An afternoon out with the girls...

After a really long time we all managed to coordinate our schedules and meet for a bang-in-the-middle-of-day lunch on Saturday. Ordinarily I would choose to spend my weekend in some other fashion but I ran out of excuses this time.

But some thing deep inside pulled deep and I realised I was actually excited about meeting the 'girls' for lunch. It was then that I realised that why were actually together and how we could not only feed each other's insecurities but also make each other happy.

All of us at different stages - in careers and in life- and lots of notes to compare. We used to be a really large group in college and like everything else, even had favourites there. Why, after all, does one tolerate people when you have others you can absolutely love?

Of course as the years moved on, I was left back in this city, with two others from that group. We grew to more than tolerate each other and today have seen each other through ups and down in our jobs, through broken relationships and through new jobs and still can take off from where we left off, weeks even months ago.

After leaving school eons ago, I hardly met genuine people. Not because there weren't any but mostly because once you left school, there are many deciding factors for one's decisions and it tends to get difficult to be genuine and yet be everything for everyone.

In journalism school nearly six years ago, I met the most versatile group of my life and made friends who I thought would last me through my life (ha?). While most from that group are still who I can call friends, very few are the kind who provide me support. My lunch companions are those who provide unstinting support, even if it means to occassionally pull me down.

Lunch at a popular, breezy eatery - we sat giggling over crepes, bad pasta, strawberries and cream with warm iced tea(!), about the picture we made. Middle aged women giggling at being conscious and looked at (of course we thought we were being stared at). It was a wunnerful afternoon.

That's when I realised how much one needs friends. Yes you can choose and more often than not I seem to have made errors choosing them and continue to this date to give up on them. But there are some, like these two, who refuse to let me not pose for photographs or who will insist on hugging me (depsite my claims of being a stinky sweaty self) and who will still wish I smile more and meet them more.

I left that afternoon being my usual self, having comforted and being the solid deciding factor before I bundled them into a car and hopped into a rick to get home myself. But for once I did not come home and wow never to return. Instead looked forward to planning another do with them - gossipy, catty and warm.

Here's to friends. Have a nice week.