When My Friend Returned, I Was in the US - Do No Harm, But Sweet Revenge


Key Highlights :

1. When people are mean to you, it's tempting to take revenge by writing about them in your column, but you don't do that because you believe in "Do No Harm."
2. Recently, circumstances have forced you to change your mind and you now send your friend fingersticks biscuits instead. This is revenge in a humorous way.




     When my friend returned from Lahore, I was in the US. I had asked her to courier a box of fingersticks biscuits to me in Bombay, a gift from our common friend, the filmmaker Farjad Nabi. Little did I know that I was about to experience a unique form of sweet revenge.

     Fingersticks are a legendary biscuit, named for Lady Aitchison's slender fingers, and created by perhaps the first modern bakery in Lahore, Mokham-ud-din and Sons. This bakery, located in Lahore's Anarkali bazaar since 1879, is where my father grew up. I had grown up hearing and dreaming about fingersticks, and when I visited Lahore, I found my father's old house by asking about the famous fingersticks bakery. I returned with a piece of brick from the house and a box of fingersticks.

     When my friend returned, I was disappointed to hear her response to my request for her to courier the box of biscuits to me. She said she would get me a big packet next time. I was shocked and incredulous, my feelings best expressed in the Hindustani phrase, "hairaan." I complained to Farjad, who responded with a humorous comment. I then decided to take sweet revenge.

     I declared that my friend, Natasha Badhwar, was a "bad girl" who ate my biscuits. I named her, and I claimed her. I realized that in these times of disconnection, it is important to have friends who feel free to misbehave, so that we can have a lifetime license to complain. Complaining is a true bond, and expectations and claims echo in its faux outrage.

     In the end, I realized that life is not complete without friends who can misbehave, and give us a license to complain. I hope that someone will eat up your sweets too, so you can give them a gaali that sounds like an endearment. That is the true mark of friendship.



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