Darling

Once more a curious title, but I am excited to be called darling twice in one day by two different friends (girl friends). I made two calls and as soon as my both of my friends picked up they said in an enthusiastic tone “darling”; however, more than me the people who were sitting with them were stunned.

Friends have their own amazing ways of expressing love and one can only be grateful for that. One of my friend from early school, in fact from kindergarten, Muneeza Shoaib aka Azee is hopefully coming to Karachi from UAE and I am excited to meet her. I think I had a dream or vision about my kindergarten few days back and I saw Azee and I having some really exciting conversation; I think I was telling her something and she was all thrilled listening to it.

Its been ages since we last met, we use to have so much fun together. Whether it was our birthdays or school functions, there used to be regular soirees at her place where her mom (Aunty) cooked delicious foods. We read our first Sweet Valley High together, which I quit reading only after 2 novels and shifted to Archies, Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys.

She is actually my very first friend, a very studious and a hardworking girl and now she is a professor at a university in UAE.

Then in class 6 came Maria Lakhani, a thin and scared little girl whom our teacher Miss Fauzia Butt clearly warned not to bully. Soon we became best of buddies, she was and is very calm and extra nice yet we still managed to terrorize few of our class-mates.

We use to have our tuitions near my home, more than focusing on our studies we used to gossip or laugh insanely without anything being particularly funny. Then there was Slims (spicy finger chips) and coca-cola for which we had an unusual appetite.

I remember that when any of our teachers used to invite all three of us Muneeza, Maria and me at their home for some project Maria and I always lingered around food and hardly ever concentrated on the work. While Muneeza diligently helped teacher in completing all the project work.

Many more friends came and left after that and then arrived Sadia Abid Saleem in BBA. We were a part of group of 5 girls where she was close to the other two and I was neutral to all. Almost six months passed when we became solid friends.

It still amazes both of us that although we were not close for initial six months of our meeting at college yet whenever there was an academic crises for either of us we used to call only each other right away. It was more like a reflex action than a call for discussion.

Even with our formal friendship, we, for some strange reason only relied on each other’s moral support. Our spirits acknowledged each other immediately but it took our mind 6 months to recognize this fact.

This is what happens with most of us, we meet someone and our spirits instantly realize our true connection with each other. Nevertheless, our mortal mind and physical reality takes time to accept and ultimately manifest that wonderful relationship.

So live in the beauty of friendship, my friends…..

Sonya. (Day 193)