighbour..
he is Brother from another mother.. Puneet Pareek.

What is the best way to make friends or if I ask the best way to find your tribe in a new college..
I am sure, everyone of us will have a unique answer and for me and Puneet it was the bench, the bench where we started sharing our lunch together. He used to play "Kuch is Tarah a song of Atif Aslam" everytime we started the lunch and me who is a big fan of Hindi music made this thing helpful to find my 'tribe'.

He is a fun making person and beware he can make fun of every person if he is on his own.
He used to make a graph of attendance and seriously it was highly precised graph which not only showed the attendance but also would tell you the number of leaves could be taken then.

One can expect a call for mass bunk after a week long running regular classes but what if the very first day of week you get a call asking for mass bunk..!!

😨😵😣

Yes.. these weird expression must be the reply.. what usually I used to get when Puneet consistently called me every night in a four year long graduation course. As I was the CR of the class so it was the matter of my consideration and the only matter causing me and Puneet in a deep arguments😲.

Once Puneet and me with some other friends ordered chilli potatoes at one of our friend's room.

In friendship friends will sacrifice their life for you but if you ask for the payment of the order they can take yours too 🤑.

So it was obvious nobody was alone going to pay the bill and finally we came to a conclusion that everyone would share equal amount of bill and hence we contributed equally. Now the hot and spicy chilli potatoes were in front of us. Here hot means really so hot.
And what I got to see there.. Puneet started eating the potatoes without even getting them cold..
Oh my god ..!!
It's really ok to have a 'bhukkad' friend in a gang but a friend without heat sensors is really terrific, horrendous ,macabre whatever..
We all contributed in equal share but the man left us in lurch. And since then we never ordered such things again, literally.

This is how Puneet is or I would say every friend is but what makes him different from others is his way of friendship.

I remember the date well, it was March 9, 2017. My father diagnosed with lung cancer. It is not a easy thing to handle for anyone, obviously. And it also shooked me from inside. The first whom I called from my contacts was Puneet who was driving at that time with his father.
He picked up the call and said hello..
No voice from this side as I was managing myself to speak out but couldn't and burst in tears.
He asked me, "what happened Akshay, tell me." And somehow I managed to describe him the matter. He didn't wait for a second to know anything else and said, "I am coming there, you don't weep"
He handed over the car to his father and came to meet me without wasting any minute with the third A of our squad Ankur.
Though it couldn't improve my father's health but did a majestic work which made me enough stronger to fight with that deadliest desease.

He didn't come at home but asked me to come out and meet him. The reason behind this was not to show my father as if he was ill or suffering from something dangerous desease as he didn't know about that. I asked him to come and meet parents as well but he didn't.
Many people believe in showing but this man didn't do that which make him more senseful and a real friend.

From that day to the day when I lost my father and even after that he was always there to support me, back me in every adverse condition. A friend stood like a brother calling me over and over again to know my father's condition and offered his helping hand to me.
He took the friendship to the another level. I can't describe all his efforts to save me, my family and my father in those hard faught days in this single post. Though I lost my father but I feel lucky to have a friend cum brother like him.
Friendship is not just a thing that we enjoy in our good days, it is something for sure that gives us the strength to fight with the odd days as well. Family is not just about blood, it is something who is going to hold your hand when you need it the most. So you can get family away from home too as I got.
A person who stays always there for you when you need him the most, who promises to keep his promises forever, who picks you up when you fall, who even scolds you whenever needed,  who sticks to you when noone else will,
is nobody but only a
Brother From Another Mother..

You stood like nobody did. I know thanks is not enough and can't do the justice but sincerely thank you.. Roll No. 24.. for always being there..

It's never the end..
to be continued..
Thank you..✍️