“I’m too old to make new friends.”

That’s what I told my husband on learning that I got accepted into Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai.

I believed that I had the best group of girlfriends a woman could ever have, and I didn’t need to make any more friends.

Because, honestly, getting to know new people and opening up about yourself is a task. Baring your soul to a bunch of strangers seemed like too much work. Or so, I thought.

My husband, as usual, just said, “We’ll see.”

It’s a thing my parents usually do, which my husband now does where they completely disregard my bold statements that imply impending doom, and watch me prove myself wrong.

It actually worked badly for me, because my parents were so bored when I’d say, “I’m going to fail my exam tomorrow, Help!!!” in school, and eventually end up doing well, that they had no sympathy for my final MBBS and MS exams which were actual torture!

Something like the girl who cried wolf, one time too many! 😅

Anyway, on reaching Aravind, I realised that my foundation batch included a group of eight girls all pursuing fellowships in different parts of the eye.

I won’t be lying when I say we connected instantly.

These were girls more or less my age, who also had their own perfect gang of girlfriends, who were also wary of making new friends, who had also left their homes and families to work on bettering themselves and achieving their dreams.

I had read somewhere that female friendship is like a renewable source of power. And it’s true. I feel like I’m 28 going on 18.

We’re all getting used to living in hostels again, sharing bathrooms, journalling, experimenting with induction cookers, failing at plans to exercise in the morning, discovering facial razors and debating on whether to try blue pea tea or hot chocolate!

We all have our worries and our insecurities. We all make mistakes. But thankfully, we have each other.

We need each other to grow and be the best version of ourselves. We need each other on our mission of eradicating needless blindness.

Also modifying a Harry Potter quote, i’ll say that, “There are somethings you can’t share without ending up liking each other..and attending the foundation course at Aravind is one of them.”

I’m so grateful for my Aravind tribe 😊