A Saturday Morning phone call from Shalu

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. I had just woken up and was checking my email. I did not know what I would be doing next, except for a lunch commitment at a friend's place in the afternoon.

Right then, my phone started ringing. It was an unknown caller. I don't get many such calls. So I wondered who it would be.

It was my best friend Shalu from UK. She called me to congratulate me on our new home, and to catch up in general. It had been few months since we last spoke, and it was about time we connected.

Shalu and I go back a long way. We were roommates at "Sir Sayaji Rao Diamond Jubilee Girls Hostel" in Ahmedabad. She was from Bharuch (a town in Gujarat), and I was from Ahmedabad itself, but moved to hostel when my dad was transferred out of town.

It was my first time away from home, and I used to hate it in the beginning. We were four girls living in one room - Shalu, Alka, Nisha and I. Shalu and I hit it off almost instantly. We both came from similar family backgrounds, similar values, and understanding personalities. We went to different colleges and studied in different fields - she was doing Civil Engineering whereas I was studying Electronics and Communication Engineering.

Our other two roommates were - to say the least - difficult. We found out one was a lesbian, whose partner lived in the room across ours, and the other was a carefree bird who changed boyfriends on the fly, who smoke and drank, and was a trouble maker.

So Shalu and I got close - we loved to read books, we loved to go out and eat, we loved to go for Friday evening movies to Drive-in theatre, we loved to sit outside on the terrace and do star gazing while yapping up all we could - and so much more.

Shalu is a very loving and caring person. She always looked after me in the hostel. She made my stay at the hostel bearable :).

Our hostel warden Naliniben was quite a personality herself. She was very strict on all the girls, and most of us had trouble dealing with her. I had a family connection so I was always very well looked after by her. Shalu also did not run into problem with her most of times.... at least not as much as some of the other females out there :)....maybe coz she did not have a boyfriend or guys visiting her at the hostel premises :)

We used to gossip endlessly about the warden, and assistant warden - about the cooks, and the guards. In general, Shalu and I were on good terms with everyone, so we ran into very little trouble.

When I moved into the hostel, I was a mamma's kid. Hostel life made me tougher, stronger, independent - mentally and emotionally. I came out as a very different person, and I enjoyed every bit of my stay there. In fact, I feel extremely lucky to experience this life before moving to the US almost 10 years ago, because without it, I would have struggled a LOT more in this country.

So coming back to the phone call, Shalu and I spoke about anything and everything on Saturday morning. She has a lovely daughter, Aditi, who keeps her on her toes all the time. She is currently a stay-at-home mom and will go back to work once Gulla (Aditi) starts kindergarten next year. I have not met her husband Prashant and daughter Aditi yet, so I have planned a UK visit in 2010 to visit them....along with my sister-in-law and family who live in London.

It was so refreshing to talk to Shalu yesterday. I am very comfortable sharing everything with her, and I trust her a lot. It doesn't matter how far we are, we have always managed to keep in touch. We may not have been part of many good occasions in each other's life (mainly because I have been in US for all these years), but we are sure there to give each other a listening ear when its needed the most.

Shalu, your phone call really made my day, and my weekend :)

Love you and miss you a lot. XOXO.