Is Friendship the Epitome of all pure relationships?

This post is written as the sixth in the series of A-to-Z challenge and a part of #1000speak. 

My series theme is "Compassion" and today's thought is based on "Friendship"

Today, I woke up to a wonderful surprise. The first scroll at Facebook, and a ping from Gauri Kekre (the Mumbai based super talented baker and blogger at Li'l White Oven and  Mind Brew).  I was a bit surprised.

The message read a bit like - 

“I became friends with you exactly a year ago. And am glad we did!!”

with extra add-ons here and there. You know what I mean.

You may not believe me if I say that we have never met. Yes, you heard it right. Never! This does surprise me as well. Thanks Gauri, for always being there. The past year was tough, and I sailed across. 

A simple post on friendship is injustice to this beautiful relationship, encompassing mutual respect, love and selfless devotion towards each other.  To go above and beyond, to bring a smile on your friend's face - Priceless!! 

Whom do you call a friend?

A friend is one with whom you share a strong emotional connect and a selfless bond. Friendships can be formed within family relationships or outside blood relationships. The child begins to feel this emotion while in her mother's womb. As the child grows, he finds a strong bond with her siblings, neighbors, classmates, college mates, many a times in colleagues, within the extended family, and so on. We stand bare within friendships. there are no inhibitions, no fear of judgements on the basis of caste, color, gender, creed, and innumerable other bias. 

Is friendship the epitome of pure relationships? 

As a mom, I want to be my son's best friend. As a wife, I want to be my husband's best friend. As a sister, I want to be her best friend. As a daughter, I want to be my dad's best friend. Why is being a friend above all relationships? It is because of the selfless devotion and mutual trust shared within the relationship. We crave for these pure emotions within all our relationships. Friendships are devoid of materialistic gains.  It overcomes all mind barriers, therefore making the emotion pure and everlasting. 

I would play opportune here, and thank my friends, for being there in my thick and thin, in my joy and sorrows. An ode to all of you. You are a part of me. 

Thank you mum and masi - for being with me always. Always! 

Thank you Chitu and Kunchu - my confidants, my best critics. 

My St Thomas' teachers - Mrs Rowen Gideon, Mrs Simmi Bhatia, Mrs Seema Narayan - pillars of strength

My school friends - Bharti Agarwal, Vandana Bhatia, Isha Kalgaonkar - selfless, non-judgemental love. 

My graduation friends - Remya Nair, Pallavi Mahajan, Suhasini Karkun, Monika Dhingra, Ruchita Nigam, Smita Agarwal - what would I do without you, back then, now, today and everyday! 

My post grad friends - Indrani Mukherjee, Gaurav Jain, Vivek Viv, Laxmi Pandey, Anubha Kartik, K V Kartik, Yogesh Bhardwaj

Friends at work - Himanshu Pandey, Sumit Bhardwaj, Chandramouli Guin, Saikat Mookherjee, Sankalp Shrei, Sushmita Sarkar (blogs at My Unfinished Life),  Shabda Satsangi, my beloved friend - Late Sampath Atmakury, Yatin Bhingarde, Salina Fall, Judith Schon, Caroline Uddstrom

Inspirations and epitome of benevolence - Sapna Gehi Gupta, Sfurti Sinha, Jaibala Rao, Poornima Kulkarni, Ruchira Shukla, Akanksha Dureja

I am grateful to all of you for being a part of my life. At some point of time, you were there with me, to share my joy and sorrow, to catch me when I fell. I can never repay for your kind deeds.  

I am sure I have missed mentioning many amigos. Apologies. 

Head to my fellow A-to-Zder, Aparna Nayak's post for the day. She pens her thoughts at Life of a woman.... This year, her theme is “Kids – God’s Special Gifts”

Coffee without water..

It was the year I started working with Nielsen (New Delhi office). Year 2006 to be precise. It was a great team to start work in the new industry. 7 years down the line, I am fortunate to be working with Nielsen, now in Sweden. 

A few months after my joining, one of my mentor's put in his papers. S dada is a gem of a person and an excellent professional. I learnt a lot working with him on a couple of projects. The vacant position was taken up by someone from the same team, working in Mumbai office, and wanted to relocate back to Delhi, to stay close to his family. His name was Sampath Atmakury. 

Sampath - the life, the exuberance, the love, the colleague, the friend. 

My first impression was - "what an arrogant brat". Well, we had to work together anyways. We were in the same team. Things changed, and from mere colleagues we became friends. Sharing knowledge, helping each other which slowly moved on to sharing secrets. Our workstations were next to each other, Samzie and Arps became good friends. 

Sampath had a penchant for thunder bikes (Harley Davidson types.. he owned a bullet though), and he loves jazz. I have a preserved pic of us in the nielsen office, dates back to 2006. 

Courtesy: Sushmita Sarkar ( www.myunfinishedlife.com ) 

Once he sprained his ankle in the morning, while I was on my way to work. He called up to ask if I could get some spray. At 8.30 am, no chemist was open, but I did manage to go to RML's 24 hour chemist to get the spray. Whenever I look at Volini or Iodex spray bottles, all I recount is this incident. 

The coffee machine at Nielsen was a tragic error installed for the pitiful employees. The pathetic liquid which slowly made its way in the plastic cups was far from coffee. Sampath derived this methodology, Of removing the cup away from the machine when water oozed out, which was twice in the process of filling one cup. Well, this one incident is etched on my brain, and now, in the past 8 years, whenever i fill my cup with coffee from nespresso or any other machine, i follow the same formulae. And everytime I perform this act, Sampath Atmakury makes his way in my thoughts. 

The post lunch walks, the Andhra Bhawan lunch visits (I have been there without him, I just can't), the visits to Sai Mandir, Lodhi Road, the memories are all so fresh. He gave my son the name - "Sai". 

Sampath moved to Dubai, to look for better career prospects, only to return in 2008. The patriot in him was always alive and he wanted to come back to his country, and was bored of the sand and water of Dubai. 16th June 2008, he was to visit us in Delhi. He called me on 15th June, and told me his flight is on 16th morning. Sampath didnt show up that day. I got a call from another colleague from Mumbai. 

Sampath died in a head on collision with a truck while riding his bullet in the wee hours of 16th on the Secunderabad - Hyderabad highway. He was 25 years old and left behind his parents and younger sister in grief. 

Ironically, I still have a note from him, a long email, which ended as follows: 

Its been an hour since I got back…am lying back on my bed…my body still aching pleasantly…still throbbing from our intense time together..the smell

of her on my fingers….traces of her on every part of me……and in my head

thinking…"what the hell am I doing?" …and as I started to write this…my 

attempt at catharsis, i guess….I am thinking about all of you….all of you

in your snug lives...who'll read this..and am thinking that she might be

just a 350cc bullet to all of you….but she'll always be more than a woman to me….

And here goes his favorite track. 

Hugs, wherever you are!! 

I smile with the rain!!

I can see the rain from the windows of my office. Its pouring in Delhi and I love it.

It was way back in 1999. Remya (my best friend), and I were shopping in Delhi. We went to Nalli Silks to buy a saree for aunty (Remya’z mom) for her birthday. While coming back, from the window sill of the bus, we saw dark clouds hovering over the sky. It seemed as if god says, here i come…

and then he came..pouring down on both of us as soon as we stepped down off the bus. and we were drenched and rushing to my house which was good 3/4th kilometer away..

That was the rain i enjoyed…

not that i have stopped getting wet in the rain. Latest was in May this year, when it rained in Delhi and we were at home. It was a Sunday and my sis in law was around so no naughtiness was allowed. But as it started raining i opened the bedroom door which led to the backyard and there i was, hah…

rains have always brought happiness to me!!!