“You’re my best friend.” 

“No, you’re my best friend.” 

“Ugh, nooo… You’re my bestest friend.”

As kids, we’ve expressed our undying, innocent love for our play mates in as many ways as we could. And in that moment, we meant it with all of the world’s sincerity. When we were kids, fights with friends were no big deal. One sorry and everything was back to normal. With no egos and no pride to get hurt, we could tell them everything. Ah! Back then, friendship was so much easier. 

But then we grew up. 

We developed easy to hurt egos and pride took hold of us. Without an apology to offer, we lost a couple of our closest friends. But we consoled ourselves with the ‘Such is life’ cliche and moved on. 

It’s not a sad reality, it’s just how things work out. With regrets for losing out on those friends, here’s an ode to them in the form of these adorable then and now illustrations:

Bachpan ki yaari-dosti kuch aur hi thi! 

Beautiful illustrations by Gauri Saxena