We are a group of 10 college friends who have been in touch with one another for the past 35 years. We meet once a year at one of our homes and we look forward to the day with great excitement! It is usually a mid-morning to evening affair with lunch served by the host. It takes weeks of planning, sometimes even months, if one of them has plans to visit India. It has been long since all 10 of us could be present because four live abroad. Still, for those of us who are able to make it, it is a day filled with laughter, teasing, sharing, and caring. We are all in our early 50s, having graduated together from a women’s college. For each other though, we are just 17 years old, the same age we were when we all met. The children of many of us are married, a few in our group are grandmothers as well, but anyone who watches our banter would wonder if we are even grown-ups! We are fortunate to be happy, enthusiastic people with interesting stories to share.
There is usually this one friend Ms. M, who claims to be ‘too busy at work’ and cannot make the time to meet, though she lives in the same city. This time too when she said she might not be able to make it for the get-together, feisty Ms. R would not hear of it. “We meet once a year and you are saying you are going to miss it? What is wrong with you? You have to come and that is an order,” she declared.
What another friend said to this is worth sharing and it sealed the deal. She said, “To fight for your right in friendship is love.”
