Six Degrees of Friendship

The theory ‘Six degrees of separation’ goes somewhat like this …. “You are connected to every other person in this world with maximum six intermediaries”. Our group personifies this one of its corollaries …….. ‘Six degrees of Friendship’.

My friendship with Amar dates back to our engineering days when we first met due to our common interest, which was music. We knew each other before, as we were in the same school, but we were more of acquaintances than friends. Our first ever orchestra together was a big hit and we have been best of buddies since then. A second common interest was chicken, which we religiously devoured once a week.

I met Varun after joining UGS. Even though we had been professionally introduced, our friendship embarked when I met him at our office ‘tapri’ for a fag; one of our common interest. As we got to know each other, I discovered another common interest, Varun was amazing at playing guitar.

Ganeshutsav 2006 had mediocre response from our colony and the organizers knew it was time for ‘Disaster Recovery’. They convinced Amar, used him as a bait to get me aboard and before it could sink in, me and Amar were discussing about the orchestra over a hot cup of coffee.

“Bhide, we need a guitarist this time” Amar said
“Yeah, I need company on stage, I really get bored out there seeing everyone staring at me throughout the entire orchestra” I replied
“Hmmmm, fair enough, and we need one more female singer. Our Alka Yagnik sings Pehela Nasha five scales down” Amar smiled
“-5 transpose, I can’t distinguish between your and her voice dude” I chided.
“Done then, I will look for the singer, you hunt for the guitarist”

One day, as I sat shortlisting the songs with Amar, it struck me the moment I discerned Kavita Krishnamoorty’s voice in the last possible octave.

“Howz the hunt going on?” I asked
“She is coming here in some time” without even blinking, Amar replied.

I met Maithili, who was sister of Amar’s colleague. And then during our rehearsals, Maithili met Varun (read met as ‘her voice hit his ears, his strumming hit her heart, eyes met, songs bellowed, glances exchanged, vibes overwhelmed, smoking quit and so on ….). The orchestra was eventful, with one of our star members honoring us with his stunts, but I knew that a oblivious bond was formed between us.

Soon after the orchestra we all met for a trek in few days. Maithili got a friend of hers along, Neetu, for the trek and after an adventurous mountain climbing, slipping, wandering in the wild, clicking intuitive fotos, there were fireworks between Neetu and Amar (read fireworks as eyes met, expressions exchanged, jokes overwhelmed, features clicked, Garfield was born, area 51 visited, twice to lush, 27 songs cd burnt and so on….)

Today as I sit back and recollect the way our friendship blossomed, it seems to me like a jigsaw puzzle. How does a girl from south, a boy and a girl from north, two boys from west, and one girl from ……….., let her be from terra incognita, get bonded? How do we complete the puzzle by falling in the right place? May be I might have to wait till April …….. but I know one thing for sure that we are missing one piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle; just one more to complete the six degrees of friendship ………