Missing you...

Circa- 1980.
Venue- Carmel of St. Joseph's High School.
A timid girl called Sangeeta Iyer enters Class 3.C on the first day of her school. So shy and afraid, she doesn't even dare to look for a seat for herself. She somehow glances up to see a girl with a warm smile extend her hand to the vacant seat beside her. Sangeeta Iyer (me)makes her first best friend-Mili Ganatra.
They spend an entire year sitting next to each other. The teacher never suspects that these innocent-looking girls are actually smuggling in comic books, and reading them while she is teaching

Circa-1981.
The first day of school. I look around for my best friend. I am horrified to know that Mili has left the school.
Mili, I still miss you a lot.

Circa-1982.
Somewhere in the middle of the term.
The Marathi teacher asks the class to write an essay on 'Majhi Aai'( My Mother). Suddenly, I hear my neighbour Deepa Lalwani sniffling. It takes me 2 days of incessant cajoling to get her to reveal that she has lost her mother. My heart goes all out to her. I make my second best friend and this time we remain best friends for 5 years. She brings out the prankster in me.:P. I'll never forget the play we presented on Teachers' Day in Class 7.

After we leave school, we lose touch
Deepa, :( I miss you too.

This post would be incomplete if I don't mention Jacob.
I spent most of my vacations at my aunt's house in Walkeshwar. When I was in Class 5, my aunt shifted to a place called Mukadam Chawl in Malabar Hill. Being in a girl's school, I was very reluctant to talk to 'boys'. But some of them would never leave me alone. One of them was Jacob, who was just 2/3 years older than me, was bent upon pulling my pig-tails and teasing me. He kept calling me 'double battery' because I wore glasses. Exasperated I mustered up some courage and played my trump card. I warned him to stop teasing me or else I would complain to my father who was a police inspector. ( A lie that my mom had taught me to threaten strangers if I ever fell in trouble). Luckily, my threats didn't have the desired effect. In years to come, he would never let me forget about the 'threat' . The cat-eyed Jacob, his brothers Allwyn and Anthony and I went on to become good friends.
He was so full of energy and enthusiasm. He would get all of us (kids) to wake up at unearthly hours, and take us all out for a walk on the beach. I was so much in 'awe' of him.
(Pssst! I fell in love for the first time.)
I can never forget how Jacob got all the kids in the society together to make Diwali snacks for a neighbour, whose husband had left her, and kids had conveniently forgotten her. Together, the group made 'karanjis'( Gujiyas) and chaklis, and besan laddoos. Since I was the youngest I was given the task of arranging the stuff on the plates. I felt very insignificant because I wasn't doing much to help. After the whole stuff was cooked, (it tooks us 3 days) I was surprised when Jacob announced that the first 'laddoo' should be given to me. I'm sure my face turned beetroot red. But for the first time, I felt proud of myself.
Thank you, Jacob, I learnt 'giving' from you..

Unfortunately, the chawl was bought by some builder and his family relocated itself to Goa. I never even got a chance to say, 'Goodbye'

I hope someday my friends Google this post out, and we are re-united.
Jacob, Anthony, Allwyn, Jacintha and Nasreen(from Mukadam Chawl)

Deepa Lalwani, Nanda Kansara, Sonali Aksekar, Rekha Kamath and Mili Ganatra( Carmel of St. Joseph's High School)

I miss you all. You will always remain in my memory. And that, is an understatement.