UNPARALLELED BONDS

Birthday and byes

Feb 3, 2024

12:00 am

I have been planning this day since 30th December 2023. Today’s M#hi! birthday. So I wished him happily, hoping that he would come and read it. As it was his birthday, I had some hopes that he would come. I had made a text animation for him since December that I forgot that I'd even created something like that. Like last year, I wrote a poem for him that sounded like a nursery rhyme. That didn’t make any difference as he didn’t come. 

But my hopes never faded…

And as I was about to drown in my thoughts, I realized today is also my 12th class Farewell for which I had fought the fear of ear piercing. And that day was my first time going to a parlor. I wanted only a slight touchup on my face and fixing my light blue saree and hairs. 

Reporting timings at school was 10 am, so I went to the parlor at 8. I really regret how I went outside that morning. What will you do when you see a girl with black jeans, a fluffy jacket, hair tied and wearing a fancy earring? Laugh, right? It was my first time wearing earrings and I didn’t know how to put them on so I told my mother to put them on me first. I thought no people would be out there on that chilly morning to see my droll appearance and then I encountered some juniors going to school. I never talked to them, I can’t even recognize them but when I saw them in the front, I literally made a horror expression and U turned. My cousin was also with me so she handled my anxiety and nagged me that I shouldn’t have done so. I too regretted but that was my quick reaction.

After I got ready, Harshita picked me up and we went to the Nehru Park. I was holding my phone with camera on and Harshita looking at it as she was doing her makeup. We clicked photos of each other and admired our skills. 

However, I was insecure about my hair and face. I asked Harshita a thousand times about my looks but I could’ve asked her even more but I just worried inside. Nevertheless, I tried shoving away my insecurities as today is farewell. 

As our welcome was being done and flowers were showered on us, Harshita said to me,

“Upar jane se pehle upar hi na paunch jaye…”

I laughed and said, 

“Hum upar hi jaa rahe hai”.

I enjoyed my farewell except for my insecurities. Almost three teachers said to me that I was looking unrecognizable. I was like, was that a compliment or judgment? I was wondering about when I will be called for the ramp walk. Harshita enquired from others about the list of ramp walkers. As I discovered my name was second last, just then the speaker called three students including my name. I was like tf? What’s happening? I didn’t want to go but then I went. It was a tongue twister game. I thought I lost but I won. So again I was being called the second time to have a prize, a pen worth 10 rupees that didn’t compensate me fully for the number of times I was about to fall because I couldn’t handle my saree. Urgh…

I wondered what title would be given to me…will it be silencer or something like that. My turn finally came and when I got up, they played the worst song that I tried to go there up on the stage as fast as I could while the escorting juniors ran to catch me and some teacher shouting from the behind, ruk jao beta but the beta didn’t stop. I didn’t heard her that time.

I was given the title,

“MISS BEST WRITER”.

That time I was deeply thankful to only one person,

M#HI!.

I was overwhelmed, I never thought or expected that I would be given such a title. It was the biggest appreciation I had ever got. I was so happy that all my insecurities ended and I danced with Harshita in that precious moment. I wished it lasted a little bit longer.

Good things just end, we never know…