My Saunain People.

For my Saunain (Pronounced SAW-NAY) People.

The true test of relationships, in my opinion, are time and distance. It has only been two years and the distance does not span continents (except that now Radhika is in phirangland) but there are five different people involved, which makes the “keeping in touch” process a little harder to be consistent. Exactly one year ago we decided to start a new email-series to help us keep in touch. It started as Day 1, on the last day of our now famous Saunain Reunion. We all wanted to see how long it would last. 1500+ mails later we did finally make Day 365 and we have officially stuck it out for one year.

If it doesn’t seem like a big thing, think about this. Five different people, in (mostly) different parts of the country, living entirely different lives, with different people. This whole thing about being ‘great friends’ is easy when you’re living in the same building for three years but everybody knows that as you move on with time, you become closer to different people and casually forget your proximity to those old friends. An occassional catching up and 3-hour long conversation doesn’t make up for the absence of the daily interaction. And so I have noticed has happened with most of my old friends and will continue to happen with those around me now. It’s only natural. So I am surprised I stuck it out with my Saunain People.

It is no secret that I love these girls to death. And I will tell you why.

Each one of them has a very strong sense of who they are and where they come from. There are no borrowed thoughts, no temporary likes/dislikes in an attempt to be cool, no tall stories and false promises, no trying to be somebody else, no sense of ignorance of reality, no ‘follow the crowd’ mentally, no constant attempt to out-do/out-talk the person they are with, no compromise on their opinions and beliefs and most importantly, they do not have a one-dimensional personality. They are accepting and open-minded. They are comfortable in their own skin and they make their own choices based on what they are, not on what is supposed to be right. And in all honesty, there are only a handful (one hand) of people that I’ve ever known who are like that.

They by no means are the “group of girls” who have pajama parties and have conversations about hair and makeup and boys and other peoples lives while eating low-fat ice-cream. They by no means are the “gang of friends” who are always supportive and positive and are out to make a difference and have a strong united stand on issues. It’s not that they all come from the same kind of background or are similar in any way. It’s just that its easy to be who you are with these people because even though they mock, laugh and criticise, they always accept.

Nirupama, Sania, Radhika and Shivani are honestly the best bunch of people I have ever met in my life. And what is great that it they all stick it out together. It’s not that just like 2 of them are still talking and keeping in touch but every one of them is here for Saunain and everybody knows what is up with everybody. It’s a team.

Each one of us has had an extremely eventful year, probably more than the 22 years before it, and to have people to come to at the end of the day to share the lame and insignificant details of day to day excitements and disappointments is really the best thing in the world. And frankly, each of them has enough going on in their lives and alot of other people to share their life with and if you calculated the probability of Saunain lasting beyong Day 50, chances were that the numbers would not have been in favour of making it through a year.

I am now confident that we will now make it through many years and am secretly waiting for the day the conversations are like, “So my son walked for the first time today!!!!!!!!!!!”. I can picture it so clearly. As anxious as I am to see what is to come in the next 365 days, I hope its mostly just good happy stuff.

I really hope all of you (non-Saunain) people sometime or the other know what non-pretence permanent niceness and comfort and support and fun is all about.

Happy Saunain Day!

We mock and we laugh but we mostly just love.