Shruthi, My Best Friend

HURRAY! You did it finally!

There was a lot of noise, inside the classroom. Shruthi has finally achieved her goal. 

So what? What's so special? Her achievement really matters for school and even for the parents. This happened few years back. Shruthi was in grade 3, very good at learning. She was so cute and bubbly, everyone loved her. She was too talkative and for that reason, she became my favourite too. She shared her happiness and naughtiness with me. 

She was born in a middle class family and her parents were not much educated. Her parents took very good care of that child, so that she can learn and achieve something in life. Life presents people with unpleasant surprises. The whole family was on a trip to their native in a car. Shruthi was so excited about the trip. She enjoyed the view of nature through the window. Talkative Shruthi, after creating lot of hungama, ate her breakfast and slept on the backseat. 

They reached half the way, suddenly there was a huge noise. A container lorry has dashed the car. When Shruthi opened her eyes she was in the hospital. She was unable to understand what happened to her. She was the only one who has escaped from the accident. Miracle, but what is going to happen next? Doctors and nurses consoled her that their parents are in other room and she can meet them after few days. No one was ready to tell the truth to her. 

The hospital authority posted her photos so that someone could identify the child. Finally, it reached our school principal too. The whole school was shocked to hear the news. Especially me and my friend Meera. We were the besties all those days. But, we felt somewhat ok that our friend is ok. At that age what do we know about the pain of losing the parents? Neither Shruthi has understood what happened to them. 

Our school was managed by a group of nuns and the best education was given to all. Our headmistress went to the hospital and brought Shruthi back to school. She was happy to see us. She was really missing school life. As headmistress demanded, our parents left us to stay with her for a few days unless she comes to normal. The whole week we were instructed to be with her and make her feel happy, play and learn. 

Finally, we got our friend on track. We went back to our home. Our parents were too kind to help her whenever she was in need. We studied together, years passed by, we grew according to the passage of time. Time has brought many changes in everybody's appearance. But the cute friendship we shared, remained the same. We participated in every event and competition together. We made ourselves to come in the top ten achievers list in the whole school. Final exams of SSLC, were nearing. We were intensely involved in our studies.

One of our classmates, who has joined newly to the school, teased Shruthi by asking about her parents. She was upset that evening and she was hiding that from us. Meera and me tried to find out the reason and one fine day, we found her problem.We discussed this with our teachers and the girl who teased my friend was called to the office and warned.

Shruthi started losing her interest to study and we couldn't digest it as she was one of the toppers. We had put all our efforts to make her feel good and learn. Struggles will always be there in life, but overcoming that with courage is a great thing. All of us wrote the SSLC examination together. 

It was the day when all were very tensed about the results. The funniest part was, our parents were too tensed and haven't eaten anything properly for more than a week. We got up early and got ready to the school. That day we reached earlier than usual. We all sat together expressing our fear about the results. The assembly was called. We went to the assembly hall. In our school, they had a custom of appreciating the distinction holders. Eagerness was up to the neck, but it turned into tears of happiness when we three were called on to the stage. The headmistress mentioned our friendship and dedication to each other.

We came back to the class, to spend some quality time with friends, as our school education ended over there. Everybody had to look up to new courses and collages. Our class teacher entered, congratulating Shruthi's efforts, " You did it finally".She hugged Shruthi and the whole class was literally crying to share this happiness.