The stranger in the mirror

The cell phone rang and seeing my friend's name I excitedly reached for it.After exchanging pleasantries, she told me that she is visiting NJ on a business trip next week and would love to catch up with me. After I ended the call my thoughts flashed back to the years before the new millennium,when we were living in the "mile high" city of Denver. A serendipitous meeting of ours took us into a soulful friendship.She impressed me in the first meeting itself with her extroverted personality, genuine warmth and free spirit. Her heart was bigger than the "Rockies"and like the snow in Colorado, there was no scarcity for enthusiasm.

Though both of us had our roots in different parts of the globe we gelled instantaneously. Who would expect a sandwich and sambar combo to click ?!She opened my eyes to American way of living. Soon"Friends"and "Seinfeld" became as exciting as watching "Oliyum Oliyum"and "Chitrahaar". While my taste buds got accustomed to gustatory stimulus from pizza and pasta, my tongue imbibed her American linguistic skills. My folks back home noticed that mummy became mommy, brinjal became eggplant and curd got substituted by yogurt. Followed by much anticipated  phonetic change of rolling the "R"!

Our bond further strengthened when we sailed through maternity blues and glows together.   Then came our first bundle of joy...As a first time mom both of us experienced the excitement of all the "Firsts" together ... first nursery, first car seat,first picture etc. Both our sons marked their first car ride to each other's house when they were less than 2 weeks old. Very soon we started sharing feeding tips, parenting magazines, baby products etc. She was a mom of a totally different breed .While she remained unperturbed through the incessant crying spells of her baby, I got a panic attack even when my son burped. Taking my infant son to nearest grocery store was a Herculean task for me while she paraded the whole city with her baby like a kangaroo! 

She instilled the much needed courage in me to venture of out. She deleted the fear and insecurity, edited my social skills and saved my persona in a new file for which I will always be grateful. After we moved to NJ, life threw more challenges at me and the transformation continued... The years flew by, babies grew into toddlers then to teenagers but we didn't get a chance to meet until now.When I looked at the mirror that night I saw that the image of naive,nervous, ignorant and impulsive lady has faded away. I was happy to say good bye to that stranger in the mirror. Will my friend be happy too?