Mogli

"Are you okay, Bitta?"

Some messages at 2am when you have already fallen in sound sleep, your sub conscious mind has started deleting those residual memories and now you can't help yourself to remember for what you texted someone that you weren't OK few hours ago.. then you don't have much option in reply to this question and you end up saying, " Yes, I am, Mogga!"

This is followed by her 'talk to you in morning' thing. Some talks are this much short but don't ever fail to make sure that when you hang up the call a smile definitely swims on your face.

We take birth and then grow old to meet some people whom we chose to make friends and sometimes God has chosen some people already to do friendship with, as we land on this planet earth among those persons.

These are those with whom we share our childhood. We learn taking steps together. We start talking in lalling voice and still communicate everything exactly what goes on in our mind. It's the time when we believe in all fairy tales that we listen. We even start looking at the clouds to see beyond them as we now think that there is literally an abode of fairies. All broken stars are now supposed to fulfill our irrealistic desires. And this is how we grow together.

She is one of them. Or should I say 'first' of them.? We lived in a same house. Her name is Monika in real. She used to prick me her nails so brutally that it bleed most of the time. So seeing her junglee behavior I named her Mogli and now everybody around me call her by this name.🤭 I will try to recollect all these years of our friendship on this very special day. I know it's quite difficult thing to fold all the years in a couple of paragraphs but still this is a journey worth revisiting to.

Our childhood games were quite weird (This is something that I assume now). She used to have all kitchen sets, doctor's kit and her not so good looking dolls and I had all the Hathi Ghoda stuffs. We used to arrange her dolls' marriage as I had all the Barat things ready😅. We were not in same schools and this is what I always used to complain about. I used to narrate her horror stories and she would listen them quite seriously and sometimes got frightened too. I used to laugh a lot then but only after watching her nails, for safety purpose, you know😀.

Her uncle had godown of toy cycles and we both used to sneak there to get two cycles for us and would place them back to their places before getting caught but most of the time we had hard luck. This is how our chuddy buddy days were passed and we reached to our adolescence. Mogli was then more like a TV person and I was a bit sporty type. I hated living indoors and she was rarely outdoor. But the time we talked then were more like gossiping then anything else, this is something you learn living with a girl. She often told me about her classmates and were used to hook me up with some of my school girls that I blushingly denied.

There was a time when she asked me to teach her cycling. It was such a typical task for God's sake. She was a terrible learner. I had to maintain the balance by grabbing the handle of bicycle with one hand and with other I held the seat. She helped me lot actually. She dossed down over me and forced her whole weight on my body. So technically I was not teaching her bicycle but was actually giving her a ride on rider's seat. One day we fell down together and it started raining. It was such a beautiful moment when two friends were fallen on the road with some bruises and God poured some potion as heavenly water to heal. It was magical❣.

I can't forget to describe this incident if I am talking about her to anyone. Mogga was then in 10th standard and I was in 11th. Her board exam was going on and she came to me. She asked me to teach her 'Vedic Maths'. She told me that next day was her maths exam and she had done everything except Vedic maths. So I agreed but insisted her to call me back in morning because my exams were not so far so there was some sort of undeclared lockdown (thanks Covid to teach this word) at my home then. She said yes and departed.

Next day it was 9'o clock in the morning and her mother came to my home. She scolded me, "What are you doing here? Didn't Moni ask you to teach her? She has been doing nothing since morning and says that bitta will come and teach me." She didn't leave any gap to make me clear my position and took me with her to her home. I was surprised, or should I say shocked, actually. As mogga told me that she had done everything except one topic then why was she doing nothing.!? When I went her home the scene was strange. She had her board exam in 5 hours and she had done literally nothing.! I asked her, "You had done everything?" She smiled and said, "yes I did but it won't fetch me marks because I didn't understand anything." 😟 She was literally a weirdo. Next few hours we spent in digging out all the important topics in maths so that she could clear her exam. I asked her afterward, "what if I were not there to help you..? She replied, "That's Impossible bitta. You will always be here." ☺

Well, FYI, she cleared her exam.

Every beautiful story has some sad turns too. This too was a relation build on trust and love. So how can there be no separation. I, with my family, shifted to Jaipur, a city approx 40km from the place where we lived. There was no mobile phones then. We had no medium to talk to each other. We didn't talk the same way for straight 3 years. It was only then when I got my first phone; her elder sister texted me her number on WhatsApp. Thanks to social media for being a boon in connecting people. Our chit-chat got started. We were grown two adults, there were some different talks then. From being a 'teasing friend' when I took over a role of a 'philosopher and guide' I don't know. I have been a little secretive I guess. I often can't express everything what and how I feel about certain things and I also knew this, that mogga is someone who will never have a mature solution but indeed a good person to talk to in your low times. So when I texted her, "I ain't ok". She used to call me back whenever she first saw the message and sometimes it was late in nights. Then I used to shout at her, "Why did you take this much time and please, when I am asleep that means I am no more 'not ok'. I am ok". Then she said, "How would I know that you are ok now and asleep? I will have to make a call,na?" 🤕

She shared her everything with me. We talked for hours not gossiping for first time but discussing our lives. We had grown old. We had a distance of less than a hundred kilometer but she made it to of thousands. She got married to somewhere near Nepal border. Her wedding is among those functions I never wanted to attend. This is only bad thing in making a female friend. She doesn't always stay but has to go someday. Well that doesn't mean the end!

Though the word 'friend' end with 'end' but this end doesn't refer to an end of friendship but it does only mean that when every realtion on this planet ends and you don't have anyone then in the end you have a friend,

To rely on..

To talk to..

To walk with..

Freidnship is indeed a ship that nobody can ever abandon. It keeps afloat whther the sea is calm or there are storms. If you can find a friend out of any relation you have, then it becomes immortal. It remains for forever. No matter you irrigate it timely with love and affection but if you don't forget to sow the seeds of trust this tree will always bear sweet fruits.

Today is friendship day. A day to celebrate the unconditional love of this relation. I express my heartfelt gratitude and immense love to every friend of mine from my childhood to this day. I am always incomplete without you all.

In the last not least. Happy friendship day Mogga. I know our friendship doesn't require a day but this is the ritual of this world so let's perform.

We were friends by birth, best friends by choice..

Now I end this blog with this beautiful pic of my ninth birthday. I am in the center for obvious reasons and she is just behind me on my right, staring at the cameraman, 'reasons are inexplicable'.