Few ways to make somebody like you!

Astha was frustrated. She just couldn’t understand why the world was going out of its way to being cruel to her. Her class teacher had just announced her lab partner and it was the ONLY person in class that she hated.

Aastha, her soft demeanour and ever-smiling face were loved by everyone in her ninth standard class. In turn, she loved everybody too. Except, Sneha. She just couldn’t understand her. It didn’t help that Astha had a feeling that Sneha didn’t like her too.

Why do you think so?

Well, earlier Astha and Sneha were just two people in the class who only existed but didn’t care for each other. Then one day, with a twist of fate, Astha became the seat partner with Sneha. Well, it wasn’t just fate. Turns out Sneha’s original seat partner got chickenpox and thus would be back only after a month.

Anyway, the day that both of them became seat partners was just like any other day. Astha, ever-smiling and hoping to make a new friend smiled at Sneha and Sneha; all but scowled. Astha was so surprised! It was the first time in her life that somebody hadn’t smiled at her when she had smiled at them.

Next period, Astha tried again to be friendly and said “Hey Sneha! What a nice morning right?”

Sneha looked at her as if she was a bug and couldn’t believe that the bug could talk.

Astha didn’t try conversing again.

Next day was even harder than the first. She thought she should try again but whenever she wanted to say something, something stopped her.By the third day, she was sure that Sneha hated her and she hated her too.

“ Why should I be the only one trying to make a conversation?” “ Why doesn’t she even try?”

It just didn’t make sense to her why anybody would not like her. Astha believed herself to have a pleasant personality, was not very fussy about things and loved to know more about people. She was voted “ The most friendly” twice in her row in class and even had trophies to prove that.

The next week, Astha decided enough was enough. She stopped caring that Sneha wasn’t speaking to her. Instead, she decided to use another tactic- “ Killing them with Kindness”. She helped her with her notes in class, gave her an extra pen with a pen eraser on top. She even allowed her to sit with her group during lunch, even though she never contributed much in the group.

Astha had thought maybe her kindness will make her realise what a great person she is and Sneha will die to make be her friend.

Sneha reacted alarmingly different from what Astha had thought. Instead of thanking her, Sneha would just ignore the random acts of kindness and not even thank her for them. Astha realised Sneha really needed help, both in her social skills and also in her notes because like her bad observational skills, she was also very bad at taking notes.

Though her plan failed, Astha continued helping Sneha with her notes and making sure that they have lunch together for the whole week.

The third week began with no change and Astha was considerably miserable when it came around. She decided it was time to use the last resort- her mother’s cooking. She forced her mother to make her the most amazing food- her famous bhindi, aalu and rajma especially for her. Her mother, quite surprised by this turn thought probably it was the stress of the new grade that was making her daughter suddenly crave for comfort food.

How wrong was she! How would she have reacted had she found out it was actually to impress a girl!

During lunch breaks, Astha made sure that she shared her food only with Sneha. Through all of which, Sneha impervious to the extra effort being put for her classmate just continued taking the kindness without any reciprocation from her own.

Seeing Sneha’s reaction didn’t hurt as much as she had thought.Not only because the bhindi was burnt the second day but because Astha was finally giving up. In the fourth week, Astha shifted to only exchanging pleasantries. If Sneha noted this difference, she didn’t comment.

Meanwhile, Sneha’s old seatmate- Tanya was still nowhere to be seen. They were saying she might even have to skip this class. Sneha demeanour changed drastically when she first heard this rumour. She went from cold to solemn and even though it had been only a month since they had became somewhat acquaintances, Astha noticed.

So, when the teacher made the announcement about the lab partners, Astha was sure that the subject was doomed and she wouldn’t be able to even pass. When the period ended, she went to the teacher, a sweet Ms Bannerjee and said “ Ma’am, can I request for a change in lab partner”

Surprised, because she knew of Astha’s social skills asked: “ May I ask why?”

Astha in her innocence just said, “ Well, I don’t think Sneha likes me very much!”

“ Oh, your lab partner is Sneha?” Astha could see a worried look on her face which cleared in seconds and said: “ No, if I start changing partner just because two people don’t like each other, then half the class will be upon me… don’t you think?”

“ Yes, ma’am but..”
“ No buts. Why do you care if she likes you or not? You be nice to her, that’s it.”

“ I tried that! It didn’t work!”

“ Well, were you kind only because you wanted her to like you?”

Astha couldn’t meet her teacher’s eyes.

“ Well, why don’t you trying being kind to her without any motive? Why not make your kindness, your second nature?”

Astha realised her mistake and though it was hard to implement, she said: “ Yes ma’am, I will surely try.”

“ Good. Be kind to her. She needs it.” With that Ms. Bannerjee left before Astha could question what she truly meant.

Next day, Astha, resumed being kind to Sneha. She helped her with her notes, made her have lunch with her friends and even smiled whenever they spoke. The only difference, she no longer expected her to give her something back for her kindness.

Astha had truly realised the freedom of giving without expecting anything in return.

During the break, Astha asked Sneha about Tanya, she knew that Astha and Tanya were pretty close for they always hung together. “ How is Tanya by the way? The smallpox must be really bad if she will have to skip this grade.”

For the first time, Astha noticed some emotion on Sneha’s face. She saw pain and sadness.

Sneha replied, “ Yes, she is still struggling.”

With that, Sneha excused herself and rushed to the bathroom,

Astha was taken aback. Suddenly, she realised how selfish she had been! In the midst of being liked, she had forgotten, that Astha was replacing Sneha’s best friend Tanya who was sick. How ignorant had she been!

From then on, Astha made sure that they spoke of Tanya, brought her in conversations and spoke of their friendship. The change was extraordinary! Astha noticed the flicker of light back in the eyes of her classmate. When talking about an exceptionally interesting incident, Astha even saw Sneha laugh!

Finally, when the final bell rung for them to go home, Astha wondered aloud if they should go see Tanya. She smiled at Sneha and added, “ I have already had my smallpox, so it should be okay!”

Sneha froze. Looking at the sudden change, Astha said “ Oh, you don’t want me to come? That’s alright”

Sneha shook her head and said “ No, it’s not that…”

“ Oh, then have you not had smallpox yet?”

“No, no- I visit her every day.”

Astha looked at Sneha again and realised that she had started crying!

Shocked, Astha took her in her arms. Sneha continued crying for a while. After some time, she found her composure and between sobs said “ Tanya…Tanya doesn’t have smallpox. She has cancer!”

Astha couldn’t believe her ears! With tears in her eyes, she asked: “ Will she be alright?”

“Don’t know yet, they are still doing her chemo. They don’t tell me much.”

“ Oh, why doesn’t anybody in the class know?”

“Tanya’s parents didn’t want to scare the students” Then, Sneha took Astha’s hands in both her hands and said “ Promise me. Promise me that you won’t tell anybody what I told you.”

“ I promise. I promise”

Going back to her home in her bus that day, Astha was inconsolable. Not just because of Tanya’s illness but because of the regret of her own selfish thoughts and self-centredness.

One word and Astha grew up, realising what true friendship really meant.