Friendship doesn't seek position: Shaik Salam

It has been almost three decades; different careers, different cities. From seeing each other 15 to 16 hours a day during their college days, now to meeting occasionally. But they know that friendship is timeless. It was 1978. B. Janardhan Reddy, GHMC Commissioner and Shaik Salam,  educator, were in first year of Intermediate in Mahabubnagar. “As I entered the classroom late I was offered the seat by Salam,” says Janardhan Reddy, and Salam recalls, “It was the first day of the first year of Intermediate in 1978. He came to college five minutes late. There was a seat beside me and I asked him to sit. It was the first time we met.”

And now three decades since that Intermediate classroom, after sharing most of their lives with each other, they sit shoulder to shoulder, ready to do more and offer support in the years ahead. “Nobody becomes best friends on the first day itself. We also became best friends gradually and ended up spending 16 hours of a day together,” says Salam.

They are poles apart, but it worked for them. “He was overly religious, offered namaz five times a day. I would rarely go to temples. But that never affected our relationship,” admits the GHMC commissioner. Salam says, “My ambition was to become an academician like him. He used to teach me but in vain.” And Janardhan Reddy adds, “He used to treat me like a teacher and obey like a student when I used to coach him on a daily basis. But most of the times he was busy cooking for me.”

They say they cherish every moment they spent together, be it travelling in trains from Falaknuma to Malakpet and walking up to Bank Street. “He would sing a song when I was in a bad mood. And we were always invited by his neighbours and relatives for Iftar and other feasts,” recalls Janardhan Reddy. Remembering their earlier struggles, Janardhan Reddy says, “After Intermediate in Mahabubnagar, we came to Hyderabad, ‘misguided’ by somebody to get coaching in Rao’s Tutorial. But that’s history now.” And Salam adds, “In 1980 we reached Hyderabad for our MBBS coaching. The centre was almost an hour’s distance from our room, where we were staying. We used to walk for almost an hour everyday to reach the coaching centre and gradually we lost our spirit and discontinued.”

“Our friendship has nothing to do with his position,” says Salam and adds, “He never forgets his friends, whatever position he may be. He says friendship doesn’t seek position’.”  Narrating an incident, Janardhan Reddy says and feels it was a testing time for him, “When I was district collector Warangal, he visited me. Salam brought a lot of food for me. But at the back of his mind he was thinking what if he was not allowed in by the security. Then the only option left was to take it back to the family.”