I visited New York again a couple of summers later, this time with both of my parents. Kavi brought me to an Indian place for lunch on Murray Hill (he informed me it’s actually Curry Hill), and then we went to peruse Strand Book Store. I was holding a pile of books that I wanted to buy when I got a phone call from an unknown number. The news: you’re accepted to medical school. I was floored.

(Slightly pertinent background here: I had applied to medical school because it was ~the plan~ and my father’s dream for me, but I didn’t think it was the career I wanted, and after not hearing back from schools for so long, I assumed I conveniently didn’t get in)

And there was Kavi. After making sure nothing tragic had happened, he calmed me down and helped me think rationally. We discussed options, the gravity of the decision, and ultimately how to tell my parents that I wasn’t going to accept the offer. This decision was one of those forks in the road of life, and Kavi helped me navigate through it.

On the way out of Strand, I had to pare down my book selections. I put back a copy of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children – “Oh of course the brown man’s the first to go.”

I remember going over to his house as a kid after school and the first thing we would do is go into his pantry. It was a WALK-IN pantry that had all the snacks and goodies you could imagine. Our usual snacks of choice? Some days it was Oreos and milk. Other days, it was Fruit by the Foot and Doritos. Once we felt re-energized by our snacks, we would go have fun. Some days, it was the Super Nintendo and Donkey Kong. As we got older we would go down the hall to the computer room and play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego or Jump Start 4th grade.

As we got older we made new friends and our friend group increased in size and everything we did, we did as a group. Sleepovers, game nights, and movie nights were common within our group of friends. Once I moved into my new house behind Shopko in middle school, I remember inviting Kavi and all my friends over for sleepovers and game nights all the time.

But, despite all the great memories, my fondest memories of Kavi will always be when we were young kids; when we were in kindergarten and elementary school, playing Donkey Kong, wrestling in the living room, and eating Oreos with milk. Because those are the memories of Kavi that I share with no one else and those experiences are unique to only him and I.

Kavi and I grew up eventually, as we all do. We went to high school, graduated college, and met countless of friends and peers along the way.

But there was once a time, in the very beginning, when it was just him and I. And it is that time that I will always cherish the most.