Aaryan and Aryan

By KEVIN THANT ‘27

“Which Aryan (or Aaryan) are you?”

If you’re unfamiliar with Aryan Agarwal and Aaryan Patel (AA and AP), this is a common question that many people seem to bring up. They can’t wrap their head around the fact that two people with their names spelled almost the same seem to have the same haircut and interests. What makes this uncanny similarity even stranger is how these two are extremely good friends and spend most of their time together. It’s led to numerous problems of wondering who’s who, like the scene in movies where you don’t know who’s the alien imposter you must shoot. 

You often hear them in the libraries bickering over something trivial to the outer ear. It’d be almost impossible to catch a snapshot of them talking without including some bickering. Because they’re so similar, you’d think they would perfectly complement each other’s thoughts. But they serve as a warning to anyone who wishes they had somebody to understand them. It’s like an old married couple fighting; you just can’t help but be amused by how stupid it sounds. 

Bickering is not the only thing the two As seem to indulge in. By the grace of the scheduler, they somehow ended up in the same English format with the same teacher. They often pre-plan Harkness discussions because “they need a good grade.” It’s almost a miracle you don’t find them arguing over the Harkness table with the amount they bicker outside of class.

But with the pressures of being in the same English class comes competition. Almost every waking second of their time together is spent arguing over who’s better at Harkness or the better writer. Competition’s normal though, especially among friends, the strange thing about these two is that their winners seem to change every other day. One day, AP was declared the greatest writer that AA had ever seen. On another day, AP has fallen, and now AA is better. If they want to stop arguing, the two need to reach a consensus on who’s better at English and how and stop switching up every other second.

Their bickering does not reflect their true friendship, though. The two are almost inseparable, like Tom and Jerry. Despite their names sounding the same and their hobbies being different, you’d be confused to realize they are extremely different people. But no matter how different they may be, the bickering you hear in the library will not be ending any time soon.