coming home

Its has taken me nearly five days to recuperate enough to compare the two places I've called home the past four years. Bhopal and Guwahati are as different in climates as they are in the people they house. Where its the bluest of skies from dawn to dusk in Bhopal, it is almost impossible to come across a patch of blue when one looks up in Guwahati. The air is moist and humid and breezy in Guwahati but in Bhopal we had to take care not to expose our skin to the elements to escape the dryness and the searing heat of the hot wind that blows across the land. The sunlight is harsh and unforgiving as the desert in Bhopal but in Guwahati it is a pleasant warmth.

But most of all the people are different. People in Guwahati are soft spoken and helpful whereas in Bhopal they would be raucous and indifferent and too rude to even bother.

However there were some people in Bhopal I call friends, with whom I shared some good times and some of the best moments and without them Bhopal seems as inhospitable as the uninhabited Tundra even with the multitude of people there. Here in Guwahati I have a few friends from the olden times but it doesn't seem so inhospitable.

Under cloudy skies threatening rain every second I take some time to think back to the time when even the worst of weather and environment felt hospitable and in fact welcoming just for the "friends" and on the contrary the best of pleasant weather here feels as alien without the same friends.

I truly salute the good men I stayed with for four years of my life and whom I now wish the best in their lives.

leaving the hostel

It seems only a few weeks ago when we first stepped in to the hostels. Most of us had no previous experience of staying in hostels and were intimidated at first with the prospect of staying together. But for all of us it has been a learning experience filled with tons of happiness and camaraderie. For all the trying times we have all faced there have been equal or more fun filled moments which will be cherished for a long time to come.

We came to our rooms with some clothes and some dreams. Now we leave with some of the dreams fulfilled, new clothes (most of the old ones having been donated or lost) and new dreams and most important of all- so many memories. Happy ones which bring a nostalgic smile a dreamy stare, sad one which bring a tear and a crooked smile embarrassing moments which bring a mocking smile and the stupid grin on our faces. But these memories help us navigate the darkest hours and will probably be the silver linings of all our future lives.

Leaving friends at the end of these four years- eventful four years-friends you shared some indelible memories is a painful experience. But the thought that once in your future we shall meet again in some corner of the world where our paths are destined to cross is what keeps us going. When we say our goodbyes we do not even know whether we shall see them again for the rest of our lives, but the believe that we shall helps us make it through.

To all my friends (who i know will never read this post) I salute you all at your talents and your thank you all for your friendship.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being there at my darkest hours. I salute you.

I am grateful to this college not for making me who I am but for introducing me to such people and making them my friends.

I hope I shall one day in some way repay you all in kind and tell you all how much I have loved you all.

two guys one gal

This is perhaps one of the oldest paradoxes and the most debated and fought over.

In societies this is the one of the basis of life. Males fight it out among themselves for the female.

Today's society had only served to make this struggle more sophisticated. Guys fight over the gal in all walks of life, from better jobs to better lifestyle, from better gifts to the most expensive gifts, from the strutting to the swaggers he does it all. He does anything to attract her attention and goes to great lengths to please her and have her favors.

What he does is no different than muscling the other males out in some way or the other. But what if the two males are friends and very good ones at that? This sees many interesting results. Where one guy gives up the girl for the friend putting comradeship and love for both of them ahead of his love for the gal we have at the opposition to this where the guys turn into foes.

But this all leads to an inescapable fact that only one of them can have the girl. This is the paradox of today's world. She can be a friend to one and be the wife to the other.

Selfish as it may sound and self centred this probably leads to a more stable social structure and a closer knit family structure in today's world.

But when the one woman you loved betrays the guy after all the promises imagine what goes through the psyche of the man. Traditionally it was always the woman who was supposed to be the weaker in matters of the heart but today it seems the situation has changed slowly and subtly where masochism has replaced the laconic outlook of the man which sees so many men who have evolved in to the modern versions of "devdas" what we call charras.

guys and gals

"Hi!" This comes easily to us for addressing friends. For us guys, we might be foul mouthed, unsophisticated, brutish, rough around the edges, but whatever faults we may have, we find it easy to say hi to the person in front of us. Even in the worst cases of enmity we still manage a stern "hi" to each other. We talk to anyone we know or not know, for that matter.Even if a man stole another's wife both will talk albeit in an estranged way. Conversation may be strained but will carry on.

But in case of us conversing gals the most many of us can manage is a fretful "hi". A suffocated coughing sound that sounds like one most of the times.
And there exist a million reasons to not talk to a female friend. From shyness to the arrogance, unfamiliarity to difference of thoughts, there are a million barriers for us to cross.

Sometimes we just let them be and enjoy a peaceful moment on their own. We quietly pass by without the acknowledgment.

Here I am writing something that popped into my head suddenly..

Its strange, is it not?

The things we remember

From the good ol' times.

Not the Rain,

But the Splash

on the way back.

Not the letter,

But the handwriting

On the Envelope.

Not the chatter,

But the tone

On the phone.

Not the fights,

But the looks

Afterwards.

Not the gifts,

But the thanks

Effusive and heartfelt.

Not the name,

but the smile

on her face everytime.

long lost friends and of new friends

Many of us might be tempted to say friends are friends..That they are the mirrors we can see ourselves in. That they are treasures.

But haven't we come across situations many a times when long lost friends have been hard to talk to? when your "langotia yaar" the childhood friends are the ones you find the hardest to talk to. When your new friends are easier to talk and connect to, have we ever paused to inspect what was lost on the way?

Have we ever wondered what it is that creates this growing divide between the best of friends when we lose touch? Why is it that an awkwardness grows between us? Why is it that we find hard to share our thoughts and feelings with the person we used to trust the most at some point of time?

Mysterious as it may sound, the explanation is as simple as opening of a door. We open the locked doors to the old feelings and gradually we open up to them...

But opening old rusty hinges isn't easy especially when these doors hide our past demons.