Classmate or friend!

Some days back, I was with my daughter in her basketball class when it suddenly started to rain. So, on the spur of the moment, I decided to drop in into my friend's house that's near the basketball court. I introduced my daughters (the younger one had also come along) to my friend, met her son, chatted for a while and returned home. My daughter was keen on knowing more about this friend of mine - after all, she was meeting her for the first time.
I told her she was my classmate from college. She then wanted to know if this classmate had been a friend then.

Now, this really set me thinking. Back in college, in a class of about 60-odd students, I was part of a group of 8 friends - the close knit group that only school or college kids can form - meeting each other daily, sitting together, having lunch together, bunking class together or giggling and laughing together at our own jokes. All the others in the class were, well, classmates, I guess; or simply put, 'plain' friends and not 'close' friends.

But now, after several years out of college, all classmates seem to be like good old friends. Isn't that strange? I guess a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have known each other for over 5 years, have shared the same classroom, have spent the same time growing up and of course have a lot of common friends and common experiences. The memories of things we did and enjoyed as college students wipes away the imaginary boundaries that we had earlier created when forming groups in the class. Now, we think of everyone in the class as just one big group of friends!

Also, having moved on in life, we collect and make more friends - so they are now broadly categorised as friends from school, from college, from office, neighbours, etc..

So, coming back to my daughter's question, I told her she was a 'classmate' then but now she's a friend!!

A surprise treat!

Two days ago, my daughter Manasvi (the elder one who is 10 years old) surprised me. She said, "I'll cook dinner tonight -you relax!" I was overwhelmed, and hugged her. I had just come back from a walk and her idea of "you relax" was most welcoming. But then leaving the kitchen to a 10-year old is not an easy job. I tried to hang around and help her but she was very vehement that I would not be doing any such thing - I was worried about her handling the gas stove and using the kitchen knives (even though they are a little blunt, things like these in her hands are definite weapons of mass destruction!!). She literally pushed me out of the kitchen and repeated again "RELAX".

Okay, fine. I said to myself. Let her learn, she will probably call out to me in a few minutes asking for help to light the stove or to chop some vegetable. But no, she finished everything - prepared dinner, set the table and then called out to me. I was stunned. She'd made tomato soup (thanks to Knorr). She tried to be a little creative. She boiled pasta and added it to the soup and not to forget the "vegetables", she put in some corn and peas (her most preferred veggies!) And lo, we had a wholesome dish to eat and drink for dinner! Her younger sister loved it as well and in fact the next day she asked me "Will Akka be preparing dinner again today? It was so nice yesterday"!!

After the pleasant dinner, my daughter added "okay Amma, I cooked dinner tonight; now how about you doing my homework?" I was speechless!