Does it matter?

We were at school one spring afternoon, with no teacher in class and practically basking in the gladness that good company provides.

And like it sometimes happens to each one of us, I had one of moments: when you suddenly go, whoa. Look at this-- look at how lucky I am.

You look around you and suddenly wonder at the magic all around: I'm surrounded by my friends, we're all sitting haphazardly at best, more than three in benches that seat two, and chatting and singing away happily. We, here, are: six boys and a girl, including two Muslims, four Hindus, one of us almost from another country, and all of us speak different languages-- Tamil, Hindi, Bihari, Urdu-- being from different states--and we're enjoying like none of that matters.

I was thinking, would this have been so commonplace even, what, five years back?

Wait, is it commonplace outside these four walls of our class 10th C?

Or is just the fact that we're evolved enough not to consider these rare things commonplace rather than miracles in daily life?

Is it just because we were fortunate enough to be born in India, with all its diversity and genial secularism, that we see each other as friends first, and not as people belonging to a different gender, linguistic community or religion?

Just the fact that a girl could feel comfortable and enjoy in the company of six guys, or that all of us who were so, so different were also united by something so much more binding made me feel a surge of love for everything around me, and everything that had led to this wondrous moment, here, in my class 10th C, in my beautiful country, India.

And then I went on to join in singing the latest Bollywood song with these precious friends.

#friends #india #school #moments