Comic Relief

I was showing my friend Deepika some photographs from a tiring training programme the office conducted (more on that later) this weekend and her typical first question was: why are you sitting so close to the phirang? Trust her to notice the men around. So, I replied, "because he loves me and I love him."

Came her next question, "how many are you in love with?"
I replied, "They come and go like the breeze."
"So, you stand grounded,” she asked.
"I dunno.. one moment it is Tom Cruise, the other moment it is Tony Parker I want,” said I.
"Enough," she retorted. "Bahut ho gaya hain, it's time you got married and I danced to meri yaar ki shaadi hain."

That’s Deepika and me. We suffer each other’s inane conversations all the time, which would sound as silly as ever to the one listening. But for us, therein lies the source of all our laughters…
And men, have always been our favourite topic of discussion -- seriously, non-seriously and at the end philosophically. So, you know her ready comments on the photos.

She is someone I feel most comfortable talking to. I can’t forget how she once asked one of her friends, "Oh you too suffer from depression. I thought married people never did." Well, in our boyfriend-less days those days, when we used to wake up from our afternoon naps most sunny Sunday afternoons, depression was the order of the day. “I am depressed” Deeps would yell from one room. I would catch on the infectiopn pretty quick! Then Deeps would play the saddest of songs on her tape-recorder in full volume and with the dim lamps in her room, her’s was truly a ghetto of the dark.

Today, five years later, madam is married, sharried and all. But the depression pops up once in a while. The last time it was “I will come down to Dilli and we will go to a hill station on a holiday”. When I asked what of Murli, her hubby? Well, he can take care of himself for a while. He is anyways travelling all the time, was her prompt reply.

And like a Norton anti-virus, Deepika would pop up in my life to check on me, and also share and laugh at our tales of perfidy, romance, drama, tragi-comedy and .... depression.