My Friend Kash

I can't exactly remember when Kash and I became friends. It seemed like a long time ago though.

Kash was the one person I would call my best friend during those schooling years. As cliche as it sounds, she was there each and every time I called or popped in unannounced to tell of yet another one of my juvenile relationship break ups. Or after I've had a yelling match with my father or suffered any teenage troubles on the home front.

I could talk for hours on the phone with Kash, and she would just be there listening, often saying little, if anything. I took comfort in knowing she was at the end of the line, empathizing and saying just the right things at the right time. Kash was already practising active listening long before the days I even knew what it meant.

We continued being friends through college but we lost touch a couple of years later. Kash went on to make a life in the US, while I was back here - on opposite sides of the world. During this time, she was always in my thoughts but because we both were so caught up with things we needed to get done, we barely kept in contact.

Kash came back six weeks ago.

I saw her last about six years ago, after I had Little A. Between then and this visit, so much time had passed. I have had two more kids since, she's just had a baby. She's just given up her job to be a stay-at-home mom; I've just gone back to working part-time.

Whilst it seems like our lives are on different planes, timezones, phases - literally worlds apart, we still have our friendship. And that will see us through it all. Like a friend once said, "We haven't grown older, we've just grown up."