Best Friends

The once inseparable Sashi and Indu. How strange that they should be meeting each other after forty-plus years. How strange, and how wonderful!

Shashi and Indu had known each other since they were children in short frocks, climbing trees, yelling and chasing after one another. They had been neighbours; their houses shared a compound on the university campus where their fathers were both professors. Sashi’s dad headed the Botany department, Indu’s Zoology. Both Shashi and Indu hated maths and science, though. They went to school together, bicycling the 2-km distance every day. But most often they just walked, pushing their bicycles along slowly, trying to gain as much time as possible for their unending chatter.

They were in the same class, the same division, always with each other during and after school. They were always giggling in corners, sharing secrets, playing pranks together. Of course, they sat next to each other in class. ‘They are inseparable, this Shashi and Indu,’ was the constant refrain by the teachers whenever their names came up in the staff room. They were always mentioned together as if they were one person not two. ‘Shashi-Indu, where’s your homework,’ ‘Shashi-Indu, come here at once,’ ‘Shashi-Indu, what are you giggling about?’ and, most often, ‘Shashi-Indu, stop talking,’ the teachers would scold them. They would be quiet for a moment, then it would be back to whispering and passing notes again, leaving the teachers totally exasperated and perplexed. ‘No amount of scolding would make them be quiet, would it?’ But what was most puzzling were the constant high fives they gave each other and then burst out laughing. They did it in class, on the sports field, during lunchbreak... What were they always so happy about, what were they always celebrating? Another successful prank most likely, the teachers felt.

After passing out of school, much to everyone’s surprise, they joined different streams. Shashi opted for Arts and Indu, a shade better than her in maths, and took up Commerce. Their colleges were different but they were inseparable again once they were home from college.

When Shashi’s father joined another university in another city, it was a difficult parting for both. At first, there were frequent postcards, an occasional trunk call even. But slowly the letters became fewer and fewer, the trunk calls stopped completely and, eventually, they lost touch.

Once in a while when Indu bumped into a common acquaintance or school friend she would get news of Shashi; last she heard, Shashi was a college teacher till she married an engineer with a job in the US. Was she still in the US? Indu had no idea. Indu herself worked in a bank and had married a banker, a colleague at work. Each one was busy with her own life, time flew, and it was now forty-four years since they last saw each other.

It was a recent chance meeting at a mall with Ritu, who was also in their class in school, that Indu got news of Shashi again. Apparently, Shashi was back in the city with her husband; her two kids, a son and a daughter, were both settled in America, Ritu said. As for Indu, after twenty-five years of a rough marriage, she was single again following a messy divorce. Her daughter, an only child, was married and she now lived in Australia.

Indu was delighted to know that Shashi had moved back to the same city. Luckily Ritu had her telephone number and Indu called Shashi as soon as she got back home. It was an emotional conversation punctuated with tears of joy. But a telephone call was simply not enough, they decided to meet. ‘Let’s meet tomorrow,’ they both said eagerly at once. ‘At the school playground,’ again simultaneously.

At five in the evening, as decided, Indu was at the school playground. It brought back memories; she could see the two naughty girls in their long thick plaits running around happy and carefree, their laughter echoing in the air. Oh, to go back to that time!

‘What would Shashi look like now?’ Indu wondered. ‘She sounded the same though. Surely, she must have changed, I’m sure I have.’

Back then, Indu and Shashi both had long lustrous hair their mothers tied in neat plaits. Indu touched her short hair, at the thought. Well, it was now completely white since she had stopped colouring it. ‘Will Shashi recognize me after all these years?’ 

She would find out soon, there was Shashi walking down the playground towards her. It was like looking in a mirror. Gone were the plaits; Shashi’s hair too was cut short and the once black, thick mane was now completely white like hers. There they were, Shashi-Indu, face to face after forty-four years. Their once round fresh faces were now thin and lined, but their spirit was strong as ever. They looked at each other, raised their hands in a high five and burst into familiar laughter.