...is the wonderful relationships I have with my family and friends. I’m gonna cheat a little bit by grouping all these special individual relationships under a innovative and broad title of ‘My Relationships’ and I’m gonna stress the technicality that ‘My Relationships’ are something I possess and hopefully with a little bit of luck I’ll get away with it!

The only reason I’m going to all this trouble is because apart from my prized Liverpool shirt (which I would cry for and which I treasure but not to the extent that I’ll go crazy without it) my real most treasured possession is My Relationships.

I’m a pretty emotional person – apparently it has something to do with being a Cancerian – and most of the relationships I have in my life are pretty intense and deep and close. Although I love to be on my own from time to time, I absolutely love having friends and family around me. And I can become close to a person very quickly.

The most important relationships I have are naturally with the people I see and interact with on a daily basis. My family are very close-knit – always have been and after the recent tragedies that have befallen us, have gotten even closer. My immediate family are amazing and we often have interesting discussions and fun outings. We have a very open relationship too and everyone is treated as equals at home. My mum and I are great friends and we love sharing stories and chatting! My dad and I are very close too and he always makes me laugh (even if its by force! ;-)). My brother, Nevaan, and I are good friends though we love to annoy each other. My sister Kimisha, is my ultimate best friend; it’s inevitable as we share everything and we never have a silent moment between us. My aunts and uncles visit almost every week and they play an integral part of my life as well, because like my parents they have watched me grow up and they are like parents to me too. My immediate cousins are very close to us children and we all get along brilliantly and long for each others company.

Apart from my family relationships, the friendships I have at school are the most important ones in my life. I place a lot of value on my friendships, partly because I believe that unlike family where you’re born into one and those relationships are already made for you, friendships are relationships you have created and you have to work at to keep them strong.

My best friend is Anashya Soobhar (as you may have gleened from my previous blogs) and you have an incredible friendship that has spanned nearly ELEVEN YEARS!!! Funnily enough it took us about eight of those years to figure out that we were best friends. We have the kind of friendship where we completely understand each other and can often complete each others sentences. We are there for each other come rain or shine and I really value her friendship. I wouldn’t trade our friendship for anything in the world.

My other best friend is Christopher Moodley who I’ve known since grade 8. We’re absolutely close friends and we can read each other like a book – one look and we can tell if something’s worrying the other person, if they have big news to share or if they had a lousy day. The thing about my friendship with Chris is we can get into such interesting and deep discussions (from anything like cooking to religion) that we forget to ask about the obvious things, like “How’s the house-moving going?” or “How was your show the other day?” I would rather eat cockroaches (which I hate! and am terrified of! ) than lose his friendship.

My other friends have great relationships with me as well. The girls are absolutely sweet and are always there for you when you need them. The boys – well, most of them are like my brothers – for the festival Raksha Bandhan where sisters tie rakhies on their brothers wrist in exchange for a promise of protection, I have to buy like ten rakhies just for my ‘brothers’ at school! We’re all pretty close coz most of us grew up together at the same primary school...we look out for each other.

My relationships are undoubtedly my most treasured possessions. It’s a sacred bond between two people and every one is different. I would never give up the relationships I share with my family and friends for anything in the world. I could never put a value to my relationships – but that’s not because they’re worthless...it’s because they are priceless!

Luvya.Mwah.Bye. :-)