Cheeni & I

If there ever was a person diametrically opposite to me, you know my anti-christ or something it would definitely be Cheeni.

Cheeni & I had been acquaintances in school and for obvious reasons we were not the best of buddies or even good buddies for that matter. She was just one of the attractive girls I was in touch with!  So it was only about an year after school had ended (as fate would have it) & my course poetry book due with her got us in touch and despite our every human characteristic in direct contradiction to each other we became friends and continue to be(or try to be :P). Some friendships complete you. Getting in touch with people introduces you to a side which you never had but a side which you sometimes wish you had.

I’ll give you a brief idea about Cheeni: In my entire life each time I have called her (especially after we joined our respective colleges) 95% of the time chances are she’s partying outside and the rest 4.5% chances are she’s partying in-house.  The usual protocol or the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) of our call is:

Me:                              Jai Hind!

Cheeni:                       WHATTT?? (Loud noises in the background, people laughing, music blaring)

Me:                             I SAID JAIIIII HINDDDD!

Cheeni:                       Hahahaha!! Okk where are you?

Me: (shouting):          No the question is Where are you??

Cheeni:     You know I’m at this place and there is this party...  (this is usually when I get                distracted by the background noise or the blaring music) blah blah blah…. Something something something…

Me:                            Good for you! Call you later then.

Cheeni:                      Yo yo! But do call me at

To be honest I call her sometimes just to be rejected like this which gives me great moral authority later in playing the victim (I call you so many times but you're always soo busy. *sigh* *sigh*) but sometimes she startles me by picking up the phone and telling me she’s NOT partying:

Me:                              Jai Hind!

Cheeni:                       Jai Hind Popeye! Hw r u?

Me:                            there…is..no..noise…in…the…background??

Cheeni:                    Yaa I’m at home today.. I’m not that much of party person as you make me out to be. You just happen to call always at the wrong time.. Say wazzup?

Me:                             okyeah that means I’ll have to talk?

Cheeni:                      Yes.. are your notes ready?

OK the story behind the notes is. When we became friends Cheeni was a big talker she’d just chat chat chat like birds chirping all day in a garden and as for me- I could hardly come up with anything to say at all. She'll just finish off a story in middle and tell me:

Cheeni:           “Okk I have been talking for a long time your turn to speak”

Me:                 “Ummmmmm”

Cheeni:           "Anything idiot.. just open your mouth and say. Things like what did you do today? What did you eat? Are you planning to go somewhere, if at all?”

Me:                 “Ummmmmm”

Cheeni:           “Yes come on you can do it”

Me:                 "Ummmmmm”

Cheeni:           “I’m not talking till you are. You give me a feeling I bore you to death”

Me:                 “Ummmmmm”

Cheeni:           "Grrrrrrrrr… AGGGGHHHHH…. !@#$%&”

So after some of these conversations she told me I have to keep my notes ready for talking. I was however instructed to keep a diary ready with all the conversations that I have planned to undertake while talking to her. With my un-happening indoor life I had nothing much to say to the highly extroverted and outgoing uptown party girl. I was aware, through her, that a world does exist outside like they sometimes show in movies.  So I call Cheeni always after I have lived a sizable amount of my life and I have few stories to throw around and also I make it a point to make Cheeni aware of my whereabouts if I'm at a place even remotely interesting.

Text:

Hi Cheeni yaa u were so right about this movie. This movie is awesome.

To be translated as:

•        You told me about a movie and I was paying attention.
•        I have followed your advice and actually/physically gone out to catch the movie.
•       I agree with your choice (Voila!)

Despite all these years we have met very few times in person and as expected we have always ended up as tragedy friends. Cheeni is not a text person not even a facebook person so my interactions are only limited to calling via phone.  As fate would have it (as you know it always has it’s way) Cheeni & I have met very very few times and after every single meeting (I assure you without a rule) we have ended up not speaking to each other for months at end. It has gone sometimes as far as termination of our friendship but you know distance mends and we are still on threshold of calling each other “friends”.

Cheeni doesn't know the name of the State I am in. (her geography isn't really upto the mark I’d say) and then ask her about the Mango stores in the NCR region she'll act like google maps to you. Take a right from that then a left from this second lane third shop ground floor and but the manager of that branch is not a nice guy. You go to the Mango store there you just take this right and that left this building that floor and Bang you are there.

Believe me six months I was in Goa and Cheeni could give me directions, almost like a smartphone GPS voice app., where she has been a tourist quite a few times. Okk where are you? Alright then you can go to this this and this place if you go that place you can go here here and here and I'm not talking about the beaches or the churches. She can tell you the best of places to have exotic foods and places you can buy  expensive clothes.

Cheeni is always “on the go” she has a shopping list ready, places to go list ready, next travelling plan ready and the things to cook list super-ready. See no wonder she has so much to speak about. I on the other hand speak about which Osho book I have read which book I will be reading next and what did I think about the world. My life is so interesting inside my head. 

I wonder many-a-times how come Cheeni & I are still friends at all!