To- my ladies :D

I have some friends who vehemently swear that a girl and a boy can never be ‘just friends’. I have no comments about that. I have some other friends who swear that two girls can never, ever be friends. Now, that is very lame, I say.

Most of us have been through phases where the number of friends of the opposite sex outnumber the number of friends we have in the same gender. That is when we have really steep learning curves. We learn what to say, what never to say, what to ask and what is implied. This phase is of great significance because it is usually likened to that treatment that a gemstone gets when it is getting scrubbed and polished. It comes out all shiny and then its value soars.

But what happens post this phase? I cannot comment about the theory of a boy and a girl never being able to be ‘just friends’- I have loads. But I can most definitely say that they can never remain even ‘just friends’ for long. Most of the boys I have been best best buddies with, I have lost to marriage. Theirs. Somehow, after an especially close buddy is married, you don’t really know if it is okay to call, if they would be interested in your stories, if it’s okay to punch them..you get the drift. When I said this to one such going-to-get-hitched friend, he said. ‘Over a complicate pannikaadenga, madam!’ (why complicate it too much, madam?!) but yeah. Better safe than sorry.

THIS is where girlfriends come into the picture. For me. They have always been around. We grew up together. We have seen each other through many an awkward phase- from braces to the first period, from first crushes to first rejections, from wardrobe disasters to teenage embarrassments..we have been through them all, and survived.

Fast forward to today. There are certain things that you can confide only with a girl friend.  There are certain kinds of advice that only a girlfriend can give to you. She will look at your hair and say what is wrong. She will look at what you are wearing and suggest something or pull something out of her wardrobe and make you wear it for the soiree. She will listen to you as you weep into bales and bales of tissue, about time wasted on the wrong man. She will empathize with you when you say your man is a mamma’s boy or when he acting like a bum.

A girl friend will never judge you. She will tell you on your face, when she thinks you have failed her. There is nobody in the world who would feel happier for you when something goes the way you wanted- and the same way there is nobody who would weep with you, and constantly keep checking on you- when something didn’t. 

A girl friend will always have her own life- yet, she will be around when you need her. She will know. She will know what exactly you need for this birthday. She will know what you need to hear, and she will say that. She will cover up for you. She will solemnly grin and pull you away from the party to put you to bed when she knows you have touched your saturation point.

A girl friend is this, and many more things. Every girl needs girl friends- because they channel her bloom.

Boys may come, boys may go. But girls- girls will always be :)