“Nobody will ever remember how you look, how you speak, what you did or anything else. The only thing they will remember is how you made them feel…”

When we gave those bookmarks, we gave a part of ourselves, Now you must be wondering who ‘us’…

It all started when one day Shivani came to my house and found me sitting amidst of all possible types of paper, with me armed with a pair of scissors and glue. Any other person would have considered me a mad girl, to be sitting in litter! But for Shivani, she was very glad to see this picture! And that was the time when we realized we both loved to play with paper.

We made our imaginations go wild and had the craziest of ideas to make new and our very own distinct ‘bookmarks’. Our creativity was supported with our hobby of reading! That day we spent many delightful hours together and came out with the most extraordinary our ‘own’ bookmarks, and found a person each to share many things under the sun!

Those days we were always in search of bookmarks of different types at exhibitions or any art gallery. Most of all we were in search of genuine ‘book lovers’, and patron of art! Wherever we’d meet any such persons, all we had to do was to take out our collection and show off our creativity. Soon we realized that what we shared was not mere interest, but the parts of ourselves! ‘Bookmarks’ were the symbol of our friendship, and soon it was known to all. Some friends appreciated our efforts so much so that, we were encouraged by everyone to start a ‘so-called’ business! We sold our bookmarks to friends, relatives and every other person who was either a book lover or who we thought would appreciate our creativity.

By then we had invented several types of bookmarks. We prepared stencils so that each symbol drawn would be similar to the next one and our quality wouldn’t lower down! And then once again we’d spend hours together preparing various types of stencils. We made collages, spray paintings, punching, Japanese kimono wearing ladies and what not!

The time flew when we were together. We would talk directly to each other’s hearts; share our ideas, jokes, desires n dreams, and also the darkest of our secrets! She was the perfect one for me, and we were the most ideal of all friends! We were able to have endless talks everyday. Just passing by to say a simple ‘hi’ would mean another hour to exchange the things that happened at our schools, and how many customers were approached and our ‘profit’ made out of the daily sales!

We had always planned to spend the money that we had to buy things which our parents refused to buy for us, and now we could buy anything we wanted as, after all it was ‘our’ money! We saved it so long when at last we thought it was descent enough to spend that amount. But at the same time we were hit by the news of the earthquake which took place at Bhuj (Gujarat). We were shocked to see the photos in the news paper and the sad faces of the homeless people. Both of us earnestly wanted to help them.

At an instant we both decided to contribute towards the welfare of the homeless fellow Indians. We took out our precious earning and gave it to an organization which seemed descent enough, and we had complete trust in them, that our money would not be misused.

Later that day, after coming home, both of us sat together and felt we were on the top of the world! That was our greatest achievements, to help someone in need! That was all impossible without our crazy and creative ideas for making bookmarks!

Even today we both have pen-stand full-o-bookmarks on our study tables. The days surely are not the same, as when we were small kids but the word ‘bookmark’ still brings a broad smile on either of our faces. Whenever I feel low, all I have to do is to get some paper, get armed with a pair of scissors lots of colours and get lost into those ‘marked’ pages of our childhood. Those days will never come back, but our life has left a ‘bookmark’ there for us!