En Friendsa pola yaaru machaan :)

Was watching one of the gazillion 'Nanban' movie special programs on Vijay TV. This one tried to be a bit different in concept where in each of the celebrity had invited one of their own real world friend who had helped / been a part of / the course change of their life stream. Needless to say mind wandered to such similar characters in my life :)

The reason why i remember this person might be a very seflish..no..most selfish reason ever. But still, unlike truth which can be ambiguous, facts are facts. He was my college mate, who, after the first year results were announced and when we rejoined the college in second year, introduced me to his final year friends as his classmate with good scores on the majors. Well, he was that sort of a person who was hell bent on winning the star of the batch award and was always behind results and recognition. He was the best Table tennis/Cricket/Football/Shuttle player of our batch and was also the best dressed and more than good looking subject topper. One look at him you can cast him for any Complan/Horlicks ad as the kid you would want your child to be. At the risk of having sounded sarcastic, i was really trying to picture his ambition on the above lines and i am really thankful for his intro. It gave me an iota of an identity amongst my peers and gave me my first real dose of confidence.

The next person was the actual game changer of my life. It was his advice that literally changed my personality and dragged me out a bit of my self induced shell of timidity. It was my second job and my first time outside-of- my-native-place-which-i-had-never-before-done experience. We were colleagues even from my previous company but had never spoken more than a dozen words. It so happened on that weekend trip back to home, we had booked the same bus and he asked me to come and sit with him. After the initial 'hi' 'how are you' i took his walkman and started listening to songs. In a matter of minutes i was sound asleep and since the seats were cramped and i had rested my head comfortably on his shoulders he couldnt sleep for most of the journey. At later times, whenever he used to narrate about this incident, with his wife and other friends, he would blast me with the choicest of words, for him, being elder to me, was making an attempt to know about me by trying to engage me on a conversation, while the stupid and timid me, took his own walkman and was listening to songs. As mentioned before, he gave me one of the most effective advice that altered the course of my personality. We were part of the same team and he was already very popular in our office. Not just with the batch he joined, but also with people from outside of our team. Somehow he had this knack to sound genuinely interested in people and sound sincere and aloof at the same time. He once challenged me to make atleast 10 friends in a months time with the lone condition that they shouldnt just be people from our team at office. I took his words seriously and hmmm...let me put it this way. I am comfortable with the person i became after the advice than the one i was before. Ever since then he became like an elder brother to me and has always been a part of my life.

There was this person, who taught me my current technical profile. He was the ultimate teacher cum friend one can ever hope for. How many ever number of time you goof up and go to him with the same questions time and again, he wouldnt even raise an eyebrow in frown and would smilingly teach you. These are not mere words to shower praise on him, but a factual representation of who he really was. I was lucky enough to be tutored by him and even become part of his own team. Sometime down the line, in a weird twist of situations, he joined my team as a specialist consultant and i had to assign work to him. Awkward was hardly the word to describe my situation. There he was, my guru, who had to take tasks from me. The first words that he said to me made me realise his true greatness. He patted me and said i was doing a good job and he was happy for me. The same words, might have sounded mere formal from any other mouth. But the smile on his eyes and beaming face soothed me into comfort and made me realise that some people are born great, some achieve greatness but very few, like the sun, radiate greatness that others too shall feel in their warmth. It taught me that times will never be the same, but if your inherent trait is humility, time becomes just a mere unit of measurement. He is currently employed at a very good position in one of the world's leading consulting firms. He often makes me feel, no job is worthy unless its done by him. Wish i can work with him again.

The last para of this suyapuraanam comprises of a bunch of personalities. They are a constellation of stars called bloggers :) When i feel bored with nothing to read, i try to read my own older posts. Not the posts as such, but the comments section mainly. Blog spot is a place where people can make a crow like me feel like a peacock. Its all those teases and fun pokes and spoofs that made my life not just interesting but gave a whole new dimension to it. The most public of places where i can write about my most personal of feelings and yet feel secured about it.

Many a times life might suffocating and yet devoid of space at the same time. Many a silence can be traced back to the situation when your mind might actually have been crowded with thoughts. Many a times, even the most poetic of words fail to explain the intent which a mere look does. But never in anyone's life there would come a situation, when they wouldn't have time for a friend. For..Friendsa replace panna yaaru machaan :))

Adios amigos.