I met Anuradha on the first day of college. She was sitting alone in the first bench and I went and sat down beside her. I acknowledged her presence and she replied back with a smile. I am a complete introvert, so that was a huge step for me, to take the initiative to make a friend. But I had not done that on a whim. I had, actually, seen Anuradha before, in the lines outside many colleges, where we had to stand to fill up forms for admissions. I don't forget faces easily and so I had recognised her as soon as I had seen her sitting there. It was a coincidence that we got into the same institution, a reputed one in Kolkata. She was roll no. 105, I was 110.
The coincidences didn't stop there. I got to know that we in fact lived in the same area in Kolkata. Her house was a mere 10 mins walk from mine. Well, the coincidences soon turned into friendship. We started coming back home together. We started going to tuitions together. We shared notes and ideas and secrets. I gradually learnt that Anuradha was a very passionate person. Very good in her studies and an obedient daughter, she can love you to the point of worship and hate you to the point of vengeance and I unfortunately faced both sides of the spectrums. When my mother passed away, she did everything in her power to make my days better. She was a true friend who stood by me like a rock. But later on she hated me because of a misunderstanding not of my making.
As I said, she can love you to madness. She fell in love. In all the 3 years of college, she was in love with someone or the other and I was always happy to be her wingwoman. She obviously fell for the wrong guys, like any heroine does, but I never told her so. In our last year, she fell in love with a singer. A guy nicknamed Bappa, from another college who was a lead singer in a band of a common friend. And she followed him around. Followed him like a mad woman. She was at all his gigs. She started going to his classes. She found out his home address and went to visit him and overstayed those visits. Our common friend urged me to ask her to stop because he had threatened that he will leave the band if she doesn't stop her madness.
I tried. Did not help. Those were not days of social media. The mobile phone was just about calls and smses. One day, we all were gathered at our friend's house when my phone pinged with a msg. Unkown number. I opened it and started laughing. It was someone acknowledging his undying love for me. The phone was circulated around for reading the msg and eventually reached Anuradha . She went quiet. I didn't take notice of it then as we were busy joking around. But she went dead quiet and did not talk to me after that.
I later gathered that the unkown number was actually that singer's. That ba***** had used me to get rid of Anuradha. She misunderstood that in the garb of being her wingwoman, I had tried to make my way with that person. I had always disliked him but when his ploy became clear to me I hated him even more. To get his own peace, he killed our friendship.
Anuradha became distant with me from that day. We lost all contacts eventually. She never confronted me or even asked for an explanation. If only she had. I wish she could read this and know that I never ever tried to get my way with that guy. She knew he was not my type. She knew how much I hated him. I just wish sh6e had not believed in that silly sms. I just wish she had fought with me over this so that I had a chance to explain to her my side of the situation. I just wish she had not given up on our friendship just because of that selfish p**. If only I can get another chance to talk to her and tell her that she was always more important than anybody else.
(Image from google.)
I really hope she does read this