Memories- Friends

I was never very interested in college, but I can live in my hostel all over again. We all used to sit in one of our rooms, mostly my room, and talk for hours about anything and everything under or above the sun. We had single rooms, but my room was always occupied by some of my friends. Aswathi was my first friend in college, and even though we drifted apart later, she was my best friend for the first two years. During one of the exam times, Sreepa also became my friend. Both of them are from Trivandrum. We became friends, and these are the people with whom I used to sit in the class in the initial years.

During one of the class exams, I made a new friend. The story goes like this: I am a pretty lazy person when it comes to studying, and one day before an exam is the day I don't study at all. So it was one fine day before the anatomy exam, and everyone was super busy with their studies. I was roaming around in the corridor, but no one was there, so I went back to my room. A random person knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to study "thoracic duct", I was anyway not studying, so I agreed and we studied together. Since then, that person has never left my room for days, nor has she left my life till now, and that's no one else but Navya.

Nehla and Navya were already friends then. One day, I was coming back from BDA with Arya and Aswathy, which is a small market behind AIIMS. Navya and Nehla were going to BDA, and we met halfway. I went back again with them, and since then we have gone out almost every day , almost everyday. That was the first day I ever ate a pani puri. I hated it the first time, but eventually that taste became addictive. Now I can't go a day without a pani puri. Here in Bhopal, I almost every day eat pani puri from the small shop in BDA. Fresh Bakes near Ashima Mall and Manohar Diaries have really cool pani puris.

During the winter, Navya's side of rooms becomes very cold, so she usually stays with me during the winter. We often used to fight for super silly reasons, and she is the person with whom I fought the most during my college days.

We have a group of 20 for clinical postings. Fida and Gopika were in my batch. Gopika and Athira became friends with all of us eventually. Fida became my friend during my second year, and we became best friends eventually. She is the person with whom I have spent most of my college time; even after college, we call almost every week and talk for hours. She is the one person who knows me better than anyone. Fida and I were shopaholics; she was my shopping partner.

Ancy was friends with Gopika and Athira, so we all used to go often, but we were not very close. During my 4th year, my scooter suddenly stopped working, and for a couple of weeks, I was walking to college, and so was he, so we started going together and became very close. Nancy is very open to everything, even a trip. I can call her anytime for a trip, and she is all ready. I wish she had been my friend much before.

In our second year, we all went to AIIMS Delhi for Pulse. That's when I first started talking to Tom. Tom has been my friend since then. We used to talk for hours, and we became one of the best friends I ever had. Even though Sabir and I were part of the same friends gang, we were never really close during MBBs, but now he is one of my close friends. He is such a foodie and super cool person. Then there was Hari and Chori. Always irritating in some or other way, he was also my clinical batchmate. He is the one who taught me how to ride a bike. We used to give me his bike, and he was courageous enough to accompany me during my bike rides.

Except for the boys, all my girls were on my own floor. We would talk for endless hours,  plan trips, sometimes over a sip of alcohol, practice dance together, and eat food together in the mess. We would play Anthakshari and sometimes Yuno. Life was super cool.