“Marry your best friend”, they said. “It’ll be fun”, they said.
Fifteen years back, my friends asked me to marry my best friend. They knew how close we both were. The friends I’m talking about are my best friends to date. We met for the first time at a training session organised by our company.
It was an insurance company, and mandatory training was to be done before getting our license to sell insurance. We were a fresh batch of about 10 of us. All of us introduced ourselves and settled down soon. The trainer started teaching the basics of insurance and asked a few questions.
There he was. Seated on the last bench, he kept giving all the correct answers when none could. He kept doodling in his book the rest of the time without paying much attention to the class. I thought to myself, “Looks like an over smart guy with an ‘I know it all’ expression!”
Soon, I made friends with a few girls. We would hang out together, giggling, chatting and scanning the guys from top to toe, labelling them with certain nicknames, including him. He was called ‘Mr. Silent Mystery’, owing to a mysterious, sly smile he donned all the time. He was also a man of few words.
It was a love-hate relationship between us—typical filmy style kind. I still remember we were in the elevator, and I gave him a stern look, in turn receiving the same sly smile. It was a puzzle. Why was he always smiling that way? It made me even angrier!
Eventually, we all completed the training, and it was time to give the online exam. I struggled with a couple of questions and asked the person sitting ahead of me to share the answers. There again, our ‘mystery man’ had already finished his exam. While passing near my desk, he gave me a mischievous smirk.
As soon as I finished my exam, I saw him waiting outside. I gathered all my courage, went up to him, and questioned his behaviour. Unwittingly he replied, “In an online exam, the question paper is different for everyone, so even though you tried to copy, your answers would be wrong.” I felt like a fool for my ignorance.
Finally, it was action time, that is, selling insurance policies. We would gather the database, make cold calls, fix appointments, meet up with the customers, use our sales skills, and finally strike up a sale. None of this was easy at all. What was easy – the fact that we made incredibly wonderful friends in due course.
Luckily, it was a group of four of us, three girls and a boy. None other than our ‘mystery man’, who became thick friends. We had each other’s back most of the time. We would cheer and motivate one another on the days when a single policy wouldn’t sell.
Days passed, each one of us found our unique way to make a sale. Some of us would be accompanied by our managers, trainers or co-workers on sales calls which were extremely helpful, as deals can be very lonely. It includes a lot of fieldwork. However, some company never does any harm.
I was good at striking up a conversation and sales. He was good with numbers and calculations. It was a perfect jodi (couple). Roaming the streets of Fort, Nariman Point, Colaba, Masjid Bunder, BKC and many more parts of Mumbai. Travelling from South Mumbai to North Mumbai on local trains, we spent a lot of time with one another.
Between sharing lunches and snacks at various little thelas (carts), enjoying chai (tea) at nukkad chaiwalas (corner tea stalls), walking on the bandstand and marine drive, and watching a movie or two at Regal and Eros, We never knew when we got close to each other. There was no romance yet.
We both became best friends. He understood me very well. My likes, my dislikes. What would make me laugh, and what would make me cry. Mind you. There was no love story brewing up here. We were friends – best friends.
Three years passed by. Our close friendship was not hidden from anyone, and everyone at the office started cooking up stories about us. We didn’t care to explain as it would be useless. Amidst all this, “Marry your best friend”, they said. “It’ll be fun”, they said.
I guess this was it! The turning point of our lives, a feeling we didn’t quite understand or weren’t able to comprehend – we were in love. I was in love with my best friend, and 15 years later today, I still am. “Dost, dost na raha, pyaar mein badal gaya (My friend was no longer a friend, he became my love).”
I married my best friend. Though he is my husband, he still is my best friend. Life wouldn’t have been so beautiful without him by my side.
We had our shares of ups and downs right when our wedding was decided. But, as they rightly said, “Marry your best friend, it’ll be fun”, and fun it indeed is.