Childhood Pals

While I have always been extremely critical of Sanju Baba and have thought of him as just another criminal who is getting sympathy he does not deserve, the fact that a gentleman called Yousuf Nulwala and he have been friends for 35 years came as a surprise to me. How many people can claim to still be friends with guys that they met during their school days?

It invariably happens that guys who were our friends branch out later in life. This may be attributed to a number of reasons, geography, paradigm shift, fall-out due to petty issues etc. The fact happens to be that when we make friends during our school days we are neither as calculative in our relationships nor are we as mean and opportunistic as we later become.So an individual becomes our friend due to the sheer delight in the company and there is no calculations of caste, creed, religion, social status etc. Later in life we filter individuals due to these criterion and then decide whether a particular relationship is viable or not.

Also, when we move higher into either academics or professional life we get specialised in our skills as well as attitude. So as a banker while I may still like my friend, the fact that he is into trading of commodities in the Agra market may not gel with my outlook and thus there is little in common between us. Another friend of mine who has strong religious beliefs may be too boring for me now.

Does this mean that all such childhood friends get lost in time? Well, in most cases yes, but then if you make an effort and the other person is as willing then yes. The differences that were given above notwithstanding.

I am today in touch with at least one of my friends who has studied with me from class 4 onwards which in effect means that we have been friends for good 23 years now. The funny part is that in the last ten years we must not have met each other more than 5 times. Well, the fact is that we still connect. He is someone who is not my friend due to my position in the society, make sure he calls me to share good and bad news all the time. Calls me when drunk and remembers the stupid things we did in school, the girls we were horny for and I do the same. In case of some others this is not the case. The simple reason is that, in them the innocence of a relationship is missing. So you have a guy who calls you up for advice on his own professional life and puts it across as if he is asking it for another colleague. This in effect reflects on the trust that he has on the friend that has studied with him from 1978. Others our plane jealous or high headed and are just there as an e-mail id, nothing else.

In the end, I am proud of my friends which are few in number but nevertheless are there for me, always.