Autumn Tree

There I see you going far but I cannot do anything
For that was destiny to do us apart
I always thought to hold you back with something
But I know you will not stay
You think that life will be the same without you
As I have so many still clinging on to me
You don’t know that I will not be the same when you are away
My dear friend stay happy wherever you go
But must not forget there is me standing right there where you left me
Still with open arms to embrace you
Says the tree to the departing leaf
No matter what happens to me in the years to come
I just want you to know that I will always love you..

Yeh Dilli hain mere yaar

Few days back I was in Delhi . Finally I got to see the great Indian capital which is famous for its historical values, awesome food and big hearted people. The excitement was humongous. Infact I and Ujju decided to speak only Punjabi for our four days stay in Delhi , though we really suck at it. And so after all this bakar, leg pulling, muching and sleeping in the flight we finally landed. We included Rishi, Ujju and me. Well after landing and coming out of the airport a shockwave in the form of extreme Delhi heat hit us. Yes the heat was bad really bad, we were sweating profusely even at 1 o clock in the night. But yes when it’s a question of having a blast in a small four day trip nothing can stop us. And so with high spirits we started for an hour long drive to Rishi’s place. Delhi in night is quite different from Mumbai. Mumbai is more awake and more crowded all the time while Delhi was more like a half awake beauty. The entire conversation during the way made me aware of two things – Delhi has two ring roads outer and inner and if you traverse these you will see all of Delhi . And the second and most important thing that I learned was that Rishi knows very less of Delhi roads :P. So we finally reached Rishi’s place and I felt really bad to disturb uncle and aunty’s sleep in the middle of the night. After that I dozed off like a dog and don’t remember any more bakar.

Next day started with amazing parathas made by aunty, lil breakfast family chatting and rushing to occupy the washroom first to get ready. Important mention here is that Ujju took the longest time to get ready, he perhaps wanted to create a big impression on Delhi babes (tottaas as we call them with all our love). Rishi’s chacha ji gave us lift to Palika and saved us from the extreme heat. There we met more friends – Punu (Poonam), Tinu (Amit), these people I have always heard of but never got a chance to meet and Sakshi, the old FTP pal. Rishi by now was all shining, now I am not sure if that was because of shiny particles from the bouquet smeared to his face or because of Punu. Ujju was looking a little disappointed, no eye candy as yet for him. Palika was an amazing place. When you get a 350 Rs belt just for 80 bucks you are sure to love shopping there. Where Rado watch is bargained for 150 bucks, yups a duplicate one. Punu and Tinu were exceptionally good in bargaining. May be I’ll learn that skill from them someday. The only villain was heat. It was really really bad. After sauntering for sometime in Palika and Janpath it was time to rush home. There was a party at Rishi’s place in evening. The occasion was uncle’s birthday. The home was somewhat changed from what we have left in the morning. No no the wall color was still the same, it was just that there were so many people. Yes all relatives, family, friends, cousins, kids loitering around in the house. Everyone was so Punjabi, I could feel the Punjabi vibes of fun, laughter, eating, bakar all around me. And yes I loved it. So after havan and awesome dinner it was time to rock the night. So we planned to go to Elevates.

Elevates – one of the famous discs of Noida and I guess Delhi too. All gals (Pal, Punu and Sakshi) got ready in their jazzy, flashy outfits and high heels. All guys (Rishi, Ujju, Tinu and Sandesh) got dressed in stylish shirts, jeans and ofcourse formal shoes. I never understand why sneakers are not allowed in discs. Anyways that’s a different topic. The place was usual – loud, noisy, smoky and crammed. We danced there for four good hours and it was great fun. There were babes and dudes and couples all around. All the couples were passionately and intimately dancing with their partners. At 4 when all realized that we have reached our thresholds and gals cannot take those high heels anymore, it was time to move. We went straight to Rishi’s uncle’s home and once again I dozed off like a dog.

Next day again started with great breakfast of sandwiches and poha. This time it was chachi’s culinary skills. It was a lazy and sleepy day. Well if you party all night then next day is going to be gloomy. So we somehow dragged our asses out of the bed and by the time we got ready it was already 3 in the afternoon. It was the day of the big fat Indian wedding. Finally it was time to officially handover over bigtime rotlu buddy Div to Rahul. The plan for the day was to see Qutub Minar first and then to attend the wedding. The meeting point was GIP mall (or Spice mall) where Punu was waiting for us in the cab. The cab ride was ok, it was a decent cab and atleast AC was there for some relief. The first stop was Divya’s place. We wanted to see the bride before her big day or perhaps big night. Div was looking pretty exhausted (I can imagine), with almost 1 kg weight hanging from her each hand who will not be tired. We had a lil bakar with her, uncle and aunty. Then we moved and destination next was Qutub Minar. Well I liked the monument though I imagined it to be more elaborate. The night view was not something very great and so after clicking few pics we moved back to Divya’s place to get ready for wedding.

Wedding was in a garden. It was a huge garden, nicely decorated but yes the heat was killing. We met our old pals Khush and Abhishek there. After the usual bakar session we went to the room where Divya was sitting. My my, she looked like a doll. I have never seen her looking so pretty. Ofcourse makeup did the trick here, hehe, but truly she was flawless. Receiving the baraat and groom was also a great and funny experience. Now in Delhi or probably in Punjabis, I am not sure whose tradition is that, the groom has to bribe all her sister in laws before he can get in. So there was a bargaining session between the baraatis and all sister in laws and there was some literal pushing involved. Yes believe me we literally pushed the groom and the baraat with full force. Poor Rahul could barely manage to hold on to his sehra. Finally after much tussle the sister in laws finally agreed to take rupees five thousand and let the baraat in. Yeah it was fun though. There was one awesome babe at the wedding. A real eye candy, bigtime totta. All guys enjoyed staring at her. Rest of the wedding was usual and we came back home at 2:30 in night. And once again I dozed off like a dog.

Next day was not so happening. We already carried a tan coz of extreme heat and so we decided on our last resort of roaming in malls. We went to GIP mall, did bowling, some shopping, bakar and munching. We came back at 10 in night and at 12 o clock we celebrated uncle’s birthday. Rishi’s relatives were there and so had quite a blast in the night. Rishi’s cousin Prashni got a yummy black forest cake and we gifted uncle a huge flower vase. After 1:30 everyone dissipated and we finally called it a day.

So the day finally arrived. It was time to say bye bye to Delhi . We went to Spice mall in morning. I first time went to a 4D theatre. It was ok, not too great. At 3:30 we came back home. Then we played dumbsherads with aunty, chachi, Prashni and Daksh. Finally the cab came at 7 in eve and we left for airport.

Friday Friendship

We meet many people in our day to day lives. They all leave footprints in our memories. Some footprints are like the ones made on sand, they get washed away with waves of time. But some are like carved in a stone, strong and forever. These people may not be around all the time but the memories of moments spent with them are sufficient to drive you through thicks and thins. This post of mine is dedicated to these people in my life.

When I think of such people I think of Friday friendship. The memories that I have of the time spend with these people is like old wine, it gets stronger and better with time. We formed this group in Hexaware and in the start it has four members (the proud founders of this great and nasty association) – Ujjwal, Rishi, Divya and Khushbu. A little history reveals that it started with Divya and Ujjwal planning to go for a movie on Christmas ‘05. Rishi met them on their way and joined them. This was the beginning of an era for us. Down the line it was joined by me, Khushbu, Navdeep and Atul. And this is how it got this name, we all were in different projects (me and Rishi were in same) and so Friday used to be the only time when we all could get together in eve and blow off some steam. And these evening encounters used to be legendary :-).

The beauty of this group was in the diversity of the people forming it. With Ujju as Neta, Rishi as Nautanki, Div as Rotlu, Khush as Abhi-neta, Atul as Happy go Lucky, Navdeep as Day Dreamer and Me as Always be Happy, things have to have happening, interesting and sometimes wayward, atrocious.

And so we bloomed in full glory with time spent in late night movie shows, munching at BTC, hanging around in KK, kulfi at dmart, bowling, gaming, shopping, finding reasons to take parties from each other, teasing, going for a movie in a theatre which is hours away from our place (remember Fanaa), spending eve in marine drive and coming back with someone losing her mobile phone (poor Khush) and finally resorting to blabbering which is our forte.

“What are the plans for the weekend” or “Which movie we are going tonight” or “When is your party” chain mails become part and parcel of our lives and permanent visitors of our mail boxes. Where in everyone is free to pour in any senseless thought and others reciprocating in the same way.

There had been several interesting incidents so far but there is one which still makes me laugh hard. This was when we realized Ujjwal’s aura. We all were going to some place (don’t remember) in the local train. We were sitting in one row and Ujjwal in row front of us. Since he was recently back from US, he was telling us some interesting stories. Then all of a sudden he realized and in fact we all realized that the guy sitting next to Ujjwal was looking at him with so much admiration, liking and love (I know Ujjwal is going to beat me for this) in his eyes. This made Ujjwal so conscious that for a second he forgot what he was saying. That guy’s expression along with Ujjwal’s left us in splits because of laughter. I wished I would have captured that moment.

Another legendary experience was the trip to Borivali national park. I don’t know who made that plan. If I knew that, I would have killed that person. It was one of the lazy hot Saturday mornings, when you were lying in your bed all curled up cozily and suddenly a phone call comes with a weird plan of going out in perching sun and scorching heat to a place which does not offer any excitement. But when it’s a group plan you got to do it. So we all dragged ourselves out of the bed and got ready in record time. After a quick meet at D Mart the route was decided. It was something like taking a train to VT, then taking a cab to Churchgate and then taking a train to Borivali. So we intelligent souls got the train tickets to Churchgate, it’s only that poor we didn’t realize that we are boarding a VT train and not a Churchgate train. That day was a pure lucky day for us, as in Mumbai several people travel in locals without a ticket and never get caught and we; instead of having (wrong) tickets got caught by the TT. Then started a long session of proving ourselves innocent and it did work and we could find a way out by bribing the TT. By that time we all had already turned frantic and were in no mood to proceed further. But few cold drinks, sandwiches and burgers brought the enthusiasm back and we finally reached the destination. And as it was a lucky day for us (I guess now you can sense the sarcasm) we saw some great animals including a donkey, dog, few birds and of course few couples (humans are also animals). Of course the day was long and many lucky things happened to us including not getting a bus on our way back. All in all it was a trip worth remembering.

I think I can go on and on remembering all the good times I spend with this group. We still do hang around together though some people are now little away, only by distance criteria. I love these people and they form an eternal part of me and my life. This is for Friday Friendship, this is for US.

Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.