F.R.I.E.N.D.S

No..this is not a post about the "all-famous" sitcom, yeah though we watched the early season's episodes yesterday night...The post is still not about them.

Okay...this is about the friends I've managed to collect and also neglect over a period of time.

When I was a small kid,my friends usually were from the relatives gang, my cousins et all..There were 2 cousins of mine who visited us from hyderabad. We were (atleast I was) in awe of them, they were from a metro and we were just small town kiddos. I can't even correctly recall their names and don't even know where they are now. Last heard, one of them was a good cricketer!!

And then in school, over the years I formed a kind of a close bond with a few friends of mine. Swapna,Sreelatha,Sailaja, Pujitha and many more. There was Chandana, a sports person who got "assigned" to our school. She was a basket ball player and had a tough time staying awake in the classes. I used to help her with her studies and all that and though we were quite different we caught on fast and became best friends. I even attended basket ball training :) But then post school, we had to part ways. Yeah she was still very much in town, but lives had already drifted. She contacted me sometime back, but "that thing" is not there, no sparks. She had to go through a lot of bad times, had really rough patches. All I can do is hope the best for her and maybe meet her once I am back in Hyderabad.

Post school, I attended a gruelling course for my Intermediate and life was full of extra classes, tests etc etc. I never liked even one bit of my life there. But that inventually got me into REC and that's a different story!
During that phase, we were a gang of four. And yes, I'm in contact with all three of them,though not regularly. Only times of that college that I can vividly recollect are the movies that we went to after our Sunday tests and the trips we made to each others houses. I still wish I was in more regular contact with them, more a part of their lives but somehow can't make it....
I never thought we will have to depart, never ever imagined how life would be without them. That was when one great person told us, you will have to depart now to meet new people and hope that you'll be there together for the rest of our lives. I believed in him.

Life in REC, Warangal started. Did I forget the good, old days in Vijayawada. No, not really, but who in the world had time for anything else?? Life was a roller-coaster ride. And I don't think any post would do justice to the friendships that I formed for a lifetime there. The guys, the gals, the FAFO (we called a gang of 4 of us FAFO, fabulous four)
Once the 4 years ended and we'd taken up our eventual courses of life, all 3 of them headed towards the greener pastures (!!) i.e. the US and I stayed back all alone in Hyd.

Yes, there were friends after that, there was fun, there was life but nothing ever ever ever was going to be the same again.

We still try and keep in touch, we call, write emails, send some gifts (oh,okay only Putchu sent...!) but still its not the same.

For now, all I can think of and visualise is once all of us turn 50, retire and stop being the money churning machines that we are now, we would have time for each other. Hopefully all of us would settle down at the same place (in Kazipet!!). Then that's what I would call L.I.F.E!!!!