Friendship Gratitude- Mayank (Hello, Bye, Repeat)

Mayank and I have known each other for two years, however it feels like we’ve known each other for ages. We fight like it’s World War III, then usually Mayank will send something or show up and I’ll forgive him.

You will be the first to comfort me with positive words. When I get upset and say I’m done with the friendship, you refused to let that be our ending.

To me he is my:

• Best friend
• The first person I get a good morning from, never a day goes by that we don’t say good morning to each other with a selfie
• Emergency contact
• Attempted handyman
• Photo Partner, except he tries to outshine me in the photo
• Private Chauffeur
• Dating screener
• My companion if I don’t find someone by 35. He can have the east wing, I’ll have the west and he just has to make sure to know my blood type and take me to the hospital when I’m sick.

And here are my favorite moments:

• He asked me to explain some terminologies about relationships in the US, including hook up.
• Introduced him to Matcha green tea latte
• Watched him struggle at Top Golf
• He called me a Bollywood star for being so dramatic
• He jump started my car and brought a friend. He first broke my fuse box and at one point, I asked his friend to show me how open the hood.  He yelled at me saying why I am pretending to be dumb for this guy.
• He came over and picked me up and made me go to dinner when I broke up with my boyfriend, he told me I could not ever cry in front of him.  If I was to cry, I need to walk away and get myself together.  Per his words, “strong women don’t cry.”
• He agrees to use any Snapchat filter I want to make me happy.
• He called me completely out of it and told me I didn’t care about him. I was in the middle of a party and stepped out in order to go pick him up.  He refused to tell me. Then he hung up on me.

I would compare our friendship to a mini Bollywood movie. One time, I ignored him and he said don’t hate him, but he couldn’t take me seriously because I was being so dramatic as if I was in a Bollywood soap opera.

When we first met, we had no idea where this friendship was going to go.  We struggled with some simple things such as communicating with each other, actually setting dates to see each other, and at that time, he didn’t have a car.

But with all the difficulties, we wanted to keep each other in our lives. At one point, my work moved 3 minutes from him, so I thought it would mean growing our relationship even more.  But as fate would have it, it would never be that simple.

Work for him got insanely busy and he didn’t know how to manage expectations.  Then one fine day, I asked him to pick me up at the airport from an interview.  Low and behold, I land home and get a message that he had a meeting and nothing else.  For me, that was the moment I decided to cut him from my life.

But one thing you will learn about Mayank, he is determined.  He never ever gave up on me. He never stopped messaging me, he never stopped begging for my forgiveness.  For nearly 8 months, constant messages through Facebook, Snapchat, text, etc…without a response.

Then on my birthday, I was on my whirlwind trip with Lisa and he messaged me “Happy Birthday, I just wanted to wish you a good one and to let you know I am not going to message you anymore.”

I showed it to Lisa and we just giggled. Then when Lisa and I landed in Delhi, he messaged me.  He said, listen I changed my entire plans to make sure I was in India when you arrived. If you will not speak to me in your country, you owe it to me to talk to me in mine. Let me take you to dinner.

I almost said no, but my best friend was like take one for the team. If he’s not taking us out, we would just sit here. At least we get a dinner and maybe he will take us to a new place.  So Mayank, you have to thank Lisa for rekindling our friendship.

He scolded me for being too hard-headed and tough for 2 minutes and we discussed what happened and started fresh.  He picked me and Lisa from the airport when we came back to the US and you could say the rest is history.  We’ve been best friends ever since and over time, with each obstacle we’ve faced individually, we’ve always been there for each other.

Thank you for never walking away when I told you to.