friendly tribute

….to all my friends who were once friends and still are, just not the same kind we once were:

Situations, circumstances, distances, and just simply not remaining the people that were a part of the original pact.

To my childhood friend Prema who has and will always remain my first and only true friend. To accept me when no one else wanted to be friends with me coz I wasn’t cool, smart, funny, fair or well dressed for them. To Kavi, who has been my first introduction to poetry, to language and words and to the wonderful world of being yourself and paying the price for it. To Dinesh and Satish, who taught me to play cricket like a guy and not worry about being the only one on a team of boys, to look out for me through all the ups and downs of a teen girls’ life. To Snehal, Yeshwant and Bhupesh for treating me the way I deserve in college, making me feel like a special person, and respected, where looks didn’t matter and clothes didn’t matter, but I was cool coz, well, I was me. To Sharmila who introduced me to the the murky world of gray and the joy of being lazy and not feeling guilty about it. To Prem and Sujal, who encouraged me to dream and dream big, and for trusting my brains more than I did. To Sowmya, whom I will always be indebted to for showing me the world of beauty as the way boys see it and making me not only cringe on how I look, but without which I wouldn’t have realized what needed to be done, from within.

To the numerous online friendships since 2000. The ones that materialized to real world and ones that still remain online, though really, it doesn’t make a difference and anyone who has spent some time in this world, will know what am talking about.

To PV, Manju and Shubha all the way from CH, for being amazingly genuine people like everyone else those days, just so you’d know the difference when you hang around long enough, like I do now. To Archana, Koushik and Kiddo who were the very first friends I made 5 years ago right here on this blog, for being sweet and encouraging. (anyone not believing me should go read my very first few post. ugh on the rusty level). To SB whom I met, and has been wonderfully encouraging reading all the drivel I shovel here. To Joey and Psyriac who will remain an amazingly funny, smart, inspiring duo through all of their emotional epiphanies and antsy drama they put themselves through those days. Its bitter-sweet to see how nicely they’ve grown. To Metlin, the most intelligent, witty, kind and wonderfully arrogant and snobbish gentleman-friend that I will ever have. To Bhel for being a genuinely true friend through a very dark patch. To Naren, for bringing a fresh sense of humor to me while I wallowed in boredom, who rose like a pheonix, just that he started a meteric rise and has never looked back! To Tdna for bringing me so much laughter, happiness and giggles with all the blatant frivolity, among other things. To Pavan, who read my fables like they were the bible and fueled my inner demon to shelve more such sob stories. To Naveen, who has taught me a take a few things in stride with his impeccable maturity and grace and who will be my little brother I never had. To Pilgrim for not just being a voracious reader, but also someone who can drive me totally up the wall with his insane logic (which occasionally did make sense) but at the end, it was just really the freedom of expression with each other that mattered.

To Anantha, Max, Adi, Nandu, Praveen, Priya and Schmetterling, all you young adults, for tricking me into believing am 15 years younger than what I am and indulging me while calling me “maami” all the while. Thanks guys! 🙂

Few more names come to mind, ones who have faded into the background for various reasons, and ones who are still in touch. I know I speak with most of you occasionally, if not sporadically, and some are lost in the realms of time and life, but if you do read this, I want you to know that It’s been great knowing you, and I wouldn’t be who I am today, without each of you contributing to me.

And guess what? I like who I am today. That speaks for itself?

On retrospect, I don’t think I miss each of you, I miss the times we shared. The ones that won’t come back coz well, the earth we live on won’t ever rotate the other way, now would it?

Here’s a favorite of mine – Elton John singing (since you surely don’t want me singing) Never say Goodbye –

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFlh0KAnkFg]