My Bum Chum

As a teenager, I was low on self esteem. I was conscious about my height (no, I was not tall. My short frame was what bothered me), my brown skin color and bony frame. And, to top it, I had classmates and so-called friends who would take digs at me and ridicule me on these aspects. My confidence had taken a beating and got buried under heaps of insults and mockeries.

This was till the day Aruna, my now bum chum, soul mate, best friend - the synonyms may go on - entered my life.

Circa 1995, The English lecturer had given us a test and was well in the middle of giving instructions on the same, when a girl dressed in a navy blue skirt and sky blue top excused into the packed classroom. Her pensive eyes were scouting for a vacant seat when I signaled her to come and sit beside me. She took the seat hurriedly and expressed an equally hurried “Thank You”. Before she could settle down she asked me, “What are the questions for the test”. That was our first interaction.

After the exam and class ended we moved out of the classroom to attend Sanskrit lecture, which was scheduled in another wing of our huge college. Aruna was once again in a hurry, this time to catch up with her friends. She almost darted out of the classroom. My eyes traced her as she wound her way bumping into and squeezing through the trail of girls in the aisle and waving and calling out to her friends.

Later that day, we had a conversation and realized we both stayed at the same place and decided to go together to the bus stop to catch the bus. At the bus stop as we waited for the bus to arrive, she confessed with a lump in her throat how her friends ignored her through the day as she did not sit on the same bench as they did. Silly? Not during school/college days where jealousy creeps in for these very reasons. As for me I did not know how to react. I stared at her face, which was riot with hurt, and anger.

Our bus lugged into the bus bay labouredly. We boarded the already spilling bus and managed to find foot space. I ensured I placed a firm foot and hand on grip holders and proceeded to check if Aruna managed to find a grip holder when I saw a man taking advantage of the situation and leaning over her. I signaled her to move away. She did and whispered “Thank You” into my ears. I smiled back.

Over the days our friendship grew, we went to the college together and came back home together. We had loads to talk, although we were virtually stuck together for most part of the day time never seemed sufficient for our talks. We talked about clothes, fashion, film industry, our lecturers, accessories, starting a business together and all other girlie stuff. It was during one of such talks that my lack of confidence about myself came to forth. Aruna was talking about us wearing an almost similar outfit when I rejected the thought giving the reason, “it may not suit me”. Aruna instead of accepting the answer looked into my eyes sharply and asked “how do you know?” I could not give an immediate reply for I was taken aback. No one asked me this question before. I gathered all my thoughts, deepest of them and put it across to her. I said, “I don’t have the kind of height, color and looks to carry the outfit”.  She took a look at me before answering and said. “Do you know that you are blessed? You have perfectly moving limbs, good eyesight, proper face features, color of your skin and height should be least of your concern, in fact, not a concern at all.” She sealed the talk saying, “You are going to wear the decided outfit and no more discussion on this.”

That’s when the reality of her words hit me. Yes, indeed I am blessed. There was no looking back after this. Need I mention that I went on to try various styles, outfits and carry myself with elan!

Now my friend calls me style diva :)