ss"I'm not the most social person, so when I moved to Ajmer in 2018 for my degree, I was nervous. All my life, I'd longed for friendships that ran deeper; where I could be my weirdest self and instead of judging me, my friends would tag along. And although I had come across people I got along with in life, I never had a tribe.
But fortunately, on my first day itself, I befriended Lokeshwari. I remember, we were in line, signing documents when she helped me with a pen.Her willingness to help warmed my heart. After that day, we started hanging out. Lokeshwari introduced me to Akanksha-her roommate; the three of us bonded over our love for Bollywood. And then, we met Siddharth, Annu and Aamna, and just like that, our group grew bigger. We spent hours snuggling in our room, discussing the latest Bollywood gossip. If anyone needed to rant, we'd huddle in a room and patiently listen to each other and then we'd go laugh over a tub of ice cream. But for me, what mattered the most was that with them, I could be vulnerable.
So, when the lockdown was announced while we were on a break, I was a wreck. I thought this was it for our friendship, after all we were from different corners of India-I knew it would be long before we'd be able to meet. But these guys proved me wrong. A WhatsApp group was created-and boy, did that group buzz all day! On days we missed our college tapri, we'd even have a virtual chai party on WhatsApp. But the second lockdown wasn't easy on me-my entire family tested positive and in the 2nd week of April, I lost my Dadu… I was very close to him. I didn't even get the time to grieve his loss, because we had to arrange for plasma and hospital beds for my family. It was the toughest phase of my life- I felt like I was sinking.
My friends understood that and everyday, they'd video call to check up on me. Aamna, who was miles away in Ladakh, would share Delhi contacts for hospital beds on an hourly basis. And once things at home were a little better, all of us got on a WhatsApp video call.
Humans of Bombay, Fb
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