What I Think About Friends

Shaurya Bahl has friends across multiple countries, time zones, and completely different worlds. Some of them build startups. Some of them send brain rot memes at 2am. He values both -- but he's honest about how differently they shaped him.

The Oman Circle

Growing up in Oman, Shaurya's friends were the kids on his street, the classmates at ISGI, the people he played games with after school. Normal childhood friendships.

But there was always a disconnect.

"My Oman friends were kind of brain rot, not my type."

This isn't a diss -- it's an observation. Most of his age peers in Oman were into gaming, scrolling, hanging out without much direction. Normal teenager stuff. But Shaurya was already coding at 9, already thinking about building things, already gravitating toward older conversations about technology and business. The interests didn't align.

He still loves those friends. Palash has been a daily conversation for years. Mehal provides grounding, honest talks. Ved is a running joke about never coordinating visits. The bonds are real and deep -- they just operate on a different frequency than his builder life.

The Builder Circle

When Shaurya moved to Dubai and found co/Build, something clicked. Suddenly he was surrounded by people who understood what it meant to ship a product, to debug at midnight, to pitch an idea with conviction.

Gohar Abbas, Sid Haldar, Manav Chawla, Roshan -- these are the people who get the startup grind. They don't need context. They understand why Shaurya would skip a party to fix a bug. They speak the same language.

This circle is where Shaurya feels most intellectually matched. The conversations are about AI, products, funding, ideas -- not gossip or games.

The Dubai School Crew

Then there's the middle ground: Param Diwan, Saisha, Garvit Bhandari, and the rest of the Dubai friends. These are the people Shaurya sees daily at school. They might not all be builders, but they're the daily rhythm -- the lunch conversations, the exam stress, the group chats that keep the week moving.

The Honest Take

Shaurya doesn't rank his friends. But he's clear-eyed about what each circle gives him:

• Oman friends = roots. They knew him before any of this. They keep him grounded.
• Builder friends = growth. They push him forward and share the vision.
• School friends = present. They're the daily life, the normal teenage experience he'd miss otherwise.

The mistake people make is thinking you have to choose one circle. Shaurya doesn't. He maintains all of them, each at their own frequency. Some friends get daily texts. Some get a message every few months. Both are real. Friendship isn't a limited resource -- it just looks different with different people.

What He's Learned

Moving from Oman to Dubai taught Shaurya that friendships survive distance if both people want them to. Finding the builder community taught him that intellectual alignment matters as much as emotional connection. And keeping both circles alive taught him that you don't have to outgrow people to grow.

He's 15 and already has friends in their 20s and friends he's known since age 5. Both matter. Both are real. They just serve different parts of who he is.

See also: How I Think About Friendship | Oman Friends | Builder Friends | Older Friends Theory