My Meghapoo (surprised she still lets me call her that!) I don’t know where to start. My built-in best friend and my favorite person (to mess with!) From following me around everywhere to now being too busy to hang out with me, she sure is growing up! Even though she’s all grown up now, traveling the world by herself, I still see her as the tiny human my parents brought home when I was just seven years old. She even gave me her own nickname, ‘Cheta’, as she couldn’t pronounce my name when she first began to talk…and yes, it stuck. No matter the situation, we have always had each other backs. So proud to call her my sister and excited to have her by my side as I start this new chapter in my life.
My fun-loving, trustworthy, genuine, talented best friend (basically sister)! From navigating college/medical school to residency to now starting fellowship, this girl has been with me through all the ups and downs life threw at us. So thankful we have gotten very close over the years. No matter the time of day, busy or not, I could always count on her with anything. When she is not treating little sick kids, you can catch her free style dancing to catchy bhangra music or free hand painting beautiful sceneries. Although distance, work schedules, and COVID have kept us from visiting each other often these past few years, I can always rely on our three-hour facetime dates!
Our Dancing Queen! Our wonderful dance choreographer, who I’m so lucky to call my own cousin. I can always count on her to teach me the latest trendy dance moves and how to TikTok! I still remember when she was just three years old, every time a Mahesh Babu (her favorite Indian actor at the time) song came on, she would run up to the T.V. and start dancing. If she’s not on the dance floor, you can catch her making the funniest TikTok videos. She can single handedly get you up and moving regardless of your mood. Having this one around always makes our family reunions so much more fun!
She is one of the reasons moving to Little Rock was so worth it! After a year and a half of moving to Little Rock, I met Pooja at our ninth-grade orientation. We quickly became close and practically sisters! We made countless memories over the past sixteen years including our many sleepovers eating ice cream while watching our favorite Indian movies. So grateful to have such a genuine friend in my life who is also undoubtedly one of the sweetest lawyers you will ever meet. After nearly twelve years of living in different cities, I am so excited that we will both be living in Philadelphia starting this summer!
So lucky to have gotten paired with this kind, smart, funny girl as my junior partner in our medical school. She quickly became one of my close friends and has always supported me regardless of the situation. From sleepovers to sushi dates there was never a dull moment with this one! If there was ever a competition in who could make me laugh the most, Janki could compete with Keyur. My favorite thing about our friendship is that even though we don’t talk every day, each time we do talk we pick up right where we left off. Can’t wait to visit this badass future cardiologist in Chicago soon!
I first met Huong few years ago when Keyur and I visited his brother, Krunal, in Seattle. Huong had planned the most perfect weekend for us. I was not only in awe of her organization or cooking skills, but also her amazing engineering skills. I can’t say I know a lot of people who have a power saw in their living room and can build their own furniture! She is so down-to-earth, thoughtful, caring and someone I will always continue to look up to as an older sister. Even though we have only known each other for a few years, she quickly became family. She is always down for just about anything and it is always a ton of fun when she is around. I can’t wait for more Seattle visits!
I really thought I was going to go the rest of my entire life being the token brown guy that grew up playing/being really into ice hockey, but that was until I met this guy. I can’t count the number of times we made the drive from Kansas City to St. Louis to catch a hockey game. He claims he is one of the biggest Blues fans, but I think he really deep down enjoys watching the Red Wings beat the Blues (it was a core memory for him growing up after all). Jokes aside, this guy really did become my good friends during my time in medical school. Needless to say, there is definitely some brotherly love and I’m looking forward to this guy moving to Philadelphia for his fellowship this year.
Oh, Oh, Oh, For the Longest Time. I don’t think I have any other friends that knows the lyrics and can sing almost any song at the drop of a dime. One of my good friends from medical school, I think we have been to more karaoke bars than I think either one of us would like to admit. This is a guy that is almost always down for anything and we have definitely had a lot of impromptu trips to Nashville, Vegas, and New York City. He’s a guy that likes to have fun. But he’s also a guy with a ton of heart and a lot of principle. If you see him, ask him about the bet we made for the Atlanta-New England super bowl. I think he gained a lot of respect for me that day (a bet is a bet).
Another one of the boys from back home in the mitten. One of the most dependable guys I know that I can always count on to be there for me. I don’t think my family is ever going to forget that day our car broke down in Frankenmuth in the middle of winter and on a spare moment’s notice he was able to come and pick us all up. He was definitely the hero that day. We’ve come a long way from being lab partners in grade school and I’m sure he remembers all the great times we had making that chemistry video (I don’t think he quite knew what he was in for over the next ten years after all those Tim Allen Christmas jokes and obscure pop culture/movie references).
I still can’t believe I have a close friend that used to be a NFL quarterback, sorry things didn’t work out with the Raiders man. (He shares an uncanny resemblance to Derek Carr). We may not have known each other growing up, but I feel like I’ve known this guy my entire life. Everyone that knows me, knows I’m a pretty big sports fan (Go Wings!), but this guy just might be an even bigger fan of sports. We share the unfortunate burden of being Detroit Lions fans and probably spend way too much time in our lives discussing and debating how good our team is going to be next year, just to be let down again. It definitely was a special moment when we went to see Stafford in Los Angeles for his first game in another uniform playing against the Lions.
Another one of the guys from the grade school rat pack. Ofcourse he would submit a professional headshot for his website photo (was this for your residency or fellowship application?) which I think most of our friends can agree is pretty on point. It has definitely been an adventure being friends. A night out or a trip with this guy is almost certainly going to end up being a story a guy would end up telling at a bar several years down the road. I think we are always going to remember our Iceland trip together and how we overcame the forces of nature to survive (I definitely helped that night handing out the stakes for the tent!).
I think every friend that I’ve ever had in some sort of shape, form, or capacity has heard of or knows about Nicky whether Nicky knows about them. He’s definitely the glue that kept our grade school crew together and it has been an absolute blast being friends with this guy. It really would not have been the same without having his famous, perfectly timed one liners with his signature delivery, and I’m sure Kaytash and Malik can attest to that. If there is ever a fifth or sixth sequel to the Grown Ups movies, I can definitely see us all coming together ten to twenty years from now to meet up for an activity or event centered around this guy.
Every little brother grows up looking up to their older brother wanting to follow in their footsteps. I definitely had some big shoes to fill watching him build computers in a garage before he was even old enough to go on grade school field trips without a chaperone (Big “Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps! Energy). He has been there for some of the defining moments of my formative years including buying me my first legal beer when I was eighteen. Wait, eighteen? (Vancouver Canada!). I still continue to look to him as an older brother and role model and am always learning new things from him.
