Accidents happen. They happen all the time.
One such accident introduced me to Eshita, and these mishaps have marked our friendship ever since. Eshi joined school a week late, and confusing as it is trying to find your way around a place for the first time, it’s even harder when the professors are throwing mutated Latin words at you hoping against hope you’ll catch atleast one of them.
I met my best friend in a class she wasn’t supposed to attend, having been assigned to another batch. As is typical of Eshi though, the shortest way tends to be the right one, and if it isn’t; well, atleast you didn’t spend too much energy getting there.
She arrived looking thoroughly confused, and sat down next to me. The moment we found out we were both from the Gulf we hit it off. A trademark of homesickness … I would’ve chatted up a baboon if it had told me it’d just come down from a summer holiday in
We walked out of class to another rainstorm, and were walking in no particular direction when a sudden gust of wind turned her umbrella inside out. For a moment we just stared at the umbrella and then burst out laughing. Maybe there was just something in the moment. People passing by stared at us as if we’d just lost it, and we fought the urge to poke them in the ribs with her now useless umbrella.
That was a year ago. I slowly learned things from Eshi that I never knew before. For example,
a) It is possible to keep a room so dirty that it repels insects.
b) The floor is as good a place as any to keep your clothes. Atleast you can
see them all at one go.
c) Granola bars are not a snack; they’re a way of life.
d) Makeup does not necessarily make you look like you’re 40.
e) Breakfast is a waste of time; time that could’ve been better utilised in
deep, refreshing, and completely unnecessary sleep.
f) It is possible to wake up at 7.58 a.m. and make it in time for an 8.00 a.m.
class (although I still believe she gets dressed on the run).
g) Food is completely optional for survival. A wholesome combination of
love, laughter, fresh air and Pepsi will do just as well.
h) It is possible to be extremely brilliant and extremely stupid at the same
time.
i) It is possible to laugh for hours on end for no apparent reason.
j) ESP is a useful talent to develop if your best friend has a cell phone whose
battery is always dead.
We made it through most of 1st MBBS with our sense of humour and joie de vivre intact. The only thing that really got her goat was when people spelt her name Ishita. She must’ve spent the first three months correcting our classmates over and over again – “It’s not I, it’s E … E for Eshita, E, E, E!!!” Wonder how many people kept repeating the mistake just to annoy her again. The message finally sank in and once this problem was sorted out, she was, predictably, swamped by new ones.
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