the hot summer always takes me back to this topic:

back in college, we always had a scarcity of water and cool water was something unheard of. so in the huge campus that our college boasted of, there were few oases, like our Electrical Engineering lab which had concientious keepers that cared to store up water in earthen pots!

now, after each lecture that lasted about an hour and half, most of us (amanna and me at least) would toddle downstairs to the electrical lab, to gulp a glass or two of the naturally cooled water. heavenly feeling! each one really wanted to drink first! it was an uncontrollable urge, really!

now on one such occasion where amanna and me were fighting for the first glass and were sprinting towards the matka (or the earthen pot) we saw another colleague of ours kamraan already reaching the lab ahead of us. we got irritated by the fact that we would now have to wait for one more person to quench his thirst before we could get to gulping. also during some nightmarish occasions, after someone drank ahead of you, the pot would be rendered empty and that fact would be too much to bear. more than the actual summer heat!

however what gave birth to this term "kamraangiri" was a strange fact! read on...
amanna and me reached the pot and saw kamraan filling the glass. we were looking at him irritatingly - hoping he would finish off quickly and we would get our chance! amanna got too impatient and even lifted the lid off the pot to check if there was enough water for everyone. now kamraan's glass finally filled up from the slow stream coming out of the tap, and what was really touching was instead of he drinking the water himself, handed the glass over to amanna! amanna was really stunned. he almost fainted, not able to believe the act of selflessness that he had just witnessed. for that entire day, he just kept repeating "how could he have done this?"

but then there are some people like kamraan!

did you have your dose of kamraangiri today?

i remember we got in sleeping bags for those good ol days when we used to stay back for the night.
put em to use after a real long time today! fun and even got some work done for a change. i am beginning to feel that night shifts are the most productive!

met up with good old sanjay on the weekend. he is en route to the united states and is back to mai mumbai for a sabbatical. funny how we (jay and biru) have come a long way - together from ncst to working at bently and now hes gone his own way...

sanjay has been synonymous with friendship for me as we have shared some very great moments together and i haven't had such a strong bonding with almost anyone that i can remember of... with the exception of amit (don) amanna i guess.

took me back to thinking about friendship and how it is an essential color of the rainbow that is life and also got me thinking about how that lack of friend creates a good deal of vacuum.

looking at the horizon for a bumchum pal again! anyone game?

height of desperation?

Ok - I was fishing for something when I came across some old articles I had jotted down. Now this one takes the cake! How desparate can a guy get? I remember I wrote this in one go - possibly trying to woo a non existent lady! Obviously nothing happened - I know I expected Kavitha to atleast come and slap me! But I was safely ignored!
Then again, I liked the way I wrote the last line - "friend"! hahahaha!
The font is obviously courier to indicate nostalgia!

Yesterday morning when I woke up, I had an eternal smile on my face. So much so that Mum asked me if I had finally got a solution to the problem at work that had eaten my head for the whole of last week.
I gave her a passing nod which was neither a yes nor a no! I made my cup of tea (For once I did not wait for Mum to make it for me) and then sat, cup in hand, on the window ledge gazing at the myriad of colors on the horizon. I wanted to re-live my dream that had made me smile throughout the night!

A sip of the chai took me to back to the time when I was speaking to Seema about her friends and her life. One of her friends seemed so much in her life that I could almost picturize her?. (Kavitha Pillai) was how Seema referred to her. "She is very close and has done her B.Tech from the Vatumal Institute", said Seema.
Seema was occasionaly glancing at her wrist watch and I could sense she was getting late for her class. I didn't hold her back, but by then I had almost started imagining what kind of person Kavitha would be and if I could ever get to know her!

I raised the cuppa to my lips, only to find that I had drained the last drop of the elixir already! I came out of my reverie and started getting ready for work. I was already late!
I started my sprint to the Andheri station and was immediately back to my thoughts. "Hi", someone jogging besides me said.

I looked up and found myself gazing straight into the eyes of Kavitha! "Hi", I said looking sideways but not stopping my jog. Kavitha continued jogging with me. It was somewhat strange. I could see straight through her! She was transparent. And then I realized it was just a continuation of my dream. But then I wanted it to continue, so I played along...

"Will you be my friend?" I asked her. She smiled at me. I took that for an Yes. I had a new friend! WOW!
Seema had told me about Kavitha being a VB Programmer, and I was searching hard to make conversation.
"How do you create COM Components in VB, Kavitha?", I asked not desiring an answer. Kavitha looked up at me and gestured with a snap of her fingers - her thumb rolling of her middle finger "Like that!", she said. I was impressed!

I looked at her and smiled and she smiled back. We had reached the bus-stop. We got into the first 415 that came along. I talked to her from a wide variety of topics ranging from my favorite author to her favorite music; from my favorite jean to her favorite dupatta; from my favorite avyal to her favorite dal fry!

"Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech" The bus had reached SEEPZ and I was out of my dream with a start! Everyone was gazing at me. Obviously they were taking me for some sort of lunatic with all my talking into thin air like that!

But then, I was still smiling! - I had a new friend, hadn't I? Kavitha!

mumbai meri jaan

I'm the usual bumbaiyya that keeps on telling others - they can kiss dirt because nothing can come close to mumbai when it comes to convenience. Bangalore is one place that I visit often because good ol' bro is settled there and the fact that the periodic, "planned" power cuts are something unheard of here in mumbai - is what i always rub in!

On my way to work today in the morning - all the above mumbai-loyalty hubba hubba that I have been doing just seemed to evaporate in the summer air, as I grimaced and almost "kissed the dirt" myself while manouvering the car on a nearly impossible muddy stretch on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli link road! I survived but the thought of that muddy stretch in the monsoon sent shivers down my spine!

Bangalore calling?!