...मैत्री ...

Its never been this long since I took a break from blogging - and when I don't create "stuff" - I tend to create "trouble" (more so for the people around me, than myself ;) ) :P  - so hope I get back to posting more frequently :)

I have spent the better part of the weekend catching up with and pestering my friends :D
And I know Friendship Day is still a few months away, but I am sure they will hear me out :)

Rattling off...

कधीतरी - अचनाकच -
एखादी दुखरी - खुपरी जखम दाखवून,
"फुंकर मारशील का जरा?", असे हक्काने विचारावे
आणि हातातील काम टाकून -
त्याने ही अलगद गोंजारवे ...
...अशी फुंकर म्हणजे मैत्री...

कधीतरी - अचनाकच -
गमती - जमतीत, हसता - हसता डोळ्यांत पाणी तरळावे,
आणि विनाकारण रडू कोसळावे -
कारण कळून त्याने लगेच - "होते मलाही असे कधीतरी" म्हणत अश्रू पुसवेत
...अशीच गंमत म्हणजे मैत्री...

कधीतरी - अचनाकच -
चालता चालता ठेचकाळावे - आणि धडपडायच्या अगोदर -
त्याने लगेच सावरावे
...अशी जागा म्हणजे मैत्री...

कधीतरी - अचनाकच -
कॅंटीन मधल्या लोणच्याची फोड चाखावी,
आणि जिभेवर रेंगाळावी त्याच्या डब्यातल्या लोणच्याची चव
...अशी फोड म्हणजे मैत्री...

कधीतरी - अचनाकच -
बदलांना सामोरे जाताना - उडावा थरकाप,
पुढचे सगळे धूसर - अंधूक - कसा करावा प्रवास?
पाठीवर देत थाप, त्याने म्हणावे - "चल की - बघतोयस कशाची वाट?"
...अशीच थाप म्हणजे मैत्री...

अशीच फुंकर - अशीच गंमत,
अशीच जागा - अशीच फोड,
अशीच थाप - कायम देणार्‍या माझ्या सगळ्यांना -
"I miss you, यार"

~Written on 19th June 2017 #Original

Random Thought #12

Learn to trust.
Have faith in the 'good'.
Let your default setting for any person be to "trust", unless that person proves otherwise.

~Life Lesson on a Friday afternoon by CG.
Danke girl, you rock!

PS: A series of original random thoughts that are concise...or may be I am just too lazy to follow up with longer text...

The song that makes you sing : Day#5/30

I came across this today on fb :

For me, the song is "Chammak Challo" (Ra.One wala!)
Our aerobics class instructor used to play it in the 6AM session (!) (yes, we used to go that early even in chilly Jan mornings to listen to bollywood songs play :P) almost in a loop, while me and C laughed and joked and sang along - everything except follow the dance steps ;-)

Now everytime I hear the song, I can't help remembering the aerobics class TP and singing out loud :-D
Sigh! Miss those Bangalore days...

Of blankets & pillows...

As the month of November rolled into December and the holiday spirit took over, Bangalore city was also in a mood to chill, literally. (Hah! and you thought I had gotten over my habit of cracking PJs this new year ;-) :-P ) Being a hard-core suburban-Bombayite, my definition of winter was the time of the year when you don't sweat and perhaps the only time when people do not compete with each other for a window seat or the space nearest to the door in the local trains. (at least not in the early morning)

But Bangalore, apparently, was hell bent on making me realize that winters are meant to be, well, err... wintery  (for lack of a more apt word) :-P
I had turned up four months back with my favorite green blanket (apt for amchi Mumbai weather) and refused to buy a newer, thicker one in the hope that it will somehow tend to make my stay in Bangalore less 'permanent', (the exact story is too long and boring). But if you thought that I spent the better part of winters here shivering away, ah boy, are you wrong! Being the angels that my friends are " O:-) ", I was lent C's amazingly warm brown comforter which I happily snuggled under shamelessly (and still refused to get one of my own, stating the above mentioned lame reason). Now, here you might want to call me a miser, but sorry to burst the bubble, I have almost spent through the better halves of my quarterly salary on lesser needed things...weird, but true and so very moi.

Finally, after numerous telephonic doses from back home, I relented and got myself a blanket this weekend.

The moral of this long, boring tale is, I realized blankets are necessary. Warm, comforting things under which we can snuggle, dream, curl up and create our own small perfect world, oblivious to what's happening outside. Inside the blanket's warmth, we forget our daily ups and downs, the struggles, the competition, the strain of everyday life. (and when C reads this, she will roll her eyes and say mischievously, "OMG, you are suffering from all these?! Since when?!" :-O and burst out laughing :-| )

Aren't our family and friends just like blankets and pillows...- creating a small perfect, safe bubble of warmth and comfort around us...a blanket which we can pull tightly around us when the world gets too cold, a pillow on which we can lean on, depending on its cozy warmth. So the next time you feel cold, go get your blanket or pillow and blow away the blues...

Feeling grateful to have such blankets and pillows in life. 
Here's to my coziest, thickest, warmest blankets and fluffiest pillows...love u all! :-))

Memories...

Why is it that when we want to write about the ones close to us, a sudden mental block arises?

There is so much I had thought of and I wanted to say, that my mind has gone completely BLANK….but (thankfully!) only for a while…once I thought of the first sentence, the words came gushing out…as if they were waiting to fly out of my head and on to the screen…words that fumbled and ran into spelling errors and typos as they fought with themselves to try and put the whole of the past 6 years together…

In no specific order, the dialogues below are a witness to our friendship...G-SPADE, as we like to call ourselves...

Dedicated to DD, who's leaving for her M.S. soon....

Scene: VESIT Drawing Hall Class D15, somewhere in July/Aug 2004
Time: 9:00 AM
An App-Chem class taken by Mrs.Kh... I entered (late) and sat on the bench just next to her’s.
Moi: “What has she taught till now? What books are we supposed to refer? Are there any assignments yet?” (Necessarily in a single frantic breath…)
DD: “Hey…Chill! Even I have joined late…I think she has just begun the syllabus..Don’t worry….we’ll figure it out!”


Scene: VESIT Common Room, Second Yr.
CPP assignment due in an hour…Moi(frantically) and DD(coolly) searching for (blank as well as “filled”) assignment sheets (“blank” - on which to copy and “filled” - from which to copy :P)
We write (frantically and coolly, respectively) and manage to scribble the 10-odd pages onto 5 “decently-filled-looking” ones and rush to the lab for the submission…
VM: (trying to look cross, but failing miserably)You girls are late…
WE: Ma’m, we lost the way(?!?! LOL) and couldn’t FIND the lab…(Moi putting on my moshhhtt “sincereshht” face while DD struggling to keep a straight face…)
NOTE: the lab is RIGHT NEXT to the Common room where we had just spent the better part of an hour copying (frantically and coolly, respectively) the assignment….
VM lets us off! :D


Scene: Various stages during the 8 semesters
Moi: “Hey, AM I want assignment#1 of DLDA…SM..plz give me your assignment#4 of DS…Gayu…arre tune assignment#2 of DBMS likha kya…I want it….” (again, in a single frantic breath…)
DD: ABBEEE “Havratpana” mat kar!!! Kitna assignments likhegi ek sath?! Thoda auron ke liye (read DD :P) bhi rakh!
Note: "Havratpana" is a Marathi word for "greediness" and one of the fav marathi words learnt by DD

Scene: Any typical Lunchtime @ VESIT
Moi: “Have you brought “Pongal” for lunch?” or “When will you bring “pongal”? “
DD: “Hey Pu! Aaj pongal hai…” or “Have you brought the mango pickle? ”
*SIGH* I STILL can’t forget DD’s blue dabba with the aroma and taste of pongal inside it! (“havratpana” @ it’s best! ;-) )

Scene: Various stages during the 8 semesters (extra-curricular activities…PRAXIS,Aesthetics, SFMC, Utsav, TechFest, Adventure Sports)
Moi: “Wow! That’s so awesome..I want to do it…” or “Oye, main wo activity join karu kya?” or “Hey, I so wish I could join that” or “Wot say, should I do it?”
DD: “Areeyyyy…itna kyu sochti hai re?? Go ahead…just do it!”

Moi: “M hungry! ”
DD: “Chal gola khate hai…” or “Chal Vikram-Bhel wale ke yahan dahi-papdi-chat khate hai” or else her fav “Chal..gola khate hai”

Scene: Final year, B.E Project Presentation Day
Moi,AM,SM: “VM didn’t even bother to see our proj! :-(” or “ X-( How can she do this to her students?!”
DD: “Forget it…”

Scene: Various Shopping Malls across Mumbai…shopping for DD's formals (TCS training time)
Moi: “Are ye shirt dekh…. try kar na! Mast lag raha hai!” or “WOW! Those black trousers look awesome!”
DD: I am tired of shopping!

Scene: RCity, Ghatkopar
Moi, DD, AM : “Kulfiii Falooodaaa @ Kailas Parbat!!!! :D :D :D ”


Scene: DD’s See-off@ Kurla Terminus
Moi,AM(while gifting her a sole TT racquet) : “Come back soon for the other racquet of this pair! “
DD: “Sentii sab mat ho abhi…”
@AM: We never gave this “other” racquet to her! ;-)

Scene: Telephone to DD during Xams
Moi: “Are..ye to syallbus main nahi hai..!” or “Ye sab kab sikhaya apne ko?! :-o”
DD: “blah…blah…blah” (All I can hear are the temple bells near her home ringing away merrily as they drown out her voice…)

Scene: My Mess, H-11, breakfast time
Moi: “How can that lady say so?! X-( X-(”
DD: “Chill…you know what…tu bahut chid-chidi ho gayi hai…take a break! ”

Scene: Various Saturdays over the past year
DD,Gayu: (via SMS) saw XYZ,PQR,DEF,ABC, JKL movie…morning show..(bracket main…(Missed you!))
Moi: X-( X-( I SO wanted to come!..

Scene: Many times during VESIT days, whenever a “so-planned” (pun intended…it rhymes with “so-called”) trip got cancelled
DD: “Tum log waste ho…Next time I am NOT planning any trip with you ppl...” or
“Main aur mera bag XYZ-place jaa rahe hai…any one coming?”
Note: Put “Lonavla, Matheran, EsselWorld, etc in place of XYZ”


Scene: Mumbai airport on our way to a flight to Banglore
Some random “uncle” tried fooling us “indirectly” by saying “Blue flights go north, Pink flights go south ”
Me, Gayu: “Ohh!..Good that he told us! ”
DD: “He is kidding girls... !We have to board the BLUE one for Bangalore”
Moi, Gayu: Are still cursing that “uncle” and wondering how DD figured it out…
Note: If not for DD, we would have ended up asking a Delhi cabbie to take us to “Kormangala”! :-| (Well, I know it’s over exaggerated and so-not-funny)
PS: Kormangala is an area in Bangalore…


Scene: Many times @ IITB especially during an ADBMS project, 4th Sem
Moi: “blah blah blah” or “blah blah blah” or “blah blah blah” or “blah blah blah”
DD: “Bol..I am listening….”

Scene: Ghatkopar Khau Galli
Moi and DD gorged on Paniipuri, Jini Dosa, Masala Thumsup and CaDBy
Moi, DD : *sigh* *BuRp* *sigh*

Scene: ANY/TCS water cooler
DD: Pu! :-P
For those who didn't get it: I drink LOTS of water..I ensure that everyone's water-bottles are emptied + two of my own! (exaggeration intended!) while DD doesn't even carry a water-bottle...

Scene: ANY Playground/TT Table
Moi: DD! :-)
That's where DD is most likely to be found @ any given time :-) Sports is her true passion!

Scene: My room, H-11
DD: “Tu “manually” data copy kar rahi hai kya PC se HD main?! :P”

Scene: RanDoM
The dialogues below have NO relation with each other and have been spoken randomly!

DD: “Tujhe abhi bhi gussa aur rona saath main ata hai! Grow up! ”

DD: "They mis-spelt my name AGAIN! :-("

AM: “Maine bola THA...”
DD: AmruTHA ne bola THA

DD: "Waye Mudd!" ;-) ;-D


Scene: DD’s home, one day before she flies to the US
Moi, AM : “Take care” and “Study well…choose courses wisely” and
“Learn swimming” and “Did you take that Teddy?” and “Be careful of strangers” and “Enjoy yourself” and “Come back soon” and “Why don’t you take that green jacket?” and “Keep in touch…” and “Skype!”
DD: OK! :-)

Hey DeeDums,

Here’s wishing you ALL the luck in the world…Go on…Fulfill your dreams…Cherish your journey as much as you will enjoy the destination!
Be brave, be strong and you’ll shine through (I am saying this @ the cost of sounding typically like me, as I am sure you’ll say when you read this… :-P)
We’ll sure miss you here…Take care...Hoping to see you soooonnnnnnnn…

Bon Voyage!

Loads of Love n Luck,
GSPADE

PS: This video is especially for you...