Friends who jam, ride and dance together, stay together

It’s the first Sunday of August and friendship is in the air! We all have the 3 am friend, coffee pe charcha wala friend and even the movie date friend. But the city’s college campuses are witnessing a different kind of budding friendship. People who share a common love for a certain activity meet and bond over it during their spare time and have forged deep bonds of friendship due to it. Meet the ‘Hobby Friends’ of the city:

Pics: Shashank Sane


The Dance buddies

Shirish Kandekar and Sakshi Khandelwal

Intro: Shirish and Sakshi have been friends for over a year now. Their friendship blossomed after the pair met in the college dance club and instantly hit it off.

Quote: “I met Sakshi in my college dance club. We instantly became friends and our friendship has blossomed over time. We spend a lot of time together since we are in the same dance club. Learning new moves and practicing for competitions has helped us know each other better and improve our bond of friendship.”

- Shirish Kandekar

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Bonding over Bharatnatyam

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Payal Jadhav and Manasi Jagtap

Intro: Payal met Manasi at an event where the latter was clicking photos for an assignment. Though the two bonded there, it was only years later when they met again, this time at the Lalit Kala Kendra, that they exchanged contact details and hit it off.

Quote: I learned Bharatanatyam under my guru, the late Ashwini Ekbote and Manasi was learning the same from her guru, Anjali Bagale. Our friendship has strengthened, courtesy our love for the dance form. We understand each other and are there for each other whenever either of us is in need.

- Payal Jadhav

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Aap, mein aur hamari bikes

Yash Lende and Yash Kodre

Intro: These young lads from the city met during their college orientation and bonded big time after finding out through social media that they shared a passion for biking.

Quote: It’s funny we had never met before despite our love for biking. After learning about our shared passion, we immediately planned a bike trip to Andharban and have been on five such trips ever since. We are also planning to start a biking club as many have expressed their desire to join us on rides after seeing our trip photos.

- Yash Lende

Pics: Shashank Sane


Music is the language of friendship

Shubhankar Sharma and Soham Lande

Intro: For Shubhankar and Soham, guitars brought them close and the junior-senior duo has formed a close bond over the multiple jamming sessions they have done so far.

Quotes: I met Soham through some common friends and our love for music ended up making us very good friends. We have even formed a band. While I play blues, Soham plays more of metal.

- Shubhankar Sharma

I had penned some lyrics for a song and Shubhamkar started playing a few tunes that could go with the words. That’s my first and fondest memory of our bond.

- Soham Lande

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The cycling theatrewallas

Nath Purandare and Riya Joshi

Intro: Nath and Riya met at the gym and bonded over workouts, cycling and theatre, which, incidentally, they both are actively a part of.

Quote: Riya and I used to cycle around the city regularly. We are theatre artistes as well and that connection made our friendship stronger. She had taken a break from cycling for a year and a half and returned to it only recently. That day we relived all our memories of cycling.

Pics: Shashank Sane