I have made friends with several girls by name"Archana" so far ... and guess what all of them were "My best friends" at the time. But I never had to attach any special adjectives / initials to address them (in case you wondered how I would address them when all of them were in the same room). Before I knew I was befriending another "Archana", the present "Archana" would stop communicating :)
My first association with Archana started when I was 2 years old. We were neighbors and our parents were good friends. I don't remeber too many things about her ... all I know is perhaps we played with each other every evening and our parents clicked a few snaps of us together. Soon her parents moved to a different town. That was the end to my association with her ... hey you didn't think a 4 year old would communicate via mail ... did you?
We moved to Mysore in 1987 and thats when I met the second Archana. We went to the same school. She was the one with whom I had the longest association. She was a quiet and cute girl. She lived close to my grand parents house. Most of my visits to grandma's place also meant a visit to Archana's place as well. We bicycled those days and her place was on the way to grandma's place ... so I didn't have to cycle extra ! I moved to a different school in 1990. But then we continued to be friends and met regularly. I was so happy to learn that she would be joining the same junior college as mine. We were back in the same class again !! Again we were separated..... we went to different Engg college ... and eventually got into different companies. But we still kept in touch. I soon moved to Bay area, after marriage ... and we communicated via email. (though the frequency seem to dwindle with time). One day after a gap of almost 6 months, got a mail from her that her dad has passed away. I was sad .... I called her home number ... her mom picked the phone. I spoke to her for a few mins ... I really wanted to talk to Archana though.... I called her up again after a while and still could not get hold of her. That was perhaps the last mail from her .... I have never been able to communicate with her since. All my emails went unanswered and her phone number changed :(
I met the third Archana in 1990 when I moved to the new school. We were the thickest of friends at the time .... other classmates perhaps envied our friendship. We had common interests... singing, dancing, dramatics, debates etc. Everything was just fine till our 2nd PUC results were announced. I am not sure what really went wrong .....but that was it, we were never the same friends again .... initially she avoided me... soon I got the message and we made no efforts to keep in touch. But sometime back I met her in Singapore airport with her hubby and little child. She was excited to see me and talked to me for sometime till her child wanted attention. We exchanged our email ids and decided we would keep in touch. I emailed her a couple of times ... she responded initially, but stopped soon.
I met the fourth Archana in 1993 ... she was a really bubbly, short, cute girl. We were good friends, though I will not call ourselves great friends ! Soon after 2nd PU, she chose medicine and me Engg. Before we knew it, we were rarely communicating.
Though I may not be in touch with any of the Archanas above, I would like to write that I really enjoyed the time I had with all of them.
ps: Amma had sometime back told me, some aunt had suggested naming me "ARCHANA" when I was born :))
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