Ummm... errr... There's no one title that can fit all that I'm about to write!

After contemplating for about 4 hours on what to write about(writing doesn't come naturally to me!!), I finally decided to go with this... I'll jump straight to the topic for a change... And Miss Sunshine, I'll definitely remember to use more paragraphs this time :) . and Maddy, no more IPL commentary alongside, promise... FUK, Delhi 2 down in the first over itself! ;)

I've always wondered what life would have been had people not changed.. As one grows old, one witnesses a plethora of events, some are normal, some insignificant and some life altering... They say, times change, people change... So here is a small attempt on my part to analyze that with a few instances from my life... how some people who have mattered most to me changed/not changed and what impact they have had on me during the last few years...

DISCLAIMER: All characters and instances in the following story are totally fictional. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely co-incidental!! Also, if anyone dies of boredum, the writer of this blog takes no responsibility for that... So read at your own risk.. and for those of you who did not know me till 12th grade, there is absolutely no need to read it, it'll most definitely kill you or you might end up killing me.. trust me it's THAT boring...

And so lets rewind a few years into my life and begin with Miss NRI (in a chronological order)...

Miss NRI - hmmm where to begin about this girl... The first image I have of her is from my first grade where I'm standing on the chair holding one ear by one hand and my other hand is going behind my head to hold my nose.. Yes you guessed it right, PUNISHMENT.. what was "She" doing, you ask? Well, she was the class monitor!! The next image in my mind is from our first day in second grade... both of us had shifted school - No, i did know her that time, I only knew her as the stupid, arrogant, obnoxious girl who used to punish me for not keeping quiet in the classroom - and there I see her, in my new school, and I'm thinking "Oh dear God! not her again"... There was the period when I had this huuuuge crush on her during third grade which went on for a year or two.... I remember the lunch breaks during fifth grade, the fights, the Mauritius trip, the Singapore trip, the Lucknow trip, the two times she slapped Rat_bastard :D (I love you for that)... and then came the tenth grade ... the two months of practices for the US of A trip was the period which laid the foundation of the friendship I will always always cherish throughout my life... and that initiated the process of endless phonecalls, the almost weekly fights over the most trivial of issues, getting jealous, getting possessive (over-possessive at times), getting protective... tenth grade at home was one of the worst times of my life, too much pressure, and it was NRI who was my support system.. it's she who 's responsible for keeping me sane throughout that period... what I would be without her... She's one of those few people who's had the most tremendous effects on me, giving me support when i needed it, giving me a shoulder to cry on when I needed one (not "Cry" cry), cheering me up when i used to be sad, lifting my spirits when I was low, sticking with me through thick and thin... Its not like we dint have our share of differences... we dint speak much for almost 4 years after that (I still haven't quite understood what exactly happened), but I'm glad its back to what it was 6 years back... still the twice a week phonecalls (ISD phonecalls, which go on for over an hour mostly), the leg pulling, the constant effort to irritate the other person... All in all, I'd like to say that "NRI, You are one of the best thing that's ever happened to me and I would not have been the same person I am, if it were not for you. There is not one moment I regret having spent with you, not one moment I'd like to go back into the past and change. Whatever I've been through, I've emerged out stronger with you always watching over my back... and that you are one of God's most precious gifts to me"...

I LOUUVE this vodafone exam result zoozoo ad... Zoozoo are definitely the cutest thing ever made by man... God bless South Africa... :)

Continuing with the post, the next central character is Shampoo...

Shampoo - Its been 15 years since I've known this 21 year old woman... and she's one of a kind I tell you... She's like the younger sister I never had... Every small problem and she'll want someone to get her out of it... Advice before doing anything new... boyfriend troubles... you name it!! Emotional Fool I call her....I dont really have much of childhood memories about her except one of me going over to her place with my parents and watching some stupid TV serial.. we must've been in second or third grade coz i remember it was the house which she stayed in like looong back... I remember the trips, the old hairstyle, the fringe ;) and people's misconceptions about us during tenth :) ... and then 6th December, 2005 (That rat bastard!!!) and the time which followed after that... us empathizing with each other, consoling each other, taunting each other, the daily phonecalls after every small problem that occured regarding Dec 6... then came 7th December 2007.. similar phase again... but I guess we did manage to pull through, didn't we... Oh and I've had my differences with evry other person in our small group of friends but for you (touch wood, I'm a bit superstitious when it comes to all these things) After all these years of me knowing you, and I can say only one thing - you're the dumbest, sweetest, person I have ever met... I don't know what I would have done without you especially had you not been there during that three month phase - you know what I'm talking about... Don't ever change... I love you the way you are!!

Delhi Lost to Bangalore :'( sob sob...

Moving on... We come to Miss Sunshine

Miss Sunshine: The first time I met her, it was fourth grade... I enter the classroom in the morning, see a girl in front of me in casuals and mistaking her for someone else, I wish her a happy b'day and I move on to sit at my seat, only to realize that the girl I mistook her for was sitting on the bench in front of me... Yes, Sunshine was a new student and it was her first day in skool and so she was not in school uniform... Man, how embarassed I was.. She must have thought what a jackass I am (Okay, well not exactly a jackass coz I doubt she would have even known that word by then but you can euphemize it with an idiot or a fool) ... Anyways, we all witnessed a phase where every guy in our group was madly in love with her, one at a time obviously, starting with Cute_Boy to Rat_bastard to Me (or so we thought, yes ladies and gentlemen, that's the biggest problem in India; here people don't know the difference between love, like, crush and infatuation, thanx to Bollywood, where we kids have grown up seeing movies where every relationship starts with I love you, but that's a topic for another time)... - and after giving it much thought, I've come to the conclusion that I will not get into the details of tenth grade... but after that schools got changed, and she went away to South Africa for 4.5 years... She too has had a huge impact on my life (a life altering one, I shall say) but lets not get into details about this particular case - too boring I tell you!! :P

Miss Perfect_Wife_Material: Met her in 5th grade... she was made my desk partner and people say that we used to fight like cats and dogs... from name calling to irritating each other to demarkating the desk space into 2 different areas... - Oh Shut Up!! We were 9, wot else do u expect huh!! Anyways, our friendship grew over the years and we became very good friends by the tenth standard (our fights still continued though... THEY STILL DO TILL DATE!!!)... and then both of us shifted to another school, same school that is.. there were the ragging days in the bus... I've been married to this girl where waist belt played the role of 'varmala' and shoelace played the role of 'mangalsutra', and paper cutouts played the role of agni (read fire) - Yes, my dear friends, what u just read is one hundred percent truth... we even took 7 rounds around the paper fire - a term we Hindus call 'phere' which is the same as "I do" for Christians and "Qabool hai" for Muslims... I've always admired her for being the person that she is - smart, intelligent, determined, caring.... and then the day came when we had an altercation and we did not speak for 5 years after that... Shit! what immature egoistic fools we were (read I was). I so wish I hadn't wasted those years being the stubborn asshole I was... I so regret the day we fought.. and the worst part is, it wasn't that big of a deal.. just the ego which played most part in it... anyways, glad to have you back in my life... One thing I've learnt from that whole 5 year period, if not anything else is never to let ego come in between friendship.. I ruined 5 precious years of our friendship over absolutely nothing.. I can't have that time back, nor can I make up for it, but I can definitely not let it happen again with anyone ever...

Okay, now I'm really tired and sleep deprived but if I publish it now without including the next person, it would not be fair... which leads us to Miss Nutcase_and_a_Half

Miss Nutcase_And_A_half: Met her in school in 11th Standard... She was Miss Kabootri's hostel room mate (and I'd always found her to be very attractive)... We met at the class picnic which ironically was on 14th Feb (arrey 14th Feb yaar, apna valentine's day).. yeah so we were playing truth and dare (Ugly truth and dare) and then she comes up to us and the conversation went something like this :-
Venue: Jamali Kamali
Date: 14th Feb, 2004
Me: Hey, what's your name
Miss NAAF: Hey. I'm NAAF
Me: So you wanna pay?
Miss NAAF: Yeah sure
Me: Ok
And so all of played the dirtiest truth or dare I've ever played... After the picnic, I bunked my FIITJEE class and 7 of us sat in school OAT and chatted and laughed and joked until the guard threw us day scholars out... I had developed an instant liking for this girl.. so i called up a friend in the hostel and I told her that Miss NAAF is very cute and she tells me "Sharad, you know what, she said the same thing about you"... No, don't jump to conclusions just yet, the story has a sad ending! and then came the monday when the two of us bunked 3 classes together and chatted and chatted and chatted... thus began the daily ritual of meeting outside the class after every period... (Too cheesy huh? - we were school kids people.. cut me some slack here okay! ) and the daily lunch breaks in OAT and she stealing mess food from hostel for me :) .. and the daily phonecalls on the hostel number (that bitch warden refused to give the phone to her after a few days x-( ) but noentheless we managed to use Neha Di's cell (the sneaked cellphone) and of course Neha Di calling her "Sharadeshari Devi" :P ...and the day we tried to make her into a dipsite - tucking out of shirt, pulling up of skirt, loosening of tie!!! and there she was - a proper dipsite!! :D and just when I realized that okay I'm falling for her (big time) I thought to myself, NO I wont spoil such a great thing we have going by telling her that... Blackie however could see it in my eyes and she understood it immediately but I convinced her not to say anything... and then came the heart-break (No she did not turn down my proposal, infact there never was a proposal) - She was moving back to Shillong!! Devastated I was that day (a reminder again - it was a 16 year old heart, not so used to heartbreaks)... How i tried to convince her not to go, but in vain! and so she went back.. but I did gather the courage to tell her about my feelings just before she was about to leave.. but obviously, too late... LDRs anyways dont work and for two 16 year olds staying at home? Yeah Right!! Anyways.. I came to terms with myself and decided to forget about it since nothing could be done about it... and the current status is that we are the bestest of friends... Every time we talk, its like school just got over, although so much has happened since then, but still, she brings back the memories of those 33 days i had with her in school fresh as a daisy! We met last year, when I went to jaipur, the only out station trip with friends in the last 3 yrs (Yeah Yeah, mock all you want, I noe, it sucks) - although it was just 9 hrs we spent together, I dont remember being that happy ever :) and then there were so many other almost plans to meet her this year that got cancelled... And right now she's desperately waiting for me to finish this post so she can read it asap :D :P ... All I would like to say to you is that you too are among the most beautiful things to happen to me and that the place you hold in my heart is very sacred and you'll never be forgotten.. and so won't "Cheapster and a half", "Nutcase and a half" and "All the cheapsters put together in the world and a half" :P :P (5 yrs, and still everything is so fresh, even if you beg me to, I won't forget you ever)... Love you for what you are... Thanx for being a part of my life...


Trust me I'll die of fatigue if I continue... Few other people to be added, but tomorrow!