ANUSHKA MEHTA

There are only a handful of people who I consider to have driven changes in me that I will carry forever - Anushka is one of them. Unlike friends and family I grew up with, she didn’t have very long to do this - I only met her in 2012 shortly before we both started uni at Oxford together.

She is the perfect blend of a dangerously analytical mind and deep emotional instinct, making her so quick to adapt herself to the need of the hour. Today, she is the definition of the word comfort to me. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only having know her for a year, she was the first person I called when I found out I had been cheated on - and we went to Primark and bought me a giraffe onesie (no questions asked).

It’s hard to imagine being so comfortable with someone who has also constantly challenged me - perhaps why she has shaped my opinions and decisions so deeply. She’s unapologetically simple in many ways - cooking a meal or a trashy tv show is often all it takes to see her smiling ear to ear. Her laugh has come to become part of my idea of home, something that brings me comfort that I would struggle to put into words.

There are things Anushka and I cannot ever reconcile - I will never understand her love for maths, she will never understand my love for cheesy chips after a night out. But where I have been perhaps less tolerant, Anushka has been fiercely accepting and loyal at every stage. She has been a rock to me and many other people in tough times (and she does it all sober!)

As she enters her new phase in life. I can honestly say there is no one more deserving of happiness. We have often joked about laughing about silly things through missing teeth when we are old - here’s to being a few years closer that privilege I can only hope for. I love you Anushka for all that you have done for me and continue to do every day ♥️

Written by Aditya Jain