B is for Blah blah

And I neither mean the song nor the album. What I’m talking about is the good old gift of the gab, which I suppose we all have. It’s just a matter of the company we are with.

What inspired this post is a long chat with my bestie, who is miles away right now. We haven’t spoken to each other in ages but whenever we chat, we can pick  up right from where we had left off. We chat endlessly, giggling like a couple of school girls, laughing over silly memories and at each other, even hurling insults like no one else can or will dare to. After an hour-long conversation, when R asked me what we were chatting about, I didn’t have any specifics to give him.  I guess that is what is special. The fact is that we can go blah blah for hours on end but with no specific topic in mind.

I love my weekly chats with my mom, where I fill her in on the latest gossip in my life, complain about work or discuss anything under the sun and take notes for recipes that I want to try for the weekend. Of course, it is incomplete without some gyan and admonishment from ma for the mischievous things I admit to her.

I know that it is one of the special reasons why I love shopping with my girlfriends or have a meal with them. It is not so much the shopping or the food (well, it is that too) but what I love most is the conversations we have. It doesn’t have to be about anything important or specific even. Just that the tête-à-têtes don’t stop until we have to split for the day, and even after. Then again, isn’t that what determines whether you can be friends at all in the first place?

Of course, there is nothing like the good old-fashioned in-person, heart-to-heart, a stay-up-all-night blah-blah session. But with so many miles in between friends, a phone-call, a skype chat or a whatsapp chat is almost just as good.

I also have a strong bond with my first friends i.e. my sisters and cousins. I have not one two but 6 sisters who love me very fiercely. I have a different bond with each of them, one is my mentor, one is my role model, and one is my partner in crime in the family and so on…. you get the picture. So every time, depending on the issue at hand, I know which of them to call. I really have a support system that works overtime. Whether it is to bitch about R during a fight or to get a boost when I’m feeling low, I know it is there.

Speaking of R, he and I started off as very good friends first, who could talk endlessly about anything and everything. We started talking 16 years ago and we never stopped. We will grow old together and as long as the conversation flows, I know we’ll be ok.

Someone once told me, “ Food is the one thing that you enjoy at all stages in your life. It can make everything alright.” To that I say, "Food may not always do the trick but a pep talk from the appropriate person will right almost everything."