Soul sisters

I have this tendency of disliking people when i meet them first but gradually i end up loving these people to death.

Amrita Singh (not the actress, but if you meet her you'll realise she's got all the attributes of a very good actress. A little makeover and Ami could be the next thinking man's sex symbol....) She can create a web of lies so well that you'd end up believing her!!!!

I first met Ami before my personal interview at MASCOM (Manorama School of Communiations) our journalism school in Kottayam, Kerala. I wondered what had bought a girl from Delhi to Kerala, a land whose culture, language, food and people all were alien to her. My first impression of her, Snooty.
But its strange that we went on to become best friends....in fact i havent shared a friendship like this with any of my other friends whom i have known for years.....
Our friendship grew only after my aunt left me at the hostel and went back to Mumbai after living with us in our apt, MOUNTFORD, for three days. I wasn't a spoilt brat but i wasn't used to living alone.....in fact i've always had trouble making decisions for myself.....here i was all alone with nobody to advice me on what was right and what was wrong.....Amrita on the other hand was very independent and for the first few days when it was just Ami and me in the hostel....we became good friends and i realised that she wasn't so snooty at all....
We scandalised the town of Kottayam, by wearing jeans and tucking our shirts in....I got this habit from Ami....she always tucks her shirt in. We were extremely famous in Kottayam as the girls from north india!!!!
Walking home from hostel at 11 in the town in a town that sleeps at 8....with fanta bottles in our hand we walked down the isolated road like the town was all ours.....Journalism school was tough we had tons of assignments to be completed and most of us had to stay back in school till late....Most of the other girls in our batch stayed back till 12 or after.....they would ask the guys in our class to get them a rickshaw..... but Ami and i took the assignments home....as a policy we rarely stayed back after 11
In Kerala, girls dont eat at road-side stalls because that's where truck-drivers and drunkards hang out but we changed that trend....we skipped dinner at hostel becoz dinner time was chappatis and the hostel chappati sucked:((( at 10 Amrita and l would leave the hostel, sometime Priya my room mate would tag along.....we would walk to the road-side stall opp the Malayala Manorama building and eat kerala parotas and aloo curry - a tasty meal for 5 Rs. Soon we became regulars and the guy who ran the stall called us journalists and would keep three chairs for us separately.....sometimes i'd order a piece of chicken fry.....the other girls in the hostel also loved the food but standing at a roadside stall and eating was harakiri to these girls from affluent families in Kerala. So we would get parcels for them.
Extremely well-read and very intelligent, Amrita was everything i wasn't.....I remember on a field trip to Trivandrum......our hotel was near the beach and being from Delhi....beaches were a rare sight to Amrita....one morning the two of us sneaked to the beach to see the sunrise without telling our Prof becoz we didnt want to disturb him at 5 in the morning.....once we were at the beach we never realised how quickly time passed and it was 8:30.....Priya called us up angrily.....she wanted to know where we were? one of our classmates, Renjith Leen....informed our Prof that the two of us had gone to the beach without informing anyone....and here the two of us were eating breakfast at a nice beach shack....
Suddenly our joy was ended becoz of priya's call.....she was upset that we went on this discreet trip without telling her....sheepishly we returned to the hotel and ran to our room....Ami asked me to have my bath....while i was in the bathroom wondering what to tell our Prof, Ami went to him and apologised and said that it was she who forced me to go along with her....matter resolved....The same evening all of us went to the beach to enjoy....suddenly Ami fell down and started crying.....she wasn't the sort to cry easily i wondered what happened to her and she told me that she felt like something bit her and there was a shooting pain from her foot to her thigh......
there was another family that was picknicking at the beach.....they had a car we put Ami into thier car and rushed her to a hospital while she was writhing in pain, i could say that it was the worst day of my life....i was scared and only said one thing to god...."please take care of her!!!!" All our classmates were scared.....and all of us were just praying....the doctor took her into emergency and did some tests within five minutes he said that there was nothing to worry.....Apparently the beach we were in, Kovalam, was habitat to a fish that left its saliva on humans....this would cause excruciating pain for two hours and would subside slowly.....Ami was given an injection and recovered in the night.....while i just thanked God that the incident didnt happen in the morning while we were alone....
When i got married on 26th Jan last year, Amrita couldn't turn up and i was angry on her......because all along she promised me that no matter what happened she'd definitely make it....i didn't take her calls from 24th when she announced she couldn't make it up. But like all good friends we couldn't be upset with each other for a long time.....As soon as i reached my new home on the 26th i told my husband that the first thing i wanted to do was call Ami!!!! I called her up and apologised for being silly....i also told her that i forgave her :)

today we are miles away but i can still say that if there's anyone whom i can call up anytime its Ami....she always encourages me....no matter how silly i am at times and though she does shut me up sometimes but that's for my own good.....I hope no matter where we go and what we become our friendship still remains the same.....
ever since i was a kid i always longed for an older sis becoz all my frnds had older sisters....And all the friends i made i always looked for an older sibling in them....sadly none of them ever filled the void.....but as they say that the best is always saved for the last......my patience paid off....Maybe God had to give me the best so he made me wait for 21-years.....