The Secret Sauce to Lasting Friendships

In the first week of January, I received an Lunexpected phone call from a cherished family friend, someone I hadn't met in 17 long years.

- Preeti Shenoy

Our last interaction had been a brief exchange of messages three years prior, and since then, we hadn't been in touch. She was visiting Bengaluru from the US with her family and expressed a desire to meet us. Without hesitation, we invited them over.

What followed was nothing short of extraordinary. The moment they stepped through the door, it felt as though time had rewound itself. The conversation, unmarked by awkward pauses, flowed effortlessly. The only noticeable changes were that our children had blossomed into adults, and our hair bore more silver strands. The intervening years had simply melted away, and we seamlessly picked up where we had left off or perhaps, we had never truly left off at all. This friendship, one of my oldest, had stood resilient against the relentless march of time.