FRIENDS

I was like a tadpole when I got my first “friend”…I had so much faith in her that I thought there won’t be need of any other “friend” in my life …But her father got his transfer orders when we were in standard 2…I was so heart broken…For years I didn’t have anyone to rely on…Then came a special one,,, that’s what I actually thought…She came to our school when we were in standard 8…We used to do lots of things together…I even used to leave my studies incomplete to help her in hers…She got herself a boyfriend just after a year and she started leaving me to myself but that was normal…I would have done the same…We were in standard 10 when our school was fighting a case against the school board and all the students decided to agitate against the teachers for no reasons obviously…My parents advised me to not follow that path cause in India the teachers are respected more than the parents… Afterall they are our “Gurus”…My “friend” by my side discussing those things with my parents as well…Then came her elder brother who took her home cause it was already getting dark…Next day a classmate of mine called and threatened my father, although my father didn’t pay any heed to her… After few days we went back to school…I was a first bencher…When I entered the class and kept my bag in my usual place, my so called “friend’s” boyfriend who was also one of my classmates, took her bag and put that two benches behind…The words that got out of his mouth were,,,”DON’T SIT BESIDE HEROR TALK TO HER…SHE CAN BRAINWASH YOU… SHE’S A BLOODSUCKER… SHE’S A LIAR…YOU DON’T EVEN WANT TO TOUCH HER SHADOW”…It went on and on for 40 days…I fell down with high fever...When I returned back to school, I stopped looking at them or paying any heed to them…I was alone among those 48 students, literally the whole class…It was that day when I was having cramps due to my periods in school and was just putting my head down when they started again…Our maths teacher had that class…When she entered, we stood up to greet her…But I couldn’t stand still for the cramps…She asked me about the issue and most of my so called classmates started whispering…That was the last straw…I started sobbing loudly after those 51 days of continuous mental torture…Our teacher consoled me and asked them to ask for my forgiveness…After her class we had an off period when some of them tried to talk to me…But before they could process anything I went to the library which was my favourite place in the whole world…I didn’t give them the chance to talk to me the whole year…You know why…..BECAUSE THEY WERE MY CLASSMATES, AMONG WHOM WAS MY “BACKSTABBING BEST FRIEND….SUSMITA NAG”.