The Soul Sister

Once upon a time, there was a girl. Scared and self-conscious. Afraid that she was slightly different from the rest; worried that she will never befriend people. Content in her own shell.

Until she met her.

She was unlike the others. She was warm and had a smile that lit up the room. She had those shiny eyes full of dreams yet dead set and determined.

She was in many ways different than her. Yet there was something that connected them. They grew a bond like no other.

People called them best friends.

I call them soul sisters.

There is a myth in Greek lore. It is said that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces, but Zeus feared their power and split them all in half, condemning them to spend their lives searching for the other half to complete each other.

A soulmate is someone who knows your soul in and out and yet loves you exactly the same every day.

We all have friends but there are only few lucky people who encounter someone special in their life. Someone who becomes their person, their confidante and their support system.

I found my soul sister too.

She is, simply put, unique. She is strong, mature and smart. She has such soft, warm features that you end up falling in love with her. She is classically beautiful and crazy at the same time. Books are her life and music is her oxygen. She charms her way through your heart with her talks and laughter.

I met her at a time when I didn’t expect having a friend or rather I didn’t want any.

I still remember my first ever conversation with her. It was related to a novel I was holding in my hand. Chat over the characters and the sub-plot happened and what we have now is five long years of friendship.

She has these quirks like me. She denies being a romantic but she loves romance and happy endings more than anyone I have ever known. Her ideas and thoughts sometimes irk me, but she is always right. She sees well in everyone. She doesn’t hold any grudges or lives in the past. Her motto, if you can call it that, is “Living in the past holds you back from wishing for the future.”

I might get her likes and dislikes wrong but I still claim that I know her really well. Her voice on the phone or a random text tells me what she is not able to. She is the only person who is expected to take me for granted and I let her.

It has been five years and still counting but never has a day gone when something or the other has not made me miss her. It is said distances ruin relations and friendships. But ours has only strengthened. We have grown up into fine slightly wacky females with a very different outlook on life and we do have disagreements on a lot of things but she is still the first person whom I run to when (pardon the use of profanity) “Shit hits the roof!”

I don’t think it is necessary for soulmates to be exactly similar. We are as different as apples and oranges. If she loves romantic novels, I practically avoid that section of the bookstore now. She is an amazing driver and well I am advised to stay away from anything that runs on petrol so as to avoid death (mine or anyone else’s). She has never ever had anything which might involve coffee as an ingredient and I cannot live without having one cup atleast everyday. I am a dog lover and she is showing traits of crazy cat lady lately.

But we are still similar. We fall in love, get our hopes high and see them crash everytime. We crack lame jokes and back talk each other. We swoon over the fictional characters and pray that they would jump right out of the page into our arms. We make mistakes and curse each other later but we also learn from them and help each other get through them.

She is not just my best friend or my confidante. She is more than that. Much more than that.

She is my anchor. Someone who has never given up on me. Someone who keeps me grounded, especially when I want to hide from the world. She makes me face my deepest and darkest fears. We rarely talk but I know that she will always be there when I need her. She is the mature one between the two of us.

I never wanted to shift to a new city at the peak of my adolescence. But I am glad I did. I am glad I chose that particular school. I am glad that I had a novel in my hand that day; because all this led me to meeting her. And I am glad that I met her.

I am a better person today because of her. I laugh more, I trust more, I care more and I hope more because she makes me. If it were to me I would give her ‘Nobel Prize for Peace’ for calming down and bringing peace to this nervous train wreck and for being so patient and understanding always.

You know this is the most favourite question during any interview, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” 

I always make up some imaginative story but the real answer at the back of my mind is, “Five years down the line, I may be jobless, heartbroken, poor and ugly but I will always have my best friend right next to me keeping my hope up and singing me a song in her broken Hindi. That is one thing I am confident about.”