“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

― Elbert Hubbard

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(Disclaimer:This blog post caters to audience above the age of 25 years)

Friendship is one of the most beautiful relationships in life.Being an introvert,I have never had too many friends at any point of my life.But the few I had,were very close to me.This story is about one such of mine-Hari aka 'DVD Hari'.Hari was my classmate during my undergraduation days.A diehard movie buff and a fan of pirated DVD s,he was almost like a walking encyclopedia of (South Indian) Movies.You dig out the most obscure and least heard of film and ask him about it(the kind that even those associated with it would like to forget),he will tell you even the most trivial behind-the-scene facts about it.All said and done,he was undoubtedly a great guy and a good friend but with two bad qualities.The first one being his precariously high liking for anything feminine.(I still remember the great hullabaloo which broke out when he went chasing after our college helper lady,the 23 year old 'Janoo',okay,that story I reserve for later). Another bad quality of him was his habit of waxing eloquently about his closeness with eminent film personalities and the local theatre owners.

Okay,this post is neither a testimonial of Hari's genius nor about his acquaintances .(Then,what's it about?Read on and figure out for yourself!)

The Year was 2007.A new Malayalam movie named 'Classmates' starring a bunch of second line actors had just released.People who had already watched were telling good things about it.It was a boring Pathology lecture and when Rajesh proposed that we bunk the class and spend our time more fruitfully inside the comfort of the recliner seats in Latha Cinemas,there was none who could resist the temptation.But,the pessimist among us,Vikraman as always had a negative opinion - "Nikhilesh,what if we don't get the tickets?The movie is running to packed houses,I'm told".

Before I could reply and reprimand him,Hari jumped into the gun and offered-"Main Hoon Na?The theatre owner 'Issacettan' is my friend.I'll use my influence and get the tickets for you"."Come Hari,Share a hug"-Unni couldn't resist expressing his 'love' towards Hari.

We couldn't thank Hari more.In ten minutes,all five of us were standing outside the newly painted gates of Latha theatre inside of which was a beeming 700+ people strong crowd (the theatre capacity for a single show-a meagre 350).There were 3-4 policemen with their shining lathy trying desperately to control the film crazy crowd. It was pretty sure that us getting a ticket for the next show was as possible as India winning the Football Fifa Worldcup.Trying hard to hide my disappointment,I told- "It's okay,we'll go back and come again some other day.I don't wan't to get beaten up by the Police".

"No,at any cost,we'll watch the movie today.I'll tell Issacettan"-Hari replied,raising our dampened spirits.But no amount of fake confidence was successful in concealing that 'frightened look' on his face.Without completing the sentence he started walking towards the room beside the balcony ticket counter outside of which was the big rectangular board which read 'Manager's Cabin'.two Minutes,three minutes..there was no sign of Hari.Just as we were about to get back to the main gate of the theatre,we heard a loud sound.It was the sound of someone getting beaten hard with the lathy.The poor guy at the receiving end was none other than our buddy Hari.Realizing that his 'Issacettan-friendship' story was going to bite the dust,Hari had made a last desperate effort to get tickets for us by queue jumping and had got penalized for his sin!

Obviously,all of us were sad.Not because we couldn't watch the movie that day(we managed to watch the movie thrice from the same theatre later,it's another story),it was the lathy beating which our dear friend Hari had to bear was what hurt us more.The beneficiary of our movie fiaco was 'Mathury Pub '.Perhaps,as a compensation for shattering our movie dreams,Hari took us there to celebrate responsibly.We had a nice time together and it was on that day that I realized that I had just received one of the greatest gifts of life-i.e friendship".

-nikhimenon