Teen gang makes merry in holidays

LUDHIANA: When teenagers Isha Marvaha, Kavya Kashyap, Ridhima Singla and Hemant Gupta spot each other at a restaurant in Ghumar Mandi - where they have decided to meet for some fun - they rush forward with excitement and do their exclusive high five, interlocking fingers and patting shoulders. Clearly, they are a gang.
The four swear by their friendship and would any day back each other whether for right or wrong.With Christmas holidays on at their schools, they are making merry meeting every day and enjoying what they like to call "quality time".
On Wednesday, they met at the restaurant and spent a couple of hours pulling each other's legs. Isha, who stays in Kailash Chowk, said they don't even know how the friendship got so close. "We are in different classes and even schools but somehow we have got together through same school van or common friends. Now we cannot think of life apart from each other. We share everything happening in our lives, help, bully and fool around," she said.
The friends have given each other names and Isha's is the "boxing champion''. Ask her why and she immediately clarifies that it has nothing to do with boxing. "They just like to irritate me and this is one way of doing that,'' she said. The friends have many memories of good, crazy and horrible times together. Agar Nagar-resident Ridhima aka "chatterbox'' said once they had all bunked classes together one rainy day and were splashing around in the water at Isha, Kavya and Hemant's school when their principal spotted them and gave a piece of her mind. "We were soaking wet and scared to death so we quietly slipped out of the school's back gate. The next day also we were so tensed that neither the three of them nor I went back to our schools even the next day,'' said Ridhima.
Kavya, a resident of Kundan Puri, is the group's don and if anyone is in any kind of trouble she's instantly there. Once some boys were teasing the girls in a market and Kavya stepped forward and looking the pranksters in the eye asked them what their problem was. "They shut up and looked at each other sheepishly,'' recalled Kavya.
The youngest in the group and the only standing male is Hemant, popularly known as "chocolate boy'' because he always has a chocolate in hand. "I am the youngest but also the tallest so I tease the girls saying that I am bigger but they are nothing less either and leave no chance to irritate me,'' he said. Hemant added that the friends have conference calls every day and it is "one noisy affair''. "Earlier, it used to be very difficult to understand anything but now I have learnt to keep quiet and listen when the girls are talking,'' he said with a naughty smile.