Pieces of the Puzzle

If there is one friend I have kept in touch with from childhood, its Nerdy Neelu. Ironical as it may sound, we used to be just ‘Ok’ friends in school. Make that enemies.

We fought most of the time out of sheer jealosy on my part. She had those coveted thick glasses on her hawky nose. Then she become the doctor I always wanted to be..or rather my parents wanted me to be. Somewhere between dissecting rats and learning DNA structures, I completely lost interest in medicine. Me flunking all the med entrance exams had nothing to do with it.

Nerdy Neelu was the bane of my carefree days.

My mom would say, ‘Look at Neelu, I’m sure she drinks 3 glasses of milk everyday and listens to her mother’.

While she was in med school, she spent many weekends at my (parent’s) place. She hated the hostel and I would be back from my hostel on the weekends bringing my clothes to be laundered. Both our hostels being close to my home, it seemed like the thing to do. It gave us the perfect atmosphere to ..er.. study. She would sit in the corner with her skeletons mugging up huge names of the tiniest cells in our body. I would be looking at ways to use those skeletons to scare the neighbors. We loved..er.. studying together in our terrace. She pouring into Neuroanatomy of Americana Periplaneta and me involved in the Anatomy of Neighborhood Studs. Stealing glances and at the same time acting disinterested. I had perfected this art.

Mom loved to inflict her fond health queries on Nerdy Neelu. Just to rub it in, maybe.

"Neelu, I am having a strange throbbing sensation in my wrist. What do you think it is? Is there a cure? How is it caused?’

Nerdy Neelu was a born doctor,’ No Auntie, its not that big a deal. I think it’s the slight malfunctioning of the tendons which is also known as Stretch Membranopathy. This causes the cells to function anaerobically.'

My mom is maha impressed but quite skeptical,’ But it sounds quite hi-fi and scary.’

Nerdy Neelu assures her its nothing and gives her suggestions on some alleviation measures.

Then mom turns her attention on poor unsuspecting me,’ Saw that!? I bet you cant even tell the difference from a foundation and plinth.’

Indignantly I scream, ’What kind of question is that? You ask her all the easy ones!’

Hmph! My mom had a way of digging the ditch deeper and deeper.

I hated Nerdy Neelu even more. I felt Nerdy peering through her glasses smirking, but I turned to look at her immersed in her books. Tch tch, Nothing, I mean nothing will come out of her.

One evening we go to the terrace to find Neighborhood Studs missing. Jeez, tough luck. I guess I will have to study like Nerdy Neelu too. So I actually start mugging up some Moment of Inertia stuff when Nerdy Neelu shuts her book and exasperatedly exclaims,’ Shucks! This is boring as hell! Where the heck are those guys today?’

We became good friends.