why so excited??

because im leaving on a 3-weeks vacation..yes you heard it guys...3 f$#@ing weeks..fully planned 3 weeks..ok not exactly fully planned..planning anyways kills the fun..but you know, macro planned.

First week keiku has school, so i finish all the bank & official work, shopping, hair cut and all the things that she wouldnt enjoy..and partying. Next week, completely dedicated to her which translates to watching too much ninja hatori and perman. Last week is a little hazy..i know im going to some place with friends..where? when? i dont know.

The main downer is that my new year wont be in mumbai..you see Im taking a week off to attend keiku's bday and I had to give up my new year in mumbai for that. but a girl has to do what she has to do. and ill finally be going to nandi hills and coorg..so i guess ill make up for that to some extent.

That reminds me of the places ive been to in recent past.
1. Do you remember you holding your dad's finger and going sight-seeing (or when you are a little older, not holding his finger and maintaining some distance so that you can check out the boys/girls). I remember that and so it was a very proud moment for me when actually I took my dad sight seeing to Mysore and Srirangapatnam and in blore. I made all the arrangements, plans and i PAID. I also took him shopping to benetton and got him the coolest shirt and trousers only to hear "itne paison mein main car bhar ke kapde le aata"..yes daddy thats why ill buy you what you wont buy yourself. To conclude..im proud. see the smug look?


2. I went to hydi to meet god gulty. he was getting married and it had been 3 years since i saw him. all i can say about that trip is: bad choice of mode of transport. I went by volvo and yeckk is the only word that describes it. I shudder now even at the mention of volvo buses. Ofcourse, it was kind of worth it as i spent one good day of catching up and drinking with kapil. Ive never longed for a bath more desperately. I scrubbed and scrubbed like in those 'iski kameez meri kameez se safed kaise?' ads (not the clothes, i scrubbed myself), washed my hair, put all the clothes that had come in 1 meter radius of that seat in the washing machine..and only after that did the demons of the volvo disappear. To conclude..I swear never to travel by volvo buses again.

3. The third place is closer, around 15 kms or lesser from home..sanky tank. This was the same place I and su had gone to some 11 years back..though i dont remember anything from that visit except that there was boating..maybe. the place,my guess is, is now completely revamped. this time around it was early morning, we were on honda activa, had tea at a roadside shop..it was good fun. Then we walked around that lake..er pond..er some-dirty-water-in-man-made-pit.

The best part comes after we reached home and suzie thought that i should try to ride the activa. considering that its been ages since i last touched a bike, i knew from the word go that it was going to be fun. initially my legs were the accelerator and the brakes of the bike because my mind refused to lift my feet off the ground. suzie was in full mind to switch to this mode of riding as he figured it saves hell lot of fuel. finally i lifted my feet, went for some 50 mtrs and decided to take a u-turn. Now, i dont have any misconceptions about myself. so i got down and tried to maneuver the bike..the satanic bike couldnt stand my good intentions and somehow started speeding and i couldnt control it. At that very moment, evil won over good in dramatic contrast to popular belief and i let go of the satanic bike and it fell. i could hear its ha-ha-ha types laughter in my head. That was the end of my adventures with Satan. To conclude..next time around ill get a more docile bike.

4. This one is not a place i went to..but something i wanted to mention. I was talking to dennis last week..yeah the same dennis who had said something i found very sexist and had berated him for in this blog itself..he was like he doesnt understand that men want independent, good looking, smart, confident, working girls, who can take care of themselves, are well educated, get well paid and blah blah..and then even expect that they would be virgins..hahaha (laughter because thats a joke). I liked what he said though i have no opinions on that..i mean as a girl i never had to worry about my partner's virginity coz i had no choice but to go by his word..which if you ask me, can be a very unreliable source. Its like:
girl: are you a virgin?
boy feels: (yeah i have slept with 543 girls and being a boy i can do that and get away..god wanted it to be this way..otherwise he wouldnt have made it this way..so damn you feminist, im going to heaven for following God's path)
boy says: no baby, you are the one i love and i swear its you and only you.


I guess ive rambled on enough. Now im looking forward to the infinitely long drive to the airport. Agreed its long but doesnt seem that bad when you are going for a 3-weeks' vacation. (I know ive said it 31000 times..touch wood!!)

Why so serious?

Because my besssssssst friend got married :( Actually 2 of them but this post is for Rajesh Garg...God i called him by this name all this while. I shud have given him a nick name like raj or raji or reggie or...where am i going? OK thats not the point.

The point is ill miss him..not that he is here in blore. He is in mumbai. But still. The point is i dont like change of any sort and this is a big one. The point is he was always there for me. And the point is, im afraid, thats all a thing of the past.

My dreadful year in Powai Labs..the only good thing that came out of it was I got a friend like rajesh..We used to order and have lunch together..i guess thats how all this started. And we started talking and became friends. Then our legendary ceo had to stick his dirty nose into my business and he asked me..in his words.."please keep your friendships in office discreet"..bloody f***er.. I guess that was the day, I and rajesh went out for the first time for a coffee. So much for discreet, Mr ceo.

Legend has it that that was the turning point of this friendship. Then, one day, I was in distress and needed a place to stay in for a couple of hours. Rajesh had keys to the office and he was kind enough not only to open the office for me but also to give me company. And when I didnt want to take certain calls on my cell, he very willingly gave his cell to me for hours together. Not to mention, he is blessed with magical powers to get you any Gorforsaken song/movie/software you want on this planet or from other planets/stars.

Now, when the story has reached a stable point and we are all thinking, "wow Rajesh", let me tell you that Rajesh is from IITB and a 'nerd'. This guy has a problem..of (not) speaking up though he is the most amazing listener. I can recall conversations of over an hour where the guy didnt say more than 2 and a half words. And thats why I always preferred to meet him at IITB. What with all the mosquitoes, atleast he wont be able to sleep. :)

So our angel wanted to know whats up with me and why im all in a mess and stuff..and like i said he has a problem with directly confronting me and so he does a bit of legendary Godgiri and HACKS into my mail account..so he's not such an angel after all..

and yeah then we have our fights and arguments and i try to reason things with him and wow never to speak to him again. And in exactly 1 week i was speaking to him again coz he was too good a friend to lose and he made it so much easier for me now that i didnt have to tell him anything..he found out on his own.

Thats our little story..

And it has only got better with time. There have been so many occasions when I have just 'felt' like speaking to him..and I have literally ordered him to come below his house at as late as 12 in the night..and not even once has he refused. I remember when I had an interview to prepare for and I wanted to study C++, he and I literally snuck into the IITB library (we were not students then). And it was all his plan. And then again, the night before the interview, we were sitting on a bench on a road side under a street light at 12 in the night, studying (he was teaching, i was learning). Who would do that for me?

He has listened to my sob stories sitting on a bench at IIT lakeside. And he has listened for hours..with interest, never complaining, never getting bored (atleast not making it obvious). And I have loved talking to him.

I guess I cant really mention all the times he has been there for me (because i can only type so much). He has been my banker, my teacher, my lunch and dinner buddy, my shrink, my sounding board. And all this within minutes..because I have always called him up at the last moment. Like I say, he is my 911. And I can proudly say, he has never let me down. He even cooked lunch and got it to office when i was not well..God will I miss him..

So now you know why I am sad when he is getting married. When i say sad, I really mean truly genuinely sad. I know many people have given me gyan on how true friends are happy when their friends are happy and all that jazz. But im sorry, im not that good..call me selfish or what you may..but im sad..It was inevitable and it had to happen and I knew it all along. But still...

Who will hand out a handkerchief to me now?