Good Ol' Days

Shhhhh… Monica rested her finger on her lips and widened her eyes, gesturing me to keep mum. 

Right! I fumed. I knew the unwritten rules of prank. No noise and pose dumb when someone catches you. And then we both tip-toed in the cycle stand of our school, holding a pencil compass. Well, we were good girls who blamed our small city for lack of fun and did our best to make our lives spicy-naughty-fun. Much like the soul-sisters, we kept our bond unshakeable with 20 Rupees Archies Friendship Band. And swore by it, muttering with closed eyes - Till thread do us apart…

The band surely wore away with time but it knotted many incredible memories of days lived together. Some silly pranks, some practical jokes and some tearful days. Just for you all, a peep into the most rocking time of my teenage.

Spice Girls - Take 2

With due respect to the rocking band, we thought we were no less. Singing their chart busters in our voice, we spent many evenings in our rooms. Inspired by Wannabe from Spice Girls, our dream was to start the first All-Girl Band in Ambala but as luck would have it, we fell short of instruments. With spirits undeterred, once we bought instrumental cassettes from the local music store and started our very own Karaoke Sessions. It  was our way of retribution. Ah, life was so charged up those days. Singing 1942, A love story’s song, we thought of our prince charming and romanced them in our minds.

Song, that literally Spiced Up our lives…

Sadly, we couldn’t take music as a profession and ended in our boring jobs. I seriously blame the late arrival of Talent shows for our low key life. This country has lost its chance to sway away in the musical voice of Monica-Saru.

Karma is a Wanderer

Trust me, Karma is a wanderer. You do one tiny act of innocence and it travels around the School and hugs you when you least expect it. Yes, drawing a full circle, our Pencil Compass act of puncturing bicycles returned to us in full swing. We had rule, we never punctured bicycles of nerds, geeks and back benchers, we targeted only the famous heart-throbs of our batch. Or may be, guys on whom our friends had crush. But one day, when the mercury broke all previous records, someone took revenge. We dragged our bicycles home and vowed not to do it again. Nah! We didn’t bid adieu to our pencil compass, we just changed our targets. It was Sunnys and Kinetics of boys in senior classes. 

Et tu, Saru?

In 90s, your popularity in School was directly proportional to the number of blank calls you received daily. It was a self check on your style quotient. Monica received a lot. Why not? She was very beautiful. It made my dry soul itch and I planned a prank. Yes, jealousy is an ever-present trait in teenage. I asked one of my guy friends to come every friday and we called Monica. He claimed to be in love with her. We could have dragged it a bit longer but I had to break it as both of them started to get into the spark mood. ‘Hey, that was me who planned your Friday prank calls,’ I had to admit. Shattered, Monica could only muster the courage to say, ‘You too, Saru?’ 

I think, afterwards, she took it by default that I was behind all the blank calls. Once I entered her room and caught her scolding someone on phone, ‘I know, Saru told you to call me.’ Poor chap, he lost his chance because of Yours Truly. 

Pipping hot with FLASHES and FLAME

It was that time when there were no Dudes or Chicks. In the absence of Facebook Confession Pages, those days one of our favorite time pass was match-making. No, we didn’t read Linda Goodman or Bejan Daruwalla books. Our analysis was based on the strict principles of FLASHES and FLAME. When two love birds cajoled each other during recess time, we focused on charting their future relationship on paper for the rest of the day. Yes! It takes a lot of time - with first names, first name-last name combination, digging their nick names from common friends and nick names combination. Phew - it was our most satisfactory social work. You see, match making was not easy even in those days.

Sunny Side, Up!

Boys and Girls, now I take you to the best period of my teenage. Bajaj had finally came to our rescue by introducing Sunny and after lot of convincing Monica got herself a brand new Sunny in Maroon color. With that, the best period of our friendship began. We went to school, tuitions and even shopping on our little magical vehicle. It used to be so much fun, specially during rainy days. Soaking the rain and chatting, we spend many happy days on the Lean Mean Teen Machine. Till date, nothing beats the fun of riding Sunny. It refreshes the memories of one of the best times of our lives.

Seems all this happened just few days back. Sometimes, I feel I can just walk by the same lane in Sector 7 and re-live all our days together. Wish life was that simple...Wish we could have a Time Machine to take us back to those Good Ol' Days.

...And just like everyone teased you -  Monica, Oh My Darling! This one is specially for you.

Shhhh...

Don't spill the beans,

Ain't nobody better than me.

To hold your secrets,

With lifetime guarantee.

Ooops...

High heels I broke,

Dress I never returned.

Sorry for the prank call,

It shattered your castles made of sand.

Cheers!!!

Courage we had,

For our innocent pursuits.

Puncturing bicycles, match-making,

And for always speaking truth.

Ah-a!

Songs we played,

Our shared stack of cassettes.

90s still rock,

Like songs, our friendship still holds its depth.

~ ❤ ~

In my highs and lows,

I can blindly depend.

Living bliss you’re,

Lucky to have you as a friend.

*********

*Written for 'Dove Guessing Game with my friend!' contest on Indiblogger.