talk.
She laughed at me rather than with me.
'Sorry for the list. Can't get numbers out of my system,' I said.
She laughed. 'It tells me something. You have thought it out. That means, you
have considered a potential friendship.'
I remained silent.
'I am kidding,' she said and tapped my hand. She had this habit of soothing
people by touching them. With normal people it would've been ok, but with sick
people like me, female touches excite more than soothe. I felt the urge to look at
her face again. I turned determinedly to the pizza instead.
'But seriously, you should have a backup friend,' she said.
'Backup what?'
'You, Ish and Omi are really close. Like you have known each other since you
were sperm.'
My mouth fell open at her last word. Vidya was supposed to be Ish's little sister
who played with dolls. Where did she learn to talk like that?
'Sorry, I meant Ish and Omi are your best friends. But if you have to bitch ...
oops, rant about them, who do you do it with?' 'I don't need to rant about my
friends,' I said. 'C'mon, are they perfect?' 'No one is perfect.'
'Like Garima and I are really close. We talk twice a day. But sometimes she
ignores me, or talks to me like I am some naive small town girl. I hate it, but she
is still my best friend.'
'And?' I said. Girls talk in circles. Like an algebra problem, it takes a few steps
to get them to the point.
'And, talking about it to you, venting, like this, makes me feel better. And I can
forgive her. So, even though she is a much closer friend of mine, you became a
backup friend.'
If she applied as much brain in maths, no one could stop her from becoming a
surgeon. But Vidya who could micro-analyse relationships for hours, would not
open M.L. Khanna to save her life.
'So, c'mon, what's the one rant you have about your best friends?'
'My friends are my business partners, too. So it's complicated,' I paused.
'Sometimes I don't think they understand business. Or may be they do, but they
don't understand the passion I bring to it.'
She nodded. I loved that nod. For once, someone had nodded at something I
felt so deeply about.
'How?' she egged me on.
Over the last few scraps of pizza, I told her everything. I told her about our
shop, and how I managed everything. How I had expanded the business to offer
tuitions and coaching. I told her about Ish's irritating habit of giving discounts to
kids and Omi's dumbness in anything remotely connected to numbers. And
finally, I told her about my dream - to get out of the old city and have a new shop
in an air-conditioned mall, i
'Navrangpura,' she said, 'near here?'
'Yes,' I said, as my chest expanded four inches.
She saw the glitter in my eyes, as I could see it reflected in hers.
'Good you never did engineering. Though 1 am sure you would have got in,' she
said.
'I can't see myself in an office. And leaving mom and her business alone was
not an option.'
I had opened up more than I ever had to anyone in my life. This wasn't right, I
chided myself. I mentally repeated the four reasons and poked the pile of books.
'More than me, you need to be friends with these books,' I said and asked for
the bill.
'Coming,' a girl responded as Ishaan rang the bell of our supplier's home. We
had come to purchase new bats and get old ones repaired.
Saira, supplier Pandit-ji's eighteen-year-old daughter, opened the door.
'Papa is getting dressed, you can wait in the garage,' she said, handing us the
key to Pandit-ji's warehouse store. We went to the garage and sat on wooden
stools. Ish dumped the bats for repair on the floor.
The Pandit Sports Goods Suppliers was located in Ellis Bridge. The owner,
Giriraj Pandit, had his one-room house right next to it . Until five years ago, he
owned a large bat factory in Kashmir. That was before he was kicked out of his
hometown by militants who gave him the choice of saving his neck or his factory.
Today be felt blessed being a small supplier in Ahmedabad
She laughed at me rather than with me.
'Sorry for the list. Can't get numbers out of my system,' I said.
She laughed. 'It tells me something. You have thought it out. That means, you
have considered a potential friendship.'
I remained silent.
'I am kidding,' she said and tapped my hand. She had this habit of soothing
people by touching them. With normal people it would've been ok, but with sick
people like me, female touches excite more than soothe. I felt the urge to look at
her face again. I turned determinedly to the pizza instead.
'But seriously, you should have a backup friend,' she said.
'Backup what?'
'You, Ish and Omi are really close. Like you have known each other since you
were sperm.'
My mouth fell open at her last word. Vidya was supposed to be Ish's little sister
who played with dolls. Where did she learn to talk like that?
'Sorry, I meant Ish and Omi are your best friends. But if you have to bitch ...
oops, rant about them, who do you do it with?' 'I don't need to rant about my
friends,' I said. 'C'mon, are they perfect?' 'No one is perfect.'
'Like Garima and I are really close. We talk twice a day. But sometimes she
ignores me, or talks to me like I am some naive small town girl. I hate it, but she
is still my best friend.'
'And?' I said. Girls talk in circles. Like an algebra problem, it takes a few steps
to get them to the point.
'And, talking about it to you, venting, like this, makes me feel better. And I can
forgive her. So, even though she is a much closer friend of mine, you became a
backup friend.'
If she applied as much brain in maths, no one could stop her from becoming a
surgeon. But Vidya who could micro-analyse relationships for hours, would not
open M.L. Khanna to save her life.
'So, c'mon, what's the one rant you have about your best friends?'
'My friends are my business partners, too. So it's complicated,' I paused.
'Sometimes I don't think they understand business. Or may be they do, but they
don't understand the passion I bring to it.'
She nodded. I loved that nod. For once, someone had nodded at something I
felt so deeply about.
'How?' she egged me on.
Over the last few scraps of pizza, I told her everything. I told her about our
shop, and how I managed everything. How I had expanded the business to offer
tuitions and coaching. I told her about Ish's irritating habit of giving discounts to
kids and Omi's dumbness in anything remotely connected to numbers. And
finally, I told her about my dream - to get out of the old city and have a new shop
in an air-conditioned mall, i
'Navrangpura,' she said, 'near here?'
'Yes,' I said, as my chest expanded four inches.
She saw the glitter in my eyes, as I could see it reflected in hers.
'Good you never did engineering. Though 1 am sure you would have got in,' she
said.
'I can't see myself in an office. And leaving mom and her business alone was
not an option.'
I had opened up more than I ever had to anyone in my life. This wasn't right, I
chided myself. I mentally repeated the four reasons and poked the pile of books.
'More than me, you need to be friends with these books,' I said and asked for
the bill.
'Coming,' a girl responded as Ishaan rang the bell of our supplier's home. We
had come to purchase new bats and get old ones repaired.
Saira, supplier Pandit-ji's eighteen-year-old daughter, opened the door.
'Papa is getting dressed, you can wait in the garage,' she said, handing us the
key to Pandit-ji's warehouse store. We went to the garage and sat on wooden
stools. Ish dumped the bats for repair on the floor.
The Pandit Sports Goods Suppliers was located in Ellis Bridge. The owner,
Giriraj Pandit, had his one-room house right next to it . Until five years ago, he
owned a large bat factory in Kashmir. That was before he was kicked out of his
hometown by militants who gave him the choice of saving his neck or his factory.
Today be felt blessed being a small supplier in Ahmedabad
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