To A Loving Soul Who Is My Family, My World

To my bestie Karthi,

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I LOOKED....and wanted to say thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking," - Mary Rita Schilke Korzan

Mary Rita Schilme Korzan had dedicated this inspirational poem to her mom. Though I am blessed with a great mom, I can’t see anyone deserving these lines better than you.

Where do I start thanking you for all the love you shower on me?

Maybe 2010, when we spoke for the first time at a college symposium?

Or yesterday, when you listened and guided me on finances?

I don’t know.

All that I knew is I would be thanking all this lifetime and the next one.

How easy was it for society to tag us as yet another couple and how easily did we laugh it all off - We knew the bond we have is magical and it’s friendship at its best.

And how beautifully did our friendship bring our families together into becoming family-friends. In a conservative upbringing we come from, friendship between a guy and a girl isn’t completely accepted without apprehensions. But through your sincerity, you made my parents to trust you like their own and I have no idea what you told your family - they just do the same.

To this day I cherish the clap back your mother gave to her relatives mocking my phone call to you and terming me “your girlfriend”.

“She is Rashmi, son’s best friend. She is a lovely person. Meanwhile, you all can mind your own life”

Just remind her I love her, won’t you?

I will never forget how you took care of her through difficult health issues and still came back to college to study well and care and provide solutions for the problems I would come up with. Every.Single.Day.

I do have a confession to make - I was going through some terrible times at our last year and I could share only an outline because of the shame and shock I was undergoing.

I was on the verge of ending my life, Karthi.

You were there with me for months, you saved me with your presence and you can see my pain, my suffering despite all my pretense to put up a happy face. You proved that words matter very little in true frienships.

You saved me with the unquestionable trust you had on me. It gave me the strength to keep fighting.

It wouldn’t be the first of my personal struggles and through the years you were the anchor that grounded me and saved me a million times from giving it all up. If the world calls me a fighter, you were fuel to the fire that keeps me going. And I promise you to never ever stop.

I can’t forget the childish demands of mine - Like wanting to see you before I enter exam hall because you were my lucky charm, taking me outing to our ”thinking cafe” at the mall because I had a great new idea to change the world and looking at you with expectations for cheering up for me when I do what I say I’ll do (consistency has never been your best friend’s strongest points) and wanting you to visit me in Bangalore becaus I was celebrating my first birthday away from home due to heavy work load - And you made it all happen!

Thank you for that.

As a person with emotional issues with my dad, you gave me the basic love and respect I had to fight to get it from him.

You supported me financially and spiritually despite working in a really difficult first job.

Do you have any idea how much you helped me to stand on my own foot?

And my first surprise outing to Chennai visit my sister was of course not a surprise for you. You had to get ready and receive me at the bus station and also had to keep answering frantic calls from my parents ;)

Your famous quote is what I think of when I am tempted to make bad decisions:

”Never do anything that makes your soul unhappy, Rashmi!

Today, counting a decade of friendship that keep me going - here I am finding my way to becoming a writer.

I had given up writing since my school days thinking all sorts of

“I don‘t know what to write”

“But what if I fail miserably?”.

You helped me smash ‘em all.

I have published close to 30 articles in both Medium and Vocal Media and I knew you have read each and every article and never missed typing a huge paragraph of how much you loved them.

I have screenshots of all your feedback and let me tell you a secret, every time before writing I go through them .

It inspires me that I have someone who sees how creativity cherishes my soul , how writing is how I best express it more than I ever do.

I have someone who never gave up on me through all these years and believes in my potential!

When my Top Story on Vocal Media received so much love from my Twitter followers, I shared them first with you and here is what you said to me:

To wake up at 6:30 am and to consider my happiness as your own and telling me that it’s a “great start for the day” - I mean, how more of a wonder can you be?

All that I can hope is to continue staying your best friend in return, that’s all I can do.

If I make it as a decent writer, I owe it to your encouragements and of course in you taking time in reading every single one of them. You are my cheerleader and the life behind all my words.

Thank you Karthi, for being the best blessing I never knew I needed, for being my rock when I am on a internal conflict and being the father-figure that kept to standing through all the turbulent phases in my life.

You my dearest friend, are my hero!