An Unconditional Bond of True Friendship
by Krati Jain
(Udaipur, India)
It is an unusual story of two people madly in love with each other, but not in ‘Love’ that world defines. It is a relation that most of you would hardly accept, but that love exists. Recently, I met with this lovely girl Avni and heard her friendship story. After she finished, I awfully wanted to share it on this page. There were some pretty amazing moments they lived; moments where they both cared about a lot many things about each other except lust. People claim that love eventually ends on lust. But her love for him never wanted that phase, and she had no idea what curved balls life was about to through on her. A very few lucky people get that relationship where they just talk and talk for hours, for weeks, months and years and never get bored. But as they say, at some stage your relationship demands more than just talks, and that’s what happened to Avni.
This is the story of Avni and Ansh and their unusual relationship. I will tell this story exactly like Avni told me.“I was then 18 and pursuing graduation. I belong to a very conservative family from Udaipur, Rajasthan, and even a thought falling in love with someone before marriage is forbidden in my parent’s territory. I knew my limits and rights and would avoid comments, compliments, proposal passed by some boy.
Now, somewhere in Jaipur, there was a rapturous boy-Ansh, who would roam around, fight, tease girls, smoke and drink day night.
He lived in Jaipur and me in Udaipur. Fate played its part and managed to bring us in front of each other. My very close friend lived near his house. He developed a feeling to chase me. A boy who is surrounded by hundreds of girls wanted to talk to me, and that truth did not land down my throat.
I did not give any attention to his proposal sent through my close friend and continued living my life as usual. But when life has decided to show you it’s true face you cannot be saved. He managed to get my number and started calling like a maniac, and I kept ignoring consistently. In this game of run a chase, chase won. I finally surrendered and talked to him for the first time. My hands were shaking; the heart was beating fast, my senses were not in my control as it was the first time in my life I was speaking to a guy who had developed a feeling for me. He clearly knew what he wanted, and I had no idea what was going on. That unused part of my brain wanted to talk to him, and that part won.
It was his birthday; an emotional blackmail turned into his most desirable gift. We finally talked. On our first phone call, we talked continuously for more than 8 hours. To my surprise, in the first phone call, I started feeling comfortable with him. And a day later he travelled Udaipur to see me. We met, but things did not turn out into dating as he expected. I knew from the beginning that there is no chance of anything that could happen to me other than just friendship.
He tried to change my mind for a year but gradually understood that I cannot be his girlfriend. Also, a fear of losing me made him accept the relationship as good friends. We both found solace in each other’s company. A wave of happiness would run through our face on hearing the voice. We adored each other’s humour and opened the gates for every type of talk, right from love relations to families to friends to likes and dislikes and fantasies to life. Even the smallest incident of a day would become a part of our daily talks. With the each passing day our relationship grew stronger. There was a transparency, and that’s what I liked the most. Numerous people came and went into our lives during that period but our bond remains stagnant.
By that time, I graduated and started working in a private company. He also moved to New York after his MBA degree to join his relatives' business. People say that once you are apart, true colours of relationship starts to show. But that distance made our bond even stronger. We did not realize when we become an important part of each other’s life. Our relationship knew no bound, even family. From video calls to voice calls to Whatsapp chats every communication mode witnessed the purity of our relationship since years.
And the day came when he arrived India to spend the vacation. It was my turn to go and meet Ansh. A wave of happiness ran through our faces when we saw each other after such a long time. Though we spent only a few hours together that was enough to refresh old memories and complete our unfinished international calls.
Our endless talks continued and never stopped. It was all surrounded by the giggles, jokes and more fun. We were 27, and during this 9-year relationship, we faced numerous
hookups and breakups with random peoples entered into our lives. On the other hand, Ansh was immensely enjoying his bachelorhood like hell.
Our communication kept going for the next year. Little did I know that I am going to hit by an avalanche very soon. He came to India on his vacation. He visited Udaipur, and we hit the road to take a long drive. I had no idea what was coming up. It was raining outside, and I was looking out the window when he started to talk about his feelings.
“I love you,” he said.
“To how many girls you have said that.”I laughed. I knew he was not the person who gets serious.
“Many, but this time I mean it.” His tone was serious.
“Of course, I love you too. Same as one of my family members.” I looked at him for a while and turned the head towards the window again to see the rain.
He pulled over the car with a jerk. I looked at him terrifyingly and wondered what happened immediately.
“
It is not a family wala love; It is family banane vala love, I really love you”. (I do not look at you as my family member, I want to make a family with you.)
I was stunned and unable to react anything. My body and lips went tight. I could not move my tongue to stop him talking nonsense at that time, especially when everything was so perfect between us. Why does he want to ruin this pure and amazing relationship by bringing such a subject, my heart said to my brain. I could go an extra mile to prove my friendship to him but not by accepting his proposal. I was scared that I would lose him if my real emotions come up. I could not say anything that day, but things were changed between us. I intentionally started maintaining a distance from Ansh. I did not want to hurt him by giving false hopes about our future. I limited my talks to regular activities and stopped sharing anything personal as I would do earlier. I tried to share my personal life one day and ended up fighting with him. He would raise questions on my meetings with some guy. That offended me. Nothing was normal like before. Emotions like insecurity and possessiveness became the important part of his behaviour. Random calls changed to duty calls of good morning good night. Care turned into an investigation. We somehow continued our talks in the hope that everything will be okay one day. One day he added his sister-in-law (brother’s wife) in the conference call and insisted her to talk to my parents, according to him, perhaps I was scared to pour out my feeling to my parents. He misunderstood me once again. Finally, my silence broke. Ansh had tested my patience and this time I had to tell him the real truth. To me, my life, career and family were his wishes. I told him everything and fired out all the emotions in one go. His ego was hurt, he could not digest the taste of rejection.
A year has passed, and I kept trying hard to bring my old friend back. I tried to explain him zillion times but all in vain. He was stubborn and stick to marriage. “Why can’t you marry me, please”. Discussions went along with anger and fight. I was done from my end to save our bond in every manner except agreeing to get married.
The day came, I stepped ahead and left him. I started avoiding his calls and messages. He did not take the rejection well; his ego was high.
I moved on happily with no regrets after giving my best. Life turned out as a blessing as I was doing great in my career. I indulged myself into the family and close friends.
After three months I received his call, and I could not resist myself to pick. He said, “Come out of your office please, I am here just to see you once”. I was shocked and shivering, feeling butterflies in my stomach.
He travelled all the way from New York to Udaipur, lied his family and co-workers to get back his best friend this time. The time and distances made him realize the importance of our unconditional and forever bond irrespective of the price he might have to pay for that one look because he didn’t want to regret of not trying to get me back. He cried and burst out with all the emotions and inability to concentrate on work, life etc. Now he just wanted me without any label (girlfriend, wife, or best friend).
A tight hug was enough to get back things on the same page. The moment was priceless and above the world. No questions and no complaints I loved him like my kid who needs his mom after all the tantrums. And two best friends got back together like nothing happened ever.
Yes, there are Some relations which are above all relations, which don’t need any name, conditions, expectations, meetings, gifts etc.
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