I AM [ Friendships II ]

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Baangur is still playing on repeat in my music player; but youtube has me hooked on to this:



There is a unreleased movie, one of Anurag Kashyap's first. Paanch. I have nice friends who downloaded the movie. Its only a Preview Copy that is available. Its a cult movie of sorts. Kay Kay Menon as Luke Morrison is one of the best performances I have seen. I don't want to sound like I'm giving a movie review, but I sort of really like Anurag Kashyap Films! :)

I just came across passionforcinema.com and saw, the man himself commenting, and being a part of it; I wanted to join it immediately. I heard its undergoing change in Admin and maybe, just maybe, Anurag Kashyap might buy it! woohoo!!

I have met very few people in my life who are truly passionate about something. Anything. One such person in this very very VERY dear friend of mine! He doesn't know this, yet, but he is like a life support system for me since the last two years. I sort of cannot think of life without him. Its totally weird with him. He's not like anybody else. There are times when I can just pick the phone, call him, and go on talking for the longest time.. and he wouldn't have said one single word. Suddenly, I stop, check the phone if the conversation is still on, and say Hello, u there na? And he'll be like.. haan meri ma, aage bol! [yes mother, go on..] And there are these times when I don't know what to tell him. I'll pick the phone to call his number, and before it rings, will cut the call, because I'll run the probable conversation we'll be having in my head, figure out he's either going to disagree or shout at me, and its better if I don't talk to him!

Its not the conventional friendship people seem to share; he's a person, I met through work, and hence we have so much of work to discuss, but more than that, we, I, we talk about movies and songs and the like. He actually talks way too less, compared to any other friend I have; he just expects us[his friends] to understand what he wants to say! He talks way too less, and initially it was disturbing. I used to get irritated when I would go on and on about this friend of mine did this and that relative of mine did that, and I wouldn't know a single thing about him/his people. Slowly, I started "getting" him rather getting to know him. So,Whenever he talks, I listen, and with all my attention, coz he's saying what he's saying coz its important to him, else he wouldn't have said it!

When I was in Mumbai, he was the one I was with most of the time(other than at work) [ One of the two GUYS I spoke about then]. Movies, Movies, Lunches, Dinners, Pizza, Movies, Beer, Whiskey, Movies, Wine, Vodka, Movies, WWE, Cricket, Windows Movie maker, Movies. Did I mention Movies? Well thats what we did! I probably have had the most fights with him! I don't know if we can call them fights, but I would be constantly doing something wrong and he would get angry. And for those times when , if , he did something wrong, I wasn't allowed to get angry. :P Actually I don't get angry that much, so it was alrite!

[I'm re-writing this post, as the earlier one got deleted when my system crashed, but last time I wrote a lot of different things, this time, like always, this page is making me type things, I didn't set out to say!! but hey, I said it! My blog, no? ;)]

I started off, by talking about passion, when I was introducing him. Once he knows he has to do something, he will. No Matter What!

Be it fitness, work, music, WWE, cricket. I don't think he does anything half heartedly. Thats why when he does something, I have learnt to automatically know, that its important to him[and hence, somehow, becomes sort of important to me]. If it wasn't he wouldn't be doing it!

I have soooo much to say about him, but somehow, this space is not enough. No space is. I wanted to write about, how I became friends with him, how the journey was, how I have made a fool of myself, umpteen number of times, when I'm with him, how I get upset when he "supposedly" is only pulling my leg and not meaning whatever he said seriously, how he's the only one who calls me "sadu"[grumpy] even though I'm not to the rest of the world and so many other things. But I'm keeping them for later. I guess.

I cannot not mention this another friend when I talk about him. She completes us. Sort of. We are actually four of us, in this close knit group of ours. But off-late its been just the three of us. She is going to be my new roommate! and I'm super psyched about it!! I'll talk about her in a post of her own. Most probably. :P No, I will. But for now, this Image, of the three of us!

was meant to be Raavan with 9  heads! :P

I wrote this as a Testimonial [on orkut, when writing a testimonial on it, meant so much ] to him about almost 2 years ago, and most of it, still holds good!

I have no idea why I'm doing this.. but i wanted to.. so here it is!!

I have known him only from the last six months.. and to be honest I don't know him at all... but still.. he makes me want to try harder!! ;-)if i haven't made enough sense i'm sorry.. A---- is a person very dear to my heart.. someone who made my journey into the corporate world more interesting..[if i may say so ] he taught me loads of tiny things.. which i needed to learn.. so he's my god of small things(too much hogaya kya??)I can safely say that he's one of a kind.. very genuine.. and extremely correct!! he can make u laugh.. n he can make u cry.. n he can also make u do both at the same time!!! A----, You are one of the best ppl I've met in life.. n i feel very privileged to know you..Thanks sweetie.. for everything.. muaah!!

I AM [ Friendships ]

I have spoken a lot about my friends. I am just going to continue doing that.

:) 

Before that, Sharing this song. Listening to it on repeat and loving it more, each time I listen to it!

p.s: Anurag Kashyap is gonna be acting in this. I AM all excited, are you? :) 

I am in Bangalore for a friend's wedding. And this time, I actually had the time to catch up with most of the people I wanted to meet. Life changes so much, doesn't it? Its only been three years since we finished college in 2008. Most of them are getting married. Girls and Boys alike. Now, my parents are also concerned worried and behind my life regarding the whole marriage fiasco. I have stalled them for 3 years from now. But, my mom is relentless! :) :) I love her to bits! But there's only so much I can take. 

The whole thing about its the right time to get married and all of that. Who really knows whats the right time, and whats not? Shouldn't marriage happen when two people who want to spend the rest of their lives together decide to legalize their relationship? I have nothing against marriages where the parents decide and the children agree. All I'm asking is, why it is like that? A simple explanation would be more than sufficient. :)

Friends.

Last night, after attending my friend's reception, I had the most amazing time with one friend who is the only one I can talk talk to. The fact that I am that honest with him, is crazy. Not that I lie to my other friends, :p but I can think aloud with him, and more often than not, he'll know exactly what I meant to say. Phases, our friendship went through, looking back at them today, I felt it was necessary. Not all of it, but yes most of it. 

I made my share of mistakes. When, Harry Potter and The Half Blood Price was out, people around me, [mean mean ppl that they were] told me the suspense - that Dumbledore dies in the end. Now, this friend and I used to discuss the series, book by book. So, when he called and mentioned the half blood prince; assuming he was also going to tell me about Dumbledore's death, I like a kid complaining to its mom, said, ya ya, I know Dumbledore dies at the end, Snape kills him. He cut the call on me. I call him back and he doesn't pick for around half an hour, and then finally picks the phone and shouts at me for telling him the suspense. I try and explain why I did what I did, but no, he was furious, and rightfully so. I also was furious at the people who had told it to me; but my reaction wasn't even one tenth of his. That's how serious he was about Harry Potter! He had been angry with me in the past but nothing came close to this one. I immediately went to his place, with chocolates and I don't know what else; just so that he calms down and his anger subsides. I couldn't stand the thought of him being angry with me for even one day!

Cut to - Sometime last year, it had been aages since we had spoken to each other, and when I did, it was messed up. The tone wasn't right, the feeling wasn't right. I asked what was wrong, and he didn't tell me. I asked a couple more times, and after insisting a little more, he actually said, if I have to spell out what is wrong, I have nothing to say to you. It shattered me in a very different unexpected way. I really didn't know what was wrong. And what was even worse (according to me,) was I didn't do anything Immediately to rectify whatever it was that had gone wrong. I took help from time! Why I reacted the way I did, I'll never know. I think its the person I have become. Or. Maybe I didn't have the strength in me to fix it immediately with multiple things going on in life. 

Forever and Always!

All is well now! and I hope it remains this way forever and always coz' there's noone like him in my life. Weird and strange as it is, I love what we share and I wanted to share this here. It'll never be the same again, and it won't be much different in the future. What I love the most, is I can always pick it up from exactly where I left it. And its mutual. [I hope]. He is a major factor in who I AM today. Also, a major factor in who I AM with today [ coz I stuck to advice given by him aages ago, and am not moving on to listening to the new advice - which he'll give me(as promised) even if I don't comply - (I do listen and consider, promise.) to them ] 

Thank You, for being there! For being who you are! 

p.s: I could have spoken about thousand other things about us, have no clue why I chose to talk about this! Its just something about this blog, makes me keep typing things I hadn't thought of in the longest time!

Delhi Diaries Part II - Friendships!

Friendships Change. Friends Don't. or is it the other way round?

I don't know and hence am confused. 

Two people, sworn to be best friends forever. Move in to live together[Mistake #1]. Figure out, what can be better than having your best friend living with you full time. Life in the same city, but with different sets of people. New friends, New relations, New House, New everything. Time moves on, and living in the same house, makes two best friends drift apart. 

You love your friend for all the fun and craziness they bring in your life, but you need structure and responsibility in a house-mate, right? Your home and all the responsibilities are left at home where your father and mother look after everything, you don't want a house-mate/friend telling you what is right and what is wrong, right? 

People Change. People Adapt. People Adjust. People Should. Man is a social animal, isn't he? Thank goodness they weren't married to each other. Otherwise, there would be another tale of Divorce. 

The two friends in some corner of their hearts still love each other (I think!) but situation has made it such that they cannot stand each others guts! 

It makes me uncomfortable, coz I love both of them, and somehow, it looks like I have made a choice, between the two of them. I didn't mean to. When issues and matters were small, I tried reasoning things out. But when it was blown out of proportion, I didn't do anything, mainly because:

- I didn't want to make a choice.

- I assumed two grown-ups will know how to handle their own issues, without having a kid interfere. 

- I - in my craziest dream - didn't imagine, that it'll last this long, and become this big!

Life, has taught me a great deal about friendships. And I want to list some of them here, to remind me someday incase I happen to forget:

1. Never Ever have money matters un-resolved between friends. It somehow brings its ugly face sooner or later to spoil any relationship.

2. Never forget birthdays. All those friends you made back when you were a kid, they don't know who you really are today, and honestly, they don't care. But they'll always remain special. Show them that.

3. Never EVER interfere in your friends relationships. Be friends with their better halves, but remember, ALWAYS - the person who introduced you to that person was your friend first. Let it stay that way.

4. When you meet friends of friends, do not at any point of time make your friend seem less important. If you're making any sort of plans, or you think your friendship with the new people seem increasing, Keep your friends in the loop. 

5. Be honest with a friend. You don't like something, say it. And just because you said it, don't expect your friend to change for you. If he or she feels you are right, they will take necessary action.

6. Accept them for who they are. Never judge them. They are your friends for a reason.

7. You don't need to be friendly to those people who were friends once, but don't respect you anymore. When competition / jealousy take over a certain friendship, it hasn't been friendship for quite some time now. Let go.

8. Stay in touch. [ I am majorly lacking here - and I feel soo soo soooo terrible, for not being able to do it]

As and when, I remember my other lessons, I shall list it down here, in my small little world. 

Now you maybe thinking, why the title of this post was Delhi Diaries?

Simply, I like the sound of it! :P :) 

Writing this, felt totally Liberating! I hope things improve, and love shall prevail!!

ONE YEAR!

17 November 2008 - was a bright Monday morning!! I was sooo excited

from the night before, that I couldn't sleep all night. I was on a conference call with my friends till about 3-4 in the morning [ which was a usual thing for me .. ] and then laid on my bed awake till my alarm at 6:40 a.m started playing my favorite song.

 I woke up, got dressed and left home on my "Activa"  zooming into the cold gusts of wind on a Cold but bright Bangalore Morning. 

I reached on-time. Nervous, with butterflies in my stomach, but a BIG SMILE on my face I entered the premises and saw a big board on the wall. IBM India Pvt. Ltd. My first day at work was this very day last year. 

IBM has been a wonderful journey and the last one year has been superlative - well obviously rite? who wouldn't like a job where we got paid for the first two months just to introduce ourselves to each other n have fun?? :)!! That's what we did!

We were called "Vitality Hires" - and I personally had no idea how that would impact my stay here, but in those initial days, it was considered something really special.

It was very unusual, the experiences we had, during our training days. We had an Outward - bound learning and team-building stints at PEGASUS. 20 people of which almost everyone was new to each other were sent to a 2 day camp were there were loads of tasks, planning and Bonding that happened!

And post that we had 6 months of rigorous training on all the services, service product lines, brands, sub brands in IBM. We met leaders of IBM not only from India, but also leaders from Asia and Australia. From Servers to Software, From Applications to services we were shown a view of IBM which included  everything but still wasn't enough.

I think the best part of the whole journey was the friends we made. We have a kind of connect with each other which is in-explainable!! I love them to bits and today when all of us are distributed across the country, I miss the presence of each and everyone who isn't with me in Mumbai. And for those who're here - my life here has been wonderful mainly mainly because of them!!!

Those funny/crazy outings in Bangalore, the tea-breaks and lunch breaks in office, cribbing about staying late inside office and staying out for looong hours after office, the "booze" parties, the "only girls" parties, the birthday surprises, the fights, the arguments, the hugs every morning and every evening, the looong conversations by the 6th floor window, the pictures we clicked without any rhyme or reason, the stay-overs(for me), the bike rides, the skits, the videos, the "presentations", victory, failure, bliss, disappointment, the "Sametime" conversations.... Every single thing in that happened during those days - I miss them!! But I am glad I got to do all these things!!

It doesn't seem like a long time, when, I think of all the things that has happened this year on a personal and a career front. Well this was the only year I had a career - so... :) Thank you IBM! for everything, but most importantly for the friends it gave me!!

Love you guys Loads!!!!!