Part 1: The beginning of Group andomen.

The first part of this story starts with me and one of my oldest and best of friends. He came to live in vashi probably before I did.
I was a kid of around an age of one when my granddad was in his final years of service to the Indian Railways. During this time we used lived in a joint family in spacious railway quarters in colaba. The colony was called as 'Badhwar Park'. My dad was in Shapoorji Pallonji at that time (a construction company) and his office was at Nariman point. This was a time when my dad was in the early stages of his career. We were a family of four.......Dad, Mom, me and my elder sister. (who was completing her primary education in Pune and was living with mom's parents, who had an apartment in pune.) My dad is and was an ambitious and responsible man. Obviously, his next step to fulfilling his responsibility as a family man was to buy his own house. There was little money in our kitty, but like so many other people of dad's and mom's generation, my parents were the kind of people who had to think progressively and they did. Someone advised my parents to buy a flat in kalwa, thane. And nearly everyone thought that it was a bad idea to buy a flat in vashi, which was, at that time, nothing more than a huge 'jungle' with a few little buildings around. Anyway, my parents did buy a flat in vashi and there is no need, now, to say whether the decision was right or wrong !!!
So till the construction of our new flat was completed we stayed on rent in a 1 room kitchen flat in a building called 'Nutan Shriram'. That was a time when I was around 3 and a half years. My parents send me to a nearby preschool(nursery).
I am quite attached to mom and was even more back then. Never did enjoy seeing mom off after leaving me to preschool. I used to cry for my mom, and keep crying till I finally saw her lovely face after the teaching hours were over. The feeling was probably mutual, coz I saw mom wiping her face once or twice on her handkerchief, when she saw me sitting in that crowd of noisy kids and crying my eyes out for her. She often used to comfort me by saying that she'll remain outside the classroom till the classes end. But even that could not have comforted me. For me, it was like being a babe in the woods. I even remember hugging my mom very tightly after school and telling her through moist eyes in a little voice ........"Aai, Mala parat sodun jaoo nakos" (Mom dont ever leave me again). Unfortunately we dont always get the things we crave for and just like that it was the same story everyday, mom left me and I cried my eyes out. I remember once that on Saturday (Holiday!!!), I slept in the afternoon, and had the horrible dream of being in preschool. Woke up muttering and crying in my sleep that I wanted my mom. Mom held my hands, shook me gently and told me......"Wake up Ravi, here I am, your mom, dont cry." But for a minute, that it took for me to completely awaken, I kept muttering about the same. Finally after I woke up fully and saw my mom, I realised it was her and put my little arms around her !!! I dont know why, but that memory still remains strong to this day. I remember that moment of relief as if I saw it yesterday.
After some days, although reluctant to go to preschool, I was finding it easier to complete classes without crying. It was also during this time that I had made a friend, a face whom I could recognize everyday and be comfortable at the sight of that person being in school. The feeling was just like meeting someone familiar in a crowd of strangers. This was where I found my first friend, a friend who was going to be a friend for a very long time as I realised many many years after those days in preschool. His name was Ketan Chaudhari. He was born in Jalgaon and 'being brought up' in vashi. His mom and my mom too got to know each other as well after a few days. Our meeting each other,in those days is, I believe, the start of 'group andomen'. There are some good things which are destined to happen, and having good friends from such an early age was something which was destined to happen to me.
Ketan and me, met in preschool days and went on to become very good friends.