Seven Idiots

Warning: People allergic to senti stuff are requested not to proceed further with this post.

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There is a line in HP and the Philosopher’s Stone, that marks the beginning of the legendary friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione. It goes something like this – “There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.”
Same way, when 11 girls are made to live in one house, 7 of them belonging in the same year, sharing loads of stuff(willingly and unwillingly), it is but natural to end up being the best of pals.

(Left to right)Me, Singaari, Jakkamma, Scene Seemaati, Dubukku Sundari, Gujili, Aapamma (Our secondary nicknames)

Some of us were from villages about which even Google wouldn’t have been able to give information. We bonded way too quickly despite our diverse backgrounds and natures. Each day was filled with cute trivial things that made life a delight – like the constant bickering between Aapamma and Seemaati for extra biscuits, the day when they tried to race in the stair case and one of them ended up with a broken tooth, the moonlight item number by Singaari, the “murder dramas” on Sundays using the jam tainted knife, the refusal to eat food whenever there was oothappam for dinner and the way we relented when Jakkamma would make all of us sit in a circle and feed us at one go, saying “innum oru vaai, avlavudhan... “

Exams and unfinished assignments never worried us. We just used to sit together and try to wade our way through the pool of work, never bothering whether we were really getting anywhere. Our birthday bashes always turned out to be unforgettable and Holi celebrations were simply out of the world. Be it the 7 of us getting into one auto and scaring the daylights out of the driver by telling him that one of us needs to be admitted to hospital immediately and her life depended on his driving prowess.. , singing driver mama conductor mama in buses, using pen caps to whistle away in theatres, creating uproar in the college mess, running across the campus after rains and shaking the branches of all the trees and getting drenched to the skin, our trips to each others' villages and having masti in the paddy/sugarcane fields, endless chats sitting on the rooftop(at Gujili's house) in midnight... we have had fun - pure, unadulterated and without crossing the limits.

We were almost always broke towards the month end. That didn’t stop us from collecting chillar from everyone in a pichaikaara fashion to run to the corner shop to get a plate of bhel puri or a plate of molaga and onion bhajji. Durinng peak summer when our room was like oven, we used to pour water on the floor and once it dried, we simply used to lie down on the bare floor and go to sleep in a bindaas manner. Everytime one of us came back from a short trip to their home, their bags would get ransacked immediately in search of homemade delicacies. I still laugh uncontrollably thinking about the day when we made Singaari run through the hostel corridors threatening her with something that was her ultimate fear... the day when Aapamma fell on the feet of Singaari, the stupid fights over the single walkman we had, the fight for the cosiest blanket, the arguments between me and Dubukku Sundari(DS) or me and Aapamma or Singaari and Aapamma or Jaks and Singaari, the "stage performances" by DS, the Panchayat sessions by Gujili...
Despite all the madness, we also ensured that we were there for each other at times of need – be it someone falling sick or any personal problem or whatsoever.

Like all good things, our dreamlike college / hostel run came to an end so soon... we hadn’t realised the passage of three years in the land of Utopia we lived in. The last day at college and hostel was truly heart breaking. We took a resolution that we will never change. That was the last time the 7 of us were able to be together. Over the last several years, so many things have changed. Things other than our friendship have gained priority in our lives. But we have not given up. Some of us keep meeting every now and then and continue with the tradition of an outing to a new place each year(yeah, yeah, we have been visiting new places every year on a consistent basis over the last 10yrs.. cool na?). We still create ruckus in theatres or buses or wherever we go. But the problem is, it has not been the seven of us anymore. Two or three keep missing the get togethers due to constraints on work/family front. But luckily, the concept of con call makes it possible to continue the nonstop chatter between the seven of us, even if it is just over the phone.

All this build up makes our friendship fairytale like, na? But it has not been so. We have had our differences; our battles; quite nasty things said; and done. But then somewhere before things could turn real bad, we would receive a “kick” to shake us out of our reverie, to help us to discard the bad stuff as a horrible dream and come back to the real thing – our friendship. (Sorry for that. Still not recovered from the Inception Hangover!)

Even amidst the mad rush of the day to day life, a part of me refuses to leave the laughter filled hostel rooms and the mad cacophony of the college campus. It is those memories I turn to, to draw a breath of fresh air whenever I feel a little low or bored of the monotony. Over the past one decade, our friendship has weathered so many storms. But looking ahead, we have bigger challenges, given the fact that so many changes are lined up in our individual lives... Will we come out winners? I hope we do. Cheers to our friendship and a murmur of prayer, a genuine wish that it continues to go strong in the coming decades too.