Inspite of the fact what Shompa was going through during her marriage ceremonies, I did not fail to enjoy her events. There was Chinese food and I took lots of photographs with her and was video taped along with her.
These days were not only the fun days I shared with her. If I go back as far as the university days, our small group of four to five girls would ping on an idea for fun activities (most of the ideas were Shapla’s of course). Some of these that I recall now are as follows:
Yeah, we actually went to cinema halls 15 minutes later than when the cinema began and came out 15 minutes earlier before they ended in order to avoid the rush of crowds in and out for fear of getting lost or even possibly running into a stampede. It was Shapla’s witful way of thinking to avoid mishaps. They were usually huge halls and we chose seats at the back most because they were very near the exit door. In times of recess, hawkers would come with drinks and snacks, and we shared and bought some of these and passed the break times enjoyably. And while the cinema went on, we enjoyed every moment as well because there were popular interesting stories in them.
My female friends enjoyed going to trade fairs every year, and I was usually with them as well and had loads of fun. This makes my heart sing now: We had joy; we had fun. We had seasons in the sun. There were all kinds of things available here starting from showpieces, furniture, utensils, dresses, cosmetics and anything else, you name it. But as usual we visted every nook and corner but being students, we bought very few, maybe some simple cosmetics and ended our visit by drinks and snacks.
We didn’t buy anything here unlike the above fair. It was just fun to watch newer models and upgrades. Where there would be too many crowds, we would avoid them as usual but where there was space, we relished every minute.
We all had birthday celebrations when the occasion turned up. We would either choose to have a feast at home or go out to dine at some Chinese restaurent. We were also particular about giving gifts to the birthday girl. On these days we, as a group, would also visit our favorite guy’s home (whom we know from the university days) and have a great chitchat together.
Years passed when I would have festival days with no friends to visit nor talk. But as long I was in touch with this group, we simply spent fabulous times greeting each other and eating special menus at homes. We also took the opportunity of watching movies together at these times.
After university days were over, we, the girls were enjoying at marriage parties of our guy classmates; in fact it was weird that guys were getting married so rapidly, and the gals took a few more whole years to do the same. We gave gifts as a group gift, each of us having our share of the contribution to them. At the ceremonies, we, the gals and guys ate together and it was a kind of a get-together for us because by now we were all busy with our career jobs and hardly got to see eachother.
Shirin’s place was very near my home while she was in the country. I gave her fun visits every now and not only talked with her but enjoyed long strolls with her around her home inside her complex. Not only this, she gave me constant companionships, when I was a lecturer, to anywhere I wanted, usually the university’s special occasions, gatherings and annual picnics because I was kind of the only female teacher in the department around that that time.
I saved the best fun days together with my friends, both gals and guys for the last. It was a journey by train at first and then by bus to visit the sea beach. Shapla and I fell sick on the way, although she recovered earlier. But still I got myself to savor every moment I stayed during the journey. My special friend, Shompa took care to bring me free breakfast, lunch and dinner while I was sick but I recovered quickly to be vital and strong again to enjoy sight-seeing during the rest of the journey. Everyone, not only my special friends took great care of me. We saw hilly mountains and climbed the little ones, crossed dangling bridges, visited sea beaches where the guys helped us if rocky hills needed to be climbed up and down as the case may be. We also went shopping, and I brought back gifts for my family when the travel ended, and each one of us as well did the same.