The Friend of Three

The Friend of Three

                It was 20th March ,a  hot and humid afternoon in Orlando , Florida . The would be groom's father Mr. Lodge had meticulously managed to get his entire family and closed ones to the would be bride's place  for the engagement ceremony. Once the luggage was unloaded from the boots of the cars and arranged at the appropriate place , the round of introductions commenced. Jughead was already feeling a little awkward to be one of only two friends invited by his would be groom friend Reggie . At the same time Jughead felt privileged to be a part of this auspicious occasion.  With this dual thought , Jughead opted to stay way behind in the round of introductions. As Mr. Lodge finished the family and relative introductions he introduced the other friend of Reggie – Sebastian . He had an easy introduction Reggie’s childhood friend . Finally the pointer came to him.  Jughead was already receiving all the suspicious looks from bride’s side e.g. Who the hell  is this guy !!  When Mr. Lodge introduced him – “ This is Jughead , he is both Reggie and Veronica’s friend” . However there was another voice saying    -  “ Hey uncle he is my friend too”.  That voice was from Archie.

That moment was extremely overwhelming for him, Jughead had just managed to hold back his tears, quickly moved away from the scene.  Jughead had never felt so loved and respected in his life by a family which is really not his own family but has  always made him felt one of them.

                You must be wondering who is Reggie ? Who is Archie ? But most importantly who is Veronica ? Let us wind the clock back by … not much just  by one year and three months.  You won’t believe Jughead didn’t know either of them. Jughead was just a regular Software Developer who had joined a new company . Jughead had found a few new friends viz. Jake from his practice  and Cheryl and Michelle from HR.  Cheryl- kudos to her dynamic personality was the pioneer of the group of four . She mentioned she has a friend named Veronica . However Jughead was not sure whether she would really gel with the so called “group” then.   One fine day Veronica  Lodge made  an entry returning from her big Rajasthan trip.  She gets introduced to him . The typical Hi –hello type.  Suddenly there was word uttered by him which like turned the ignition on for their engine of friendship . That word was undoubtedly – “Riverdale” . The seemingly reserved kind of girl Veronica opened out and within no time they became good friends and she became the fifth member of the group .  Both of them connected on different level from other members of the gang. I won’t delve deeper in the activities of this group because that will be like writing a book.

                Till now , Jughead just talked about how Jughead became friends with Veronica . You will say that is pretty normal and Jughead won’t deny that at all. Yes , it was pretty normal when 3^rd recruiter of the company became very good friends with an engineer. Also it was normal that she was 6 years younger to him.   Friendship has no professional barriers  and no age bar  . However you still don’t have clue on Archie and Reggie ? Let’s start with Archie.  Veronica might have just mentioned to him about Archie being her special friend / boyfriend / fiancé .  However she was not really keen on introducing him . She was really trying to save her clandestine affair from the office folks.  Jughead didn’t probe her too much on the topic. Some days later , Jughead completed his first ever Half marathon . Jughead was excited and he decided to throw a party at Long Island club to his dear gang. However this time he had some expansion plans  Jughead called them along with their spouses. He  insisted Veronica to call Archie.  Archie Andrews walked in the restaurant  shook hands said in this typical tone “Congratulations Dude” .  Jughead never knew that handshake was just the foundation of another friendship .  They talked briefly that day , but somehow the Archie who is an extremely social person, exchanged numbers and volunteered  to stay in contact even after the party .  Soon there were more plans where Jughead met him and they became better friends.  

Still no Reggie in the picture isn’t it .Well keep reading .

                One of the days when Jughead was enjoying his lunch at a friend’s place close to Veronica’s house.  He  was invited by Veronica to her place after his lunch plan.  There he  was introduced to Reggie for the first time. Reggie appeared extremely shy to him and he hardly talked. He came out from his room ,  carrying this look of  “Who is my sister’s friend ? Let me check it out”  . That day their conversation was short lived as Jughead had to rush to his French class. Jughead would shy away from the story telling for one moment and say that Veronica was definitely a big catalyst in introducing Archie and Reggie to him.  

 It is one of the weekends in April, Archie came over to his place so that they could plan something and he convinced Veronica and Reggie to come over as well. They did come after a lot of persuasion. They went for long drive and then went for some snacks.  During this time , Jughead got to know Reggie better and he too started opening up . Well that was first of the big meets .  After some days Archie the travel enthusiast, came up with a plan to go to Rocky’s with  Reggie , Jughead and couple friends of Archie . They were all excited to go there on bikes but hearing about the lands slides in Rocky’s they decided postpone their plan indefinitely. Jughead was actually very disappointed that the plan had not materialized.  A few days later Archie made a breakfast plan at Panama dam along Reggie , Veronica and Jughead.   There,  they decided that if not Rocky’s lets go to some other place. Then someone (not sure who) came up with the idea of Bahamas.  Within no time the plan became a reality and all the bookings were done and three of them flew to Bahamas.  Honestly , Jughead was really not sure how will be able to gel with this brothers – in –law pair on an international trip . However his scepticism was killed , by the some awesome time spent together in Bahamas and formed the “Wolf Pack” . It was not even a year of friendship with Veronica and Jughead was already on a Bahamas trip with her fiancé and brother J The whole world was shocked. A unique trio indeed. 

               

From then onwards , there hasn’t be any important occasion in the Lodge and Andrews family where Jughead hasn’t been invited. For a person like Jughead whose family was reduced to two members and was reeling under personal problems, this friendship was like  the God’s priceless gift.  The time Jughead has spent with three of them in last 1.5 years was simply magical. Jughead doesn’t know what will happen next , where each of them will land up or whether they are able to maintain the same momentum of their friendship , but at this present moment Jughead is  happy to have them in his life.  

The Obedient Son - Nervous Adolescence

Chapter 2  - Nervous Adolescence (Continuation from first blog - > Phase of Innocence)

The Truth unfolds
Ajinkya was too young but slowly he understood the relation problems in this family. There was not one combination in the family who didn't have a serious problem with one another, except for Ajinkya of course. There is really no point finding out the root cause but all the issues were revolving around his father Vishwas. Shit happens, but the problem with Vishwas  was - he could not forgive and forget. He used to keep blaming Vaijayanti  for all the problems in his life.  Vaijayanti  the weakling in the house could hardly defend herself made peace with every situation.However Ajinkya was well shielded from these fights and quarrels as Ahana took care of her little brother ensuring that he is never disturbed. However, it was very disturbing for Ajinkya to digest the fact that his parents were deserted by majority of his paternal relatives. Ajinkya, the sincere person he was at that age, always believed that his parents would have done nothing wrong.


The Stinginess
Ajinkya was a born saver. He never asked for anything to his father. Not even a new pair of shoes. Vishwas  used to see the condition of his shoes and get two new pair shoes. Same was the case with clothes, cricket bat  and other toys.


The SSC result 
Ajinkya, who was under pressure to out perform his elder sister in the SSC exam was burning the midnight oil .He performed exceedingly well on school prelims. However in the main board exams, his favorite subject Maths let him down. Ajinkya was heart broken at the time of results as it was way below his expectations. Ajinkya, however got a last seat on first list of his dream junior college !

The HSC comeback
The wound of SSC result was still deep. Ajinkya although an emotional person was very revengeful too. He wanted to prove a point not just to the entire world but to himself. He isolated himself from his friends and started burning the midnight oil as if the world was coming to an end.
As we know that hard-work never goes unpaid, he got an amazing result- just missing the merit list by just 6 marks.This was huge for him as this laid the foundation for his career. However all this happiness was short-lived as something else happened around the same time.


Ahana's exit 
Ahana continued the family legacy of daughters going against their parent's wish to get married. Let us wind back a couple of months. Post Ajinkya's 18th birthday , Ahana revealed that she was proposed by a guy and she wanted to take it ahead. Vishwas and Vaijayanti had already seen a boy for Ahana and wanted her to get married to him. Ajinkya the immature person supported his parents as he didn't like Ahana's choice. It was this decision that cost him his relationship and his best friend.
A couple of months later a day before Ajinkya's HSC result, Ahana left the house and got registered marriage done with her choice of boy Akhil.
A few days later Vishwas learnt his brother-in-law has gone bankrupt and could not return his money. This was darkest patch of Ajinkya's family.
Ajinkya, however got the engineering admission in one of the most prestigious college in the country for the most coveted course. Important to mention the seat was last in the open category and it was merit seat. For Vishwas, didn't have to shell a penny extra apart from the regular engineering fees.
Ajinkya was on cloud number 9.


Early days of engineering college
Ajinkya , the person who had completed his school and junior colleges from one of the most happening institutions, then was suddenly thrown into a sea of totally 'non-happening' kind of students. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the students or the places they came from, but  it was Ajinkya who was unable to relate to them. He started feeling lonely. When he came back home he could see his unhappy parents and empty sister's room. Looking at the sister's room , tears started trickling down periodically. He was getting intimidated of failing the exams. Ajinkya got sad, irritated and started complaining. All his friends were in a different college and he was alone in this one. He didn't feel like going to college and reached the stage of quitting it . Vaijayanti tried to console him by all means. Finally a few of his friends in other branches whom Ajinkya knew came to his house , stood by him and consoled him or helped him gain his confidence .


The Group of 11
End of the first six months , Ajinkya was happy to have given 1st Semester exams well and believed he would pass. It was the last day of the exam . After completing the exam , outside the exam hall he saw 10 people. Little did he think that he would go with them for lunch that day and they will become an integral part of his life for next 3 years. Ajinkya was relieved as he had got company and real good one. Each person in the group was not only intelligent but talented in varied fields and was extremely opened minded .

Mood Swings
The not so lonely Ajinkya now started venting out all his emotions in front of his friends. He was continuously troubled at home with his father's words that he was only one left to breach his trust. He loved his sister and he wanted her to come back into the family. He pleaded and begged his father , however it was in vain.  The problems at home made Ajinkya think he was all alone in his world. Would someone blame him for that? Father misbehaving, grandmother not living with him, sister gone, no first cousins. All this happened to person who loved company. His situation at home started reflecting among his friends. Slowly, he got possessive about them and unknowingly started holding on to them. However his friends were still nice to him and co-operated with all this whims and mood swings. Ajinkya was a true fighter and used to manage excelling at studies in all crisis situations he was facing.

Grandma's heart attack
 It was destined that Ajinkya would get disrupted in mid of exams. This time it was his grandma's heart attack. Ajinkya had to sit outside the ICU studying for his data structures exam. However, he couldn't study well. He gave the exam nevertheless and always thought he would pass. However when the result was out,  Ajinkya for the very first time in his life had failed an exam. He came outside crying, heart broken helpless. He couldn't believe that he could ever fail. Ironically he still had a first class despite of the backlog. It was raining outside, Ajinkya stood in the rain crying. However the passers by couldn't distinguish between the rain drops and tears. He ran home avoiding all the embarrassment.


Final Year Engineering Project
It was that time of the year, where students were hunting for the best group of BE projects. Ajinkya had one live backlog in 3rd year engineering practical exam due to a finicky external examiner. He was feeling low and started getting cynical of getting a good BE project. His close friends smartly worked around him and formed their groups. Was that morally right? Were they friends in need to help Ajinkya. Well to give them the benefit of the doubt they were intimidated to lose project due to a person having live backlog. Ajinkya was feeling betrayed by his own friends. He came home in a bad mood. Well there is a God and he maintains the balance of nature. His mother's friend saw his condition and she realized she had a contact with a well known company. Coincidentally this company already had approached his college for BE projects and selected a few students. She made a few phone calls and Ajinkya got a BE project. Nice things happen to nice people here.


Campus Placement 
As described in the movie 3 idiots, this is time of the year where all the students are running behind placements and everyone is obsessed with getting placed on the very 1st day. Ajinkya also fell victim of this obsession. However, soon his fate was in front of him - "Not shortlisted". This was embarrassing for Ajinkya than the backlog he had faced earlier. He waited for the next company on 3rd Day of placements. He was shortlisted and appeared for his very first interview. He was sweating profusely as his nervous hands caught tightly onto his folder of mark-sheets. The interviewer was a kindhearted person and made Ajinkya feel very comfortable and then perspiration stopped. Ajinkya thought he had performed well at the interview. He had to wait for the results. Finally the time came when the results were announced. It was 8 pm in the evening, one after the other there were 45 names announced. The suspense was excruciating for Ajinkya and he slowly started losing hope. He already started planning the next day. However he totally forgotten that the company hiring that day had two types of jobs offered and the 45 people announced were for the one of them. The placement commenced announcing the list for second type of job 3 names were announced and then it was the moment for which Ajinkya was waiting for - his name announced "and Ajinkya" . Again the trend- "getting selected last" continued. But who cared? It is important to be selected now doesn't matter where on the list you are, isn't it ?

Final Year 
Ajinkya was not done in engineering days even when he was placed and had a decent average percentage. While all his friends were enjoying, Ajinkya worked day in day out on the BE project and also his academics. He wanted to prove a point he wanted to cross the 70% mark in engineering . As it is said hard work never goes waste, Ajinkya gave the perfect finishing touch by securing  a 70 + percentage in the Final year. He was all set to join the company in which he was placed.

Did Ajinkya do well in his Job , did he find a girlfriend ? Well stay tuned for next part ....