My Travel Diaries ( Page 15 : How I Made A Best Friend )

or rather something that happened to me!

Do you have a BFF? Many of us have! What is our equation with them? It is difficult to answer- but I have a wonderful story on how one of the best friend happened to me!

Auli in Uttarakhand is famous for oaks, pine-trees and apple orchards. It is very exotic hill resort for over 500 years. I was here in 2014 July for 2 weeks. The aim was to trek and make the best of some solo time.

On the 5th day of my visit, I joined a skiing competition in the backdrop of Mt Nandadevi. I finished 7th out of 12 people. Since I'm a gracious loser, I attended a party conducted by the organizers late night. It was all about sharing experiences and singing.

There was a girl who finished 3rd. She was kashmiri and being used to mountains and skiing from the age of 5. She made a very good speech about the mountains and life around it. This was totally new to me as the oomph of mountain life was totally captured in one short talk.

During the food time, I went to her and told it was an awesome speech over there. She smiled and extended her hand. We shook hands and introduced each other. She amused me with her next question :

"Can I have your phone number?"

I looked puzzled. "What? Why?"

She said :" I like you, may be we can get along really well!"

I was thinking now. 'Oh this girl is very quick. ' But there was something sweet about her all the way. She looked straight into my eyes- I like those kind if people.

"But we just met- how can you like me?" I could feel my twisted eyebrows making a question mark.

She smiled and came closer. " The moment I met you today morning- I felt a charm and now, I felt an instant connection. I know you are a visitor and you will leave one day. So I took the chance and asked."

She continued " and it is not love- may be an attraction. But believe me, I was trying whether we can be friends. May be if we talk and get along well, we can be pretty good friends. And I do have a boyfriend, so we can be best friends. That's what I meant."

I felt good after hearing this. A girl being frank and opening up quick,is not a daily sight. I told her " You know what! you are wonderful, usually it takes time for me to get along and be friends!"

"I know", she said as a sort of advice, "but do we have time? I mean you might leave tomorrow and we will meet several people. But friendships and connections are rare. I felt you are different and hence I asked. If we don't like each other we can block or delete each other's number. How simple!"

' Wow. 'She made it so simple. We exchanged numbers and hugged goodbye. We haven't met after that, but friendship has gone so deep. We had amazing conversations and plans over time. Her career was built based on one of our midnight talks.

I became friend with her bf as well,who later married her. Last birthday she surprised me by naming their first kid, vin. And the picture above is her drawing reminiscing that night :)

Love

vin

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Author's Note

please read and post your ideas!

Reviews

[barleygirl]

Is this your artwork? It's always good to try to credit an artist when possible. This is an interesting story, but I feel you glossed over the best parts. Sometimes you are too caught up in your storytelling, so you speed quickly by the strongest aspects of your stories. You refer to an awesome speech by TELLING instead of SHOWING . . . you need to show us this speech . . . how did she look while she was talking? how did she deliver her words? what are a few main points from what she said? There's so much more than could be done with this pivot point in your story. The other thing is the naming of a baby after YOU! You do not show this in a convincing way. I do not feel any relationship between you & the parents of this baby, so I do not have a feeling for why they named the baby after you. You need to be more convincing when you tell a story. Make us KNOW EXACTLY why this baby was named after you. SHOW US the affection, the relationship, the fun, the misery, the time spent together. Right now, it feels like there is almost NO RELATIONSHIP & it's a mystery why these people would name a baby after you. Learn to recognize the main points of a story & make them stronger, much stronger, show us what this looks like, feels like, sounds like, etc. Your dialogue is well-done & this is the best way (in my opinion) to show the closeness in a relationship. Show us MORE about how you interacted with the two people. We don't even get to know these people's names! And also, it makes you sound like a bad loser when you tout yourself as being "so gracious" that you attended the party. This shows me you are more concerned with how YOU come across in a story, rather than showing us THE OTHER PEOPLE you are trying to pay a tribute to! Get out of your own way! This story isn't about what a great guy you are & how clever & well-traveled you are. Get outside yourself & let us see these people who you barely show us! Sorry for my tough critique, but I know you are tough & you can take it without feeling bad, I know you will do better & better, & I can see constant improvements in your storytelling! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Jeyanthi]

That's nice... the picture too...