Friends Forever

Childhood is indeed the best time of life. The friends made at that time are truly forever. Siree and me have been neighbours and best friends since my nursery school days. We played wonderful games together! To reminisce those times is like going on a roller coaster ride and I’m happy that Dove is giving me a chance to do exactly that! :)

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We were like a house on fire. Inseparable play-partners.
Mostly I used to go to her house, about 100 metres away. We would collect nail-polishes and paint the nails of all the dolls, especially the Barbies. We would bathe the Barbies with fragrant soaps, clean them, comb their golden hair with so much care (that much care we never gave even to our own hair!), make them wear new or freshly washed dresses and cook for them using the numerous mini play utensils we had. We coloured the lips of some of the cloth dolls using lipsticks and had a gala time dressing them up! We went to the same school as well, yet rarely got to meet as we were in different classes (a year apart). But after we got home, neither of us could wait to be with the other to start playing! 

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 One day, we were trying to climb the water pump’s cemented electricity chamber when I slipped and fell nose down. That was the first serious hurt I got in my life- that too on my nose- it bled and remained sore for a while!

Aunty used to make wonderful Rice, Sambar, Rasam, fresh Curd, Pickle and Curry in Telugu style which we used to have during our full days of play! At that time, every Sunday used to be Mowgli and Mickey time! We would watch Jungle Book cartoon on DD-1 together and enjoy like anything!

We also used to play all the clapping games and one particular action game in which we acted out the life of fictional ‘Miss Mary’ standing on the bed. It went like ‘Miss Mary jab chhoti thi, uski haalat aisi thi, aisi thi’ (When Miss Mary was small, then her condition was like this, like this) when we showed a fictional baby swinging in our arms signifying the birth of Miss Mary, all what she encounters while growing up and so on till poor Miss Mary died… Thereafter, both Siree & I crashed on the bed like lifeless souls! Then, we woke up a minute later and started screaming again! 

We also used to play ‘London Mondon Statue’ with other friends and the den used to make the statues laugh so much that one-by-one each of the so-called statues would burst out laughing!

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Then when book fair time in December arrived, my Mom, me, Siree and Aunty would go to the Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar and buy many colourful story books and especially different types of coloring books. After coming home, Siree and I would immediately sit down to fill the coloring books with many dazzling colors! While my style was coloring with straight lines, her’s was to color in circles. Anyway, we filled the coloring books with a riot of colors! I enjoyed watching how her hands would go round and round while she colored.

Holi used to be real fun as we got to color one another’s cheeks in real (and not just on the drawing-books where we drew one another & coloured)!

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Birthday parties were lots of fun! When it was my Sister’s birthday party, Siree wanted extra ‘Poori’, and she asked for it by saying- ‘Purrrrrrreeeee!’ When my Aunt teased her- ‘Sirrreee-Purrreee- Both are RHYMING!’, I gave her a dirty look and a strict warning to not poke fun, rather stay away from my friend!

Also, once every two or three days, either Mom or Aunty or both would take us to the park. Near our homes, we had at least six different parks at that time, which today, sadly, has shrunk to just about three. The choices and green spaces have unfortunately halved today- that’s why global warming threat looms so large. Anyway, our favorite at that time was the Robot-Park. We would climb up to the head of the giant Robot and then slide right from top to land in a mini pit of sand! As there were two parallel slides we competed to reach the top first and then slide down faster!

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When I was in Class IV, my family and Siree’s family together went on a South-Trip- Pondicherry, Trichy, Madurai, Rameshwaram, Kanyakumari, Trivandrum, Kovalam, Chennai which I remember clearly till today! Looking for sea-shells on the sea-shore, making sand castles (photos of that time we still have and I so love the trip photos! Especially the one where we both are crouching before the jointly-built sand castle and I’m in my favorite grand golden dress!) and splashing water on one another and racing before the waves touched us! 

And then one day, I came to know that Siree, Uncle and Aunty would have to shift to Hyderabad permanently. I was so upset that day, and after that too as I would miss my best friend so much. To whose house would I go running after school? With whom would I play with all the dolls? With whom would I watch TV, colour books, make crafts and fight? Still I had to come to terms with the reality. I made more friends at school, college but with none of my girlie friends I had such a gala time with so many truckloads of memories!

All this was some years ago, but still every time I think of my friend, all the memories come flooding as if it happened a few moments ago! Once again I thank Dove for giving me the chance to bring out all my memories on my blog! Of course, Siree, Aunty and Uncle will be delighted to read this too! I love you all always! :)

* I've written this post for Dove Contest organised by Dove and Indiblogger . The contest hashtag is #DoveFaceTest