Sumeet Singh's school friend is her big support

My best friend Manmeet Kaur is my ‘shero’. Manmeet and I have been friends since the eleventh grade. We were always competing with each other in 12th grade, there were just 3-4 of us who were the top students of the class. However, we weren’t best friends back then. 

But as soon as school got over and we went into our respective education and colleges, is when our friendship really got stronger. She married an air force officer, so she had a transferable job, kept moving from one city to another. And those were the days where you wrote letters and posted birthday cards. We would do that and stay in touch. 

But for the last couple of years, she’s been in Delhi and is a teacher by profession. We both have two children each. The reason why she's always been a great support for me is that as a parent, there are moments where sometimes you're doubting your parenting, sometimes you're frustrated, sometimes you're happy. Even in our professional lives, you have a good day, sometimes you have a bad day.

Every time I have felt happy, elated or low, all three, I've always picked up the phone and spoken to her. And luckily, we've always been in the same time zone!

She's always given me some great advice when it comes to parenting, because being a teacher, she deals with so many different types of children, and child psychology is something that teachers very deeply study. Sometimes when you are not feeling the best, you need to talk to somebody who you really trust, because you can open up with only people that you can totally trust. I think I've always kind of got that from her.

Secondly, I've also valued her advice a lot. So, while she's a big emotional support, I think her advice has always been very valuable. It has really helped me. 

2017 was a very tragic year for me, when I lost my parents. I was sad because Diwali was approaching in two, three days. I was just talking to her and I was saying that I'm thinking of my parents even more, because on festivities we used to all be together.

She was just so sweet and she could sense that I'm feeling very low. And she just said, ‘let’s fly to Goa and recreate Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. We booked our tickets, she made the itinerary, missed her Diwali with her family just to take me. It was just so thoughtful of her. 

It was just maybe something I needed at that time because I just came back so refreshed with energy. Without any planning, she could just sense that I'm really rock bottom and maybe this will really be nice. A lot of times, we've just been there for each other and I think that is what matters the most. 

Whether you're meeting every month or not, when you really feel that you require someone, is that someone there?