Wednesday, October 25, 2006

My Best Friend's Wedding

Today my best friend is getting married and I’m not there. Four years of our lives we spent together. The four best years of my life. Engineering College.
We entered college together with dreams in our eyes, we were disappointed together, we rediscovered what college is really about, together. Living just four houses away from each other, we went to college together, missed buses together. Studied together, presented papers, had accidents, went shopping, did projects, placecom duties, hoarded books in the library, wore sarees, watched movies, played with London and shreya. Ate, slept, talked and entered Wipro. Went late everywhere, confused and frustrated everyone around us. Had accidents, got shouted at- by professors, policemen, All together. People said we even looked the same.
And then college was over. Wipro beckoned and we split. Me in cochin and she in Chennai and then Bangalore. We still managed to keep in touch, irregularly though.
Bhubaneshwar next. Even further away. And then she tells me her wedding is fixed.
Suddenly she’s in a different league.
Time changes everything. Just one year has passed and already those 4 seem far far away.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

10 things I learnt from my trip to Germany

  1. Doing things at the last minute does not always work.
  2. Anything is possible. Always prepare for possibilities like the taxi wheel rolling away or missing suitcases on the flight
  3. Never never ever make the mistake of flying with Air Deccan
  4. Always always check things with at least two people before deciding on a course of action. Mistakes can be costly (almost 90 euros :( )
  5. How to survive in a foreign land with almost no money and only marie biscuits and one small pack of nutella for two meals
  6. The miracle of how Germans survive eating German food. They only eat bread for breakfast, lunch or dinner (Even 300 different kinds don’t really make for much variety). They do not drink water – only wine, beer or soda.
  7. People are basically the same everywhere. Some nice and some idiots
  8. Germany has the best cars in the world
  9. Losing a tooth is not the end of the world
  10. Chocolates are very expensive, especially when you are counting pennies and have a long list of people back home waiting for you.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Sad Times

This has been a rather sad trip home for me. I just got two days of my puja vacation to spend at home and I discovered a lot of things had changed.
My grandparents showed signs of growing old, something I really didn't like to see. My grandmother seemed to have shrunk into herself. She seems to be getting smaller and smaller by the day. I still got a chance to enjoy her great filter coffee though. And my grandfather, the centre of my life for 4 years, the person holding the entire family together, always full of life and love and good advice seems to have become old and tired. It almost brought tears to my eyes to see him like that.
I spent four years of my life in my grandfather’s house. Four years while in engineering college. In retrospect they seem to be the best years of my life so far. An unforgettable time. I learnt more in that time than anywhere else. I was lucky, much more than I realized then.
We had a get together too during those short two days, my class from engineering college. A lot of conversations and memories relived. For the guys it was one more chance to be at college, away from mundane lives as software professionals. I spoke more to my class mates then than I ever did during 4 years of engineering college.
And then the saddest part. Two of my closest friends are getting married. And things have changed so much. They talk about wedding plans and in-laws and new houses. And I suddenly realized that this would be the last time I saw them before they were married. Marriage somehow seems to turn young carefree girls into mature care laden responsible adults. And I didn’t want that to happen to them. I wanted them to be the same people I had known in college. But I realized that it would be impossible. And that soon I would have to turn into one too. And that was the saddest part.