Thanks Internet!

I couldnt believe my eyes, when I met my childhood friend on Orkut 2 days back. My dad works in SBI. We used to get transferred all over Karnataka. Thats the saddest part of working in a public sector company. Friendships made are always temporary. Every time we had a transfer, I had a heart break. Every time I had to leave my friends, watch all of them stay together in the same place and see myself being separated from them. It is my nature that I get too attached to my friends over a period of time. I have always tried to be in touch with my old friends as much as possible. But eventually, distance and time got the better of me.


My native is Bijapur/Bagalkot in North Karnataka. We got transferred from Bijapur to a small town called Sindgi. I was just 3 yrs old then. My earliest friends were 2 girls - Preeti, Amrutha and a boy called Gopal. I remember them because we 4 of us would always play with girls' dolls and I would come out crying to my parents that I wanted a doll similar to theirs (I still get bantered by my cousins and relatives for this :P!!).

From there we moved to a city called Gulbarga. I joined school there. It was there that I met Chetan Joshi, Sangamnath Kulkarni and Shrinivas Kulkarni. We were just 6 yrs old and went to Christ Convene Convent school. Back then only, I used to roam around the city with these 3 guys(Of course within our limitations!). We used to play with marbles, fight horribly, make up after a while, go out on ice cream treats! Our "beedi - sutting" (roaming around streets!) activities had taken a toll and all 4 of us had flunked some test in 1st Std (As far as i remember it was General knowledge test! :P). All of us got punished badly both at school and home.It was great fun back then.

My acquaintance with them was just to last for 2 yrs. So after finishing my 1st and 2nd Std in Gulbarga, my family moved to Bangalore. Even though, I was just 8 yrs old and dint have much knowledge of the world I had the sense of staying in touch with the ppl I had the most fun with. Chetan was always my best friend. Almost inseparable. Today I really feel it to be unbelievable that we both wrote letters to each other till we were in 9th std. 2yrs of childhood friendship and 6 yrs of writing letters! But after a while, I dont know what happened, but we lost touch. I guess some of the letters that I wrote dint reach him. Finally i gave up and continued my life with my new friends in Mysore. (By 9th Std, I had moved out of Bangalore after my primary school to a high school in Mysore.).

2 days back I met all my 3 childhood friends on Orkut. I felt really happy to get back to them. Internet is really a powerful medium. I can now proudly say that I am in touch with majority of my friends that I had since I was 6yrs old. My Gulbarga friends, Bangalore Primary school friends, Mysore friends, Bangalore Engg College friends, Philips friends and of course I am currently with my Minnesota friends!

Hope soon I will find my doll friends too :-).

I also was quite surprised when last semester I saw a very unexpected mail in my mailbox. My 3rd Std class teacher had found my mail Id and mailed me. I did not at all expect any teacher for that matter to mail me. But to find the mail of a very special teacher made my day. She had sweetly addressed me as "Hi Professor, Do you remember me?" (She called me a professor because I was absent minded since those days only!). What a miracle , I thought!.

Sometimes stray incidents like these make you so happy that life feels so good to be true.


Thanks Internet!