There are some birthdays that I never forget – whether they are on my calendar or not and Geetu’s birthday is one such. I met Geetu at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Happy Valley Shillong in 1980 when both of us were in the 7th standard. I don’t think either one of us can explain why we became each other’s best friend. Many of our friends envied our closeness, we were just inseparable. I would spend many a Sunday at Geetu’s place and she would spend many a Sunday at mine. She remains my mother’s favourite to this day 🙂
Geetu was all that I was not – soft spoken, very artistic, had tons of patience and a handwriting that rivalled print ! I got introduced to noodles through her tiffin box and to the idea of becoming a doctor. Ofcourse neither of us became a doctor, but the idea stayed for a long time with both of us. We spoke of everything under the sun, no topic was taboo and no secret untold.
We studied together for three years and then my father got posted out to Hyderabad and I last met Geetu in June 1983.. I still have the several pages on my autograph book that Geetu wrote on 🙂 and the several hundred letters that we wrote to each other till we graduated from college. We lost contact when I moved out to Vizag after my college, then both of us got married and then our lives took over for the next six years. Then on a trip to Pune in 1997, I opened the telephone directory and managed to speak to Geetu’s sister, Shweta and her mom to find out where she was. Geetu’s husband was posted in Andaman and I wrote to her. She did reply, but by that time we had moved to Delhi and our chapter of climbing out of our financial pit had started in Delhi.
Then on July 8th, 2002 I had this premonition that Geetu was in Delhi and I called her mom up, again had to rediscover her number as numbers had changed during this period and as expected aunty said Geetu was in Delhi teaching at a school. I gave her a surprise by meeting her as she was leaving school and we spent the whole day catching up on the years we had missed in between. I met Harish and Dinky too. An amazing coincidence was Dinky was in her 7th standard then, the same class in which her mom and I had met first.
I don’t think even today we know why we are the best of friends – but we are and we will remain the best of friends always. Happy Birthday Geetu and many many happy returns. You asked me to sing it in the morning, but I like to write so this blog is the song you asked for 🙂 You are very special and may your life always be touched by the special glow.