Off The Cuff: A wry look at life

Family friends. Friends of your parents whose children you inherit - as friends. Not that you are ever told that you have to be friends. It's just understood that you will get on famously. Like a house on fire. The two sets of parents soul and sole mates.

Somehow this familiarity never breeding contempt. The mothers sharing their experiences as wives and mothers. The fathers sharing a camaraderie forged by common interests and similar jobs. And the children somehow becoming the best of buddies. It's hard not to like that girl or boy next door with whom you shared your first day at school together, your first fight.

Perhaps that excessive togetherness made you close. Because it wasn't as if you could get rid of this friend once school was over. The family lived next door. The two sets of parents seemingly inseparable. Nothing was done without consulting the other. Family outings meant two mothers, two fathers and a host of children.

Your lives inextricably intertwined. So much so that as soon as you got a new book or any present, you ran next door to show your friend. Never mind if he already knew about it because his mother had gone shopping with yours.

Two family units making up one whole. Pet peeves, childhood illnesses, common enemies, the complete gamut of joys and sorrows - nothing was too private to be exchanged or shared.

I've had several such friends. Collected over the years at different places. Instant friendships that can only be developed in the close confines of an army cantonment area where neighbours were always neighbourly.

As soon as you moved into the allotted quarters you could be sure of being inundated by house calls, offers of meals and general helpfulness. Offers which you accepted as it was the done thing. Because you weren't always at the receiving end. Many a time you were the one who welcomed a new neighbour, admitted them into your close circle of friends. A way of life no one questioned. Merely took for granted.

As I was saying, I made several 'best' friends this way. I remember one of these. One evening we were told that a couple were coming over to dinner along with their daughter who was my age. They had just been posted here. A few hours later, my parents were welcoming the guests.

The girl and I eyed each other. I thought she was much older than me and that my parents had made a mistake. Surely she was nearer my sister's age. Actually she wasn't but she happened to be very tall for her age and actually wore high heels. Something which I wasn't allowed to wear.

Seeing those high heels, I automatically assumed that she was much older. Handed her over to my sister with a sigh of relief and went to read my book. But my reading was disturbed by my sister leading the guest to my room, saying that she was my age and that we would have much more in common. So I was stuck with her company.

But as we slowly broke the ice, we discovered many common interests. By the end of that evening, we had already made plans to meet the next day. Two sets of parents looked at each other, pleased that their girls had hit it off. Because so had they.

Over the next two years, the duration of the posting, we were inseparable. Constantly in and out of each other's houses. My friend envying me my numerous siblings (alas, the only thing about her that completely baffled me), while I envied her the luxury of being an only child. And that was the start of one of many friendships that has lasted until today.