The Equation

I can easily recollect the days we spent together. I am just five months elder to her (a year ahead of her in school). It is a story of childhood rivalry to being the best friends forever. She was the bubbly one, always on her toes dancing around. You say ‘da..’ and there she goes on the floor with her cute moves. I was not so fond of her moves, she would dance past me and within no time give me a nudge or a pinch, ultimately irritate me. She loved doing that and I hated her for that. I dreaded going to their house if she was there. I was being silly, I realize, but then it made a big deal. Before she turned five, they moved to her father’s place of work in Saudi Arabia. After that they came to their house once in a year during their vacation. It was from then, the equation we shared started changing.

 I started looking forward to their homecoming. She would bring an years stories of her school, friends and whatever we could talk during those times. I would even write down the things to tell her when we had sleepover at either of our houses. We would share the same bed and start our endless conversations at night making sure that we have enough in reserve for the coming days as well. We would play our own games with our siblings after feeling sorry for shooing them away for overhearing our chat. They were kids after all. I still remember the music station we created with an old iron rack and sticks in the backyard, imagining us to be rock stars, singing and banging. We exchanged our clothes; we also had twin frocks, which we would wear on occasions. With the bits and pieces of few songs that we knew from other languages, we sang and even choreographed our own dance, calling it “ the dance form”.

 Then came e-mails, we were more in touch keeping us more updated about each other. I joined college; she followed me the next year after she came out in flying colours, in her twelfth boards. She has always made everyone proud when it came to academics. But she never made a big deal about it. She was the next best partnership in Chennai (VANAKKAM CHENNAI) . We had our own group of friends; our own space and a part of us that we kept to ourselves. That never mattered. We knew each other well. Even before asking the entire thing we would know which and what. The equation was unusual; the interests were not always mutual but heart-warming conversations.

That is how it is with cousins. We loved the fact that  ‘Bangalore Days’  the movie by Anjaly Menon was about three cousins and their relationship in helping one another to cope with change. That felt so right and true. For some it is friends. It is the work of the soul, the equation proved just right.