Letters, Rains, Books, Conversations – A Friendship

100 Happy Days – Day 88

Happiness is friendship in rain, with book, through letters and conversation.

It was 6.50 am. The queue began from the first floor, stretched through the staircase to the ground floor and out. I was on the staircase closer to the first floor. I heard Carnatic music emanating from the room filled with 50-60 youngsters; CA students. A guy with curly hair and sacred ash on his forehead emerged from the crowd, took out his phone and answered the call, cutting off the Carnatic music.

I walked into the classroom after my registration. A friend gestured me to come forward, for he had saved a seat for me. As I took my place beside him, I looked around to get acquainted with my neighbours and there he was, right in front of me. I glimpsed a drawing in his notebook. A rough sketch of Lord Shiva. There was a Shloka written next to it. I asked him about it and as he explained it, I made a mental note to read more on it. But soon, I forgot. I must ask him again. Or maybe, he’ll tell me if he reads this. 😉

*****

In a while, Gopikrishnan, the guy with the Bhasma on his forehead and immense love for Carnatic, and I became friends and then, there was no looking back.

We have these deep conversations at times, but we could easily talk silly too. They happen very rarely; maybe twice or thrice a year. But, it doesn’t matter. It is easy to pick up from where we had left. But mostly, we don’t have to pick up from where we had left. We could simply start a conversation with absolutely no back history.

During one such conversation, we realised that both of us loved writing letters. From then on, we started exchanging handwritten letters. (Heck! That was when I realised that most of the post boxes never functioned.) Whenever I saw the blue inland letter waiting for me in the hall, I knew where it came from. Sometimes, I’d tear it open right away. Sometimes, I’d keep it safely and opened it when I could read it peacefully.

Each of your friends add value to your life in different ways. Gkris, as he calls himself, prods my inner consciousness through our conversations and letters. The things he says, give new perspectives to my thoughts. His words have the power to make me see new things, take me to a new world where things needn’t really work as per a set of rule books.  There is a spiritual connection underlying our friendship and this is what makes it special.

While we spoke about so many things, bonded over books, music, movies, poems, quotes, ideologies and TV shows, we couldn’t meet. When I was free, he never came to my place. When he came, I wasn’t here. And so, after  three long years, it was time to meet.

*****

I picked him up from a common point and we stood there and spoke, oblivious to the place and the time. After a lot of discussions, we decided to go to a mall though we preferred a peaceful place amidst nature. On our way, the rain beat down from nowhere. Though we took shelter initially, the next time we were on the road, the rain couldn’t stop us. Both of us being rain lovers, decided to embrace the drizzle and continued. After a while, I heard him laugh ever so softly.

“What is it?”, I asked.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Now I do. Tell me!”

“Your hair brushes against my face every now and then. Um… and the smell. It smells so good.”

“I know”, I said.

“What is it with Women’s hair really? What smells so good? It isn’t Shampoo.”

“I don’t know. But I agree, it does smell good.” 😀

(The conversation ended there. It was later on that I got to know about Pheromones and remembered this conversation we had.)

Mall is a sad replacement for these rains, I thought. But not after we entered the mall and veered into the crossword book-store. Time flew as we bonded over books. Well read as he was, he showed me the books he liked, he suggested me some, he narrated some of the stories, his eyes twinkled as he described his book-shelf; a mini library.

During the conversation, he picked two books that I hadn’t read and asked me to pick one for myself. I was over-whelmed for that was the first time someone was gifting me a book. I asked him to choose since I had no clue about the two. He gave a gist of both the books and asked me to choose. Since both seemed interesting, I picked one randomly.

Later, as I was sipping a cup of tea, he spoke of his wanderlust, his experiences, and experiments during his journeys. He suggested places I’d like and he described beautiful sights. His plate was empty and yet, I was sipping my tea. He took the book he gave me and scribbled something in it. As he handed me the book, he said, ‘I have underlined some sentences in this book. Don’t read it beforehand.’ and I kept my word.

I returned home that day with the satisfaction you get only after you meet a close friend. When some people say goodbye and leave, we feel low. But when I dropped him off, I didn’t feel sad. Our bond wasn’t made through meetings. It was through words, letters and conversations. As long as the letters were exchanged, the conversations continued and music prevailed, this bond would exist.

While there are those friendships; the ones with lots of backstories of trips, heartbreaks, jokes, pranks and much more, there are some friendships that are subtle yet deep in their roots. One isn’t better or worse than the other. As I mentioned earlier, every friend adds value to you. One need not meet them or talk to them often, face tough or funny situations with them or go on trips. Probably, there are just a few silent moments together, just a few stray words exchanged. The bond speaks for itself.

This post has been written in association with Chaayos & Blogchatter on occasion of Friendship Day

Four Fictional Characters

Day 2 – Four Fictional Characters

More often than not, fictional characters have a lot of impact in our lives. We look up to some, we cast aside some and some of them leave us in tough positions as to whether they are lovable or not. There have been debates about certain fictional characters and the debates will be there as long as the books keep taking the rounds. For instance, Snape-James debates. Oh! I witnessed ‘word’ wars in their names.

I relate, not to the heroes. I adore some of those supporting, special characters for their simplicity and straightforwardness. Here are four such fictional characters I adore. If you know them all, you’ll know the underlying connection between them too:

1. Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter – She is weird, she accepts that and doesn’t change herself to suit the rest. She knows that people make fun of her, play games with her (remember she was searching for her lost shoes and found them hanging from the ceiling?) and that does not disturb her in the least. She continues wearing her radish earrings, spectrespecs and she keeps talking of nargles and wrackspurts that make no sense to anyone else.

Image courtesy: Buzzle.com

While the rest write her off as weird, she has the insight at times to solve certain mysteries that even Hermoine couldn’t solve. Yet, Luna talks of them as though they are the most obvious things that anyone could think of. One such instance is when she helps Harry find Ravenclaw’s Diadem.

Courtesy: quotesgram.com

There isn’t much that Luna says, but every word is filled with wisdom and every other unintelligible word portrays how it is okay to be yourself. I Love her!

2. Phoebe Buffay from FRIENDS – Not a book character as most of will know. Phoebe Buffay had her own beliefs and no matter how weird they were, she stuck to them. Like Luna Lovegood, even though she knew that people found her weird, she wasn’t bothered. She was very compassionate towards animals and refrained from using woollen clothes or  eating meat.

During one instance, during her pregnancy, when she had a craving for meat, she ensured that her share of animals were not killed by requesting Joey to refrain from eating meat during that period (He is too adorable to have helped her considering how much Joey loves food).

Image courtesy: news18.com

She believed in being herself. I adored both her moralistic and the effortlessly humorous side!

3. Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones – Here is Tyrion Lannister’s most famous quote; a lesson for each one of us.

Image courtesy: Indianexpress.com

Tyrion not only knows his flaws, but also, he is aware of his strength. He is well read and cunning. His wit and knowledge are his sword and shield. Surely, we do see how he wages wars with words. That brain of his has helped him escape some tough spots more than once.

There aren’t many people who love Tyrion Lannister and yet, he fights. He lives among cunning lions, he knows he could be killed any moment, yet he is compassionate to the weak and righteous. The poison in the family doesn’t spread to him. Perhaps, it could be because he is the oppressed one in the family. Even so, he is one character that you cannot help but love.

Oh! And how could we miss those sarcastic one-liner jabs?

4. Ian from The Host – The Host is a book which has not reached many. You can read about it here and I am sure you will love it if you like fantasy, alien invasion & a bit of romance.

Ian is a young man who is one among the humans who are hiding from the aliens. When an alien walks into their midst, he hates her at first. But with time, he begins to understand her, empathises with her and gradually falls for her. The alien is nothing but a soul, and Ian isn’t bothered about her not having a body. He is in love with the soul alone and that speaks volumes about him.

The soul of the alien resides in the body of Melanie alongside her soul and Ian doesn’t care about Melanie’s form for it is only the alien part of her that he loves. The alien tells him that her soul is a ‘reflective silver living ribbon with nearly a thousand thin feathery attachments’ and yet, when he eventually holds the soul in his palm, he holds her with love.

He loved her personality rather than her form.

If you are the kind of book lover I mentioned earlier, please do read The Host. It takes a while for the plot to sink in. But after that, it is worth it.

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This is Day 2 of Four Things Ten Days Challenge. If you like this, you can read the first day’s post here – Four Likes Four Dislikes.

PS – If any of you want to join the challenge, you can start right away. This is for 10 days and you’ll have only 4 things to list each day. I’m not revealing the remaining list now. You can discover it with each day. You can either join the challenge in your blog or in the comment section. 🙂

Malls & Friends

100 Happy Days – Day 62

Unlike other post exam days, this time, a lot has been happening. I have already gone out three times to meet friends and it has been crazy. To start with, the next day after exams, we roamed inside a half deserted mall – Gold souk. Somehow, in spite of being on the highway, it is almost always deserted. I’d blame the idea of placing all the Gold shops in a mall where bankrupt youngsters go for hanging out. Why would any school/college students or an unemployed youngsters want to visit a mall full of Gold?

During this week, another group of ours met up in the legendary Lulu mall of Kochi. Finally, I stepped into Costa Coffee (Had been craving to go there). You must be wondering what stopped me until now. When friends are willing to give us treats in expensive places, we barely say ‘No’ ;). Jokes apart, I would have said it was unnecessary, but I was the last one to reach the mall and they had already chosen the place. I had no choice you see? 😉

After a couple of hours filled with laughter, reminiscence, coffees, chilled drinks and pastries, we parted. Only to meet the next day. I was making up for all the lost days, you know!

The next day, we were on an entirely different level and in a different place – The Central Mall. People are flocking into this haven mainly because of their gaming section. Bowling and air hockey is what pulls me, while the metro construction right outside the mall repels me. But that day, I had to go. We clicked umpteen number of selfies in such a manner that, the word selfie was the trigger to click. If anyone said ‘selfie!’, a picture was taken. No matter how scattered we were, all ran and posed before the phone. 😀

Here We Are!!!

This wasn’t all, we also began our plans for a Bangalore trip scheduled for Jan 2016. If not anything, the New Year will start on a happy note.

The Women in My Life

I have been wondering for a while as to why do we have a separate day to celebrate womanhood and why did that happen to be on March 8th. I have heard people raise such questions on many occasion. I saw some rants in FB saying everyday is a day of love, why celebrate it on Feb 14th? Similarly, I see questions on Mothers Day, Friendship Day, Father’s Day etc. I see memes that say

I don’t have to post on FB to let my mom know that I love her.

I found my answers to all those questions and today, I found my answer to Women’s Day too. It is this; In every turn in my life, a woman has been there to support me and walk me through. You might have heard of incarnations of God. I would say these women were the incarnation of Goddesses. And I had to let them know how important they are to me. I am sure they know it. But saying it makes them feel more special. I wouldn’t have written this post, if not for Women’s Day. 🙂 So here is to all the beautiful women in my life:

1. My Ammamma (Grandmother) – Where do I begin? I have been writing a post about her. But it becomes way too lengthy and jumps from topic to topic that I keep it aside for modification. I am her favorite grand daughter. She has been taking care of me since I was a baby. She used to feed me, bathe me, take me to school, I used to show my marks to her first. I used to tell her first about all the prizes I won. She used to shield me when Mom hit me. She knows when I am sad, she knows when I have not eaten. She can’t sleep if we don’t have food.She is the fairy with the wand and fairy dust that I have read about in books. She has silver hair, beautiful wrinkles and a few fallen teeth. She is my home. 🙂 ❤
2. My Amma – Oh the famed Supermom who finds everything, knows everything, flies around and saves the day. From my childhood, I have had this notion that Mom could solve everything.For instance –

   

   Image courtesy: http://www.pak101.com

   This is the story of my life :o. Not once, not twice, but forever. My sister and I are hopeful that we would get that super power sometime soon.

   She could solve almost everything. If my sister and I can’t correct something, we say, “Let Mom get back. She will be able to do it.”
   If we don’t know a location, we say, “Let Mom get back. She will definitely know.”
   If we have a decision to make, “We will ask Mom. She will tell which is best.”
   If we have a pain on our neck, “Let Mom come. She would cure it in a jiffy.”
   And finally when Mom gets back, we run to the door, “Ammmmmaaaaa…!”

   Ohh! There is nothing like Mom getting home from work. And there is nothing like a Sunday when Mom doesn’t have to work. 😀

3. My Sweet Sweet Sister – She is a whole package of elder sister, younger sister, best friend and Mom(sometimes). We have this radar with which, we simply know things without saying them. In movies or in life, when someone says something awkward, our eyes just meet on time. If someone belittles, one of us, the other one is up to the rescue. When I am down, she tells exactly what I need to hear. She takes me out when I’m down and cheers me up. She tells me when I look ridiculous. she tells me when I look beautiful. She is as weird and crazy as I am. And though I never tell her this, I love how she idolizes me at times. Most importantly, even if I buy her a tiny chocolate, she looks at me as though I gave her some treasure. We do have our differences (and our wardrobe fights), but that is what makes us, US.
4. My twin sister – As someone put it, best friends are siblings you never had. She definitely falls in that category. Many times people have asked if we were sisters and we said ‘Yes’. We weren’t constantly in touch, but we could easily pick up from where we left it as though we just met yesterday. There is so much of effortlessness in our friendship and she is the only one with whom I have got that kind of bonding.
   She is an example of classy, strong and independent woman. I have seen her grow, I have seen her learn, I have seen her change and I have seen her turn from a timid little girl to this charming lady she is today.
   The best part is, everyone at home loves her and my sister adores her. 🙂
5. The Guardian Angel – I haven’t written about her before. She is like a second Mother. There were many phases in my life. She was the star that showed me the way. She was responsible for a certain beautiful phase in my life. For a while, when I got stuck in my life, she was the one who gave me that tiny push that I needed. She was my guru. Probably she had taught me all that I had to learn. Or maybe her part in my life was over. Like a passenger who boarded from a station, she walked into my life and one fine day, unexpectedly, she decided to leave. Well, the almighty is selfish that way. He wants all the good people around him.I never cried when she left. The pain remains there like an open wound. I refuse to accept that she is no more. She is around, somewhere next to me. If she could read this, I just want her to know that I love her a lot, I think of her often and though I never said it to her, I am very grateful for showing me the right path.
6. My Teachers –LKG – Pushpa Ma’am for simply being my first class teacher. She liked me a lot and still remembers me.UKG – When I was often teased by children because of my complexion, I used to feel so low. There was a class goon and she was supposed to be the ‘best child’ in class because all feared her. The only good memory I have is about one lunch time. Someone asked our class teacher who the best student was. She said that all were good. When they insisted, she asked them to guess. After many wild guesses, after around half the class was named, someone said my name. Our teacher nodded, pointed at me and I froze. I never saw Ambika ma’am after that. But I never forgot her either.Sanskrit teacher – Manjusha ma’am for sowing the seed of love for the language. I don’t apply my mind for any other subject. But that wasn’t it for Sanskrit. The language has so much depth and beauty and she helped me unveil it step by step. I still love the subject and intend to learn further.Bharti Ma’am – For all the love she gave us. She taught us social studies. The subject is very boring as you all know but I love that teacher. Whenever I go back to school, she doesn’t make me feel like any other student. She is genuinely happy to see me and her eyes twinkle. The kind of twinkle I see in very few teachers’ eyes. I go to school just to see her expression.
7. My friends from GJA – I could never forget the three years of article-ship that I completed. Thank you for keeping it united. There are a bunch of lovely ladies that made my stay memorable. For all the jokes cracked by Lays and Jenny, for Soathy & Lakshmi for being the partners in crime, for Niki’s share in all the madness, and for every beautiful girl there who is a part of ‘Ribbons and Tiaras’ 😉 Happy Women’s Day. 

Thanking you all isn’t necessary. I am glad that you constitute a part in my story. Each one of you make a difference to me.

I wouldn’t ask why we celebrate a particular day for love, for mother or for father. In this busy rat race, some reminders are necessary. Admit it. I don’t express feelings like this everyday. If we don’t have a particular day, many of us will never express these feelings. I love every woman I have mentioned here. But I don’t tell them that often. Now, they will know because of this day. 🙂

Last but not the least, my dear blogging friends, Kokila, Maniparna, Ritika, Parul, Rumadak, Nimmi, Nandini, Sruthi, Brunda, Preeti and anyone I might have missed out, Happy Women’s Day to you all 🙂

PS – Oops! Belated 😛

Tips and Ideas For Inexpensive Gifting.

Here is another year and there are many events coming up. How about getting prepared for them from now on?

Note – Here I am talking about inexpensive gifts which are available for INR 300 or LESS. So if you are looking for higher budgets, I am sure you will have many more options.

I love Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Friendship Day and any event that I could use to show someone how special they are to me. There is nothing like springing a “Surprise!!!” on their face and see it go pale to white to pink to a deep shade of red with happiness! 😀 Please don’t be misled by the post title. I am not going to point out items to gift. I’m giving you ideas about how to find the gifts you want and how to present it to your loved ones. Some times, the gifts do not matter, but the way you gift makes all the difference. The sad part is, surprises are costly. Specially if you’re a student or are doing internship with low salary. Well, not anymore! I am always in short of cash (I’m still a student, you know!) and try to find new methods to throw surprises. So, here is how I gave some lovely surprises last year.

1. Flowers – I don’t know about all men. But some men and almost all women like flowers. When it happens to be your mother, she would definitely be overwhelmed. The amazing thing about mothers is that, they do so much for us. Yet, they need so less to be happy. This is how you make her day special with flowers.Buy a few flowers or pluck some from your garden. Gather little children from your neighborhood and ask them to give her those flowers one at a time. If she is about to go out, the kids could line up outside your house and give her those flowers as she passes by, or let them ring the bell one at a time and give her the flowers. We tried it and my mom loved them. She preserved the flowers for as long as they stayed. 🙂

   

   Jarbara we bought Mom on her Birthday 🙂

   Note – Flowers can be gifted to anyone if you’re sure they will appreciate it. I mentioned Mom because, we gave it to her.

2. A Note For Every Hour – This works with anyone. Prepare notes with quotes or memories or anything you want to tell him/her. Ensure that the notes reach them every hour. It would be a reminder of how special they are and that they deserve a full day celebration.

   

   Image courtesy: pinterest

   

   Image courtesy: pinterest

   I did this for a friend’s birthday. I asked one of her colleagues to give her the notes every hour. I kept alarms on my phone for every hour, to remind her. Once the Birthday girl received each note, I got her message. 🙂

3. Common Inexpensive Gifts – Photo frames, Books, Deos, Diaries and Coffee mugs! I know. They are the most typical inexpensive gifts you can give anyone. If he/she happens to be a book lover, you can buy them a book that they would enjoy. If he/she has the habit of updating diaries, there are plenty of undated diaries available at reasonable prices. If he/she has a favorite brand of deo, they will be happy that you cared to remember. As for photo frames, find a lovely picture of the two of you and gift it.
4. Undated Diaries – Earlier this year, I had reviewed Matrikas Paper Products’ diaries. They have some elegant and creative undated diaries. The cover designs were so tempting that anyone would fall in love with them. They have diaries designed for all age group. If your giftee loves writing and maintains diaries, you can find good ones starting at INR 110. MATRIKAS PAPER PRODUCTS is their website and their products are available in Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zoffio etc.
5. Gifts Need Not be Branded – If you’re so desperate to gift someone something, that someone must be very special for you. Regardless of the fact that he/she uses only branded items, you can gift them something inexpensive for a change. After all, if they love you as much as you love them, they would get the emotions behind your gifts. Just ensure that you pick something beautiful even if it is unbranded. Be it wallets, belts, shoes, clothes or anything. You have a wide range of inexpensive things out there if you just let go of brands for once. Which brings us to the next point.
6. Lookout For Fancies – 2015 has just begun. You can keep your eyes open for all the beautiful and fancy stuff available. Last year, I did a lot of window shopping (Microsoft Windows :P) and found really pretty watches for just Rs. 300. There is no quality assurance or warranty. But once in a while, owning some random pretty stuff doesn’t harm. This friend of mine always buys quality and classy things. I thought she could do with some girlish, dangling, funky stuff. I gifted it to her and she loved it. Want to see it?

   

   This is the watch I gifted her.

   So lookout for the low priced pretty things. Even if the Birthday is a couple of months away, there is no harm keeping your eyes open.

7. A tiny party – You heard me right. If it is your friend’s, love’s or family member’s birthday, and you love them so much, you can actually give a party at a very low cost! Cake – If you need really good cakes, they cost a lot. And that was why, in my previous post, I had given a very easy recipe to make a cake. It’s out of biscuit and chocolate alone. Click HERE to read it.Lightings – You can prepare beautiful lamps out of orange peels. 4-5 orange lamps would suffice for the right glow. Here is what we made.

   

   One half of the orange peel

   

   Entire peel with designed cuttings

   You can use the oranges for preparing any delicacy of your choice. 🙂 Decorations – Colorful streamers are always in fashion and cost very less. Just find innovative ways of decorating with streamers.

8. Maintain a Wishlist & Lookout For Discounts – I get newsletters from many shopping sites and I visit them whenever there is a discount. I buy things only when I am convinced that the discounts are acceptable. That is how I found some lovely sarees worth Rs. 300 in May 2014. I bought them immediately when I had the money and gifted it to Mom for her Birthday in Dec. Needless to say, I was in short of money in Dec. All who saw the saree, loved it & thought that it was some expensive material (giggles :P). Another time, I bought a couple of handbags for just Rs. 150 and they came in handy when I had to gift a friend. 🙂 So, add something to your wishlist and you never know, during the next clearance sale, it might just shoot down to a very low price.
9. The Age Old Custom of Group Gifting – You all must be aware of this. But now that we are talking of gifts, I’d mention this. If you want to gift Mr. A something, contact his close friends, and if they are willing, pool some cash and buy something really good. When you all gift it together, you not only give him the gift, but also an overwhelming experience with his close friends around.
10. Gift Some Time – Imagine, on an anniversary, the couples decide to take some time off and spend the day together. As a child, your parents decide to stay home, cooks you some lovely dishes and takes you out. When your parents are old, you decide to take them somewhere and spend some time with them on their special day. Time is very very expensive. But we can easily lend some to our loved ones. It is simple and means a lot. Do try gifting some time.
11. Time With Creativity – You have many DIYs available on the internet. If you have a flair for creativity (which I believe most of us do have), take some time off and prepare something beautiful for your loved ones. Your loved ones would value your creativity more than the masterpiece they bought at an exhibition.This is one such gift I made for my Best Friend. My first attempt in Paper Quilling. 🙂

    

    Paper Quilled girl. It is full of adjustments 😛

    There are many creative things you can make and you wouldn’t believe how easy they are. Bookmarks, photo collage, simple paper quillings ets are few among them.

12. A Letter – With the advent of emails, internet and social networking sites, the art of letter writing has almost vanished. Buying cards and sending ecards are cool. But writing what you feel about them with a pen on a paper in your handwriting, THAT is priceless! Take a letter pad or an inland letter and write about how special they are and what you feel about them. Get hold of their address and post it. I wish you could see the smile on their face when they get hold of your letter. It would be a perfect gift & a perfect wish. 🙂
13. A Book of Wishes – You can gift a book of wishes to someone close. It would be the compilation of wishes from all their loved ones. Let me assure you, it is not an easy task. Many people would hesitate to write. But five wishes could make a book too. Trust me! If a letter in point 11 could give them so much of joy, imagine the joy on receiving a book of letters! 🙂

If I were you, I’d plan in advance for upcoming birthdays. But since I am myself, that is what I do. 😛 I get super-excited a month before birthdays and make all the arrangements. Things don’t go exactly as planned. For instance, we bought sky lanterns for Mom’s birthday and it became the King of flops. 😛 All the same, mom looked flabbergasted after every surprise. The purpose was served and so, I really don’t mind. Hope this list helps you. Please let me know if there are more inexpensive gifting ideas. I exhausted this list last year. I desperately need something new. 😉 And while you’re at it, ensure that only I know the plans & not my family ok? Shhhh… 😀

I Can’t Keep Calm Because It Was My Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to meeee…
Happy Birthday to meeee…
Happy Birthday to meee meee…
Happy Birthday to meee 🙂

It all began with the wishes at midnight. After which I finally slept, though with difficulty. There were so many thoughts passing through my mind – my previous birthdays, the surprises I got, how the next day will be, how sweet of my friends to wait until 12 AM and call etc. And the most prime thought was, ‘Yayy! It’s my Birthdayy!’ 😛

When I woke up, mom wished me with a cup of coffee, followed by the others. My baby sister gifted me a pair of earrings. And guess what!? It was made by her friend. 2 months back she gave the order, chose a color combo I would like and arranged it. Isn’t that sweet? Oh, I loved it! 😀

Here are the snaps 🙂

Dad gave me some cash & asked me to buy whatever I wanted.

My Anne Cherian Thomas 😉 did call me as usual. Yes, she is my bestie. No, there aren’t any midnight calls during birthdays between us. It was there during the initial years of our friendship. But later, it was alright without them.

Later I went to a Shiva temple nearby. Mr. Shiva looked majestic. The face made of Gold just emblazoned the Shiv-linga. It shone all the more bright and austere with all the lamps. I stood there drinking in the beauty, spoke to Mr. Shiva for a while & got back home.

Now comes the dull part of the day. Firstly, I felt sleepy because I slept late and got up early, on top of that, I had my Financial Reporting questions spread before me. For the next few hours I scratched my head, stared at the walls & doodled on my book wondering why on earth those stupid companies had to amalgamate. :O Even if they had to, why couldn’t they just add all the items in both the companies’ Balance Sheet together and form another company? Why complicate life? :O

Sorry dear non-commercialites. I got a bit carried off there. But still, I don’t get it. Why?

Then came the lunch time. My chweet Ammamma (Grandmother) had prepared many dishes to celebrate this angel’s day *blush*. She made rice, parippu, sambhar, potato curry, pachadi and pappadam. To start with something sweet, she put some sugar in my mouth. And then I had that sumptuous feast. But she was upset because she couldn’t make payasam. 😦
I know, right? She is so adorable you have no idea. The entire day went by with her telling how upset she was about the payasam not being there. *Choo cute!!!*

Courtesy: Google Images

 

Meanwhile, more calls, more texts, more whatsapp messages and facebook posts poured in. Oh! And I couldn’t attend few calls because of this & that. Sorry folks! I felt bad when I saw your missed calls. But the wishes have been accepted. Thank you. 🙂

Evening came & I had my music class. The rains, the cold & my birthday were all screaming at me not to go. But I pulled my raincoat over, rode my lavy, crossed all the puddles and went for the class. I was back by 8PM and after some loitering around, settled to study when the door bell rang.

I opened the door. But no one was to be seen. I took a step forward and people just sprang at me from both sides ‘Happy Birthdayyyyy!!!’. I first jumped, then stood there open-mouthed & gaping when my sister came with an all knowing smile.

Ashwin, Godwin & Blissen came in, unpacked the cake and placed it on the table. It took me some time to register what was happening. Slowly I came to my senses while they gifted me a bottle of wine. This was followed by a Bournville sent by another friend Varna. Both have a backstory.

The wine: I had mentioned a month back that I badly wanted wine. Earlier, we used to have it for Christmas. But it has been quiet sometime since I had. So a craving had begun for the same. I said it, forgot about it & here it was; my birthday gift. 🙂

The wine 🙂

Bournville: I love Chocolates. Like crazy! Most of my friends know that. My favorites are Dairy milk fruit & Nut and Bournville (Also any other dark chocolate). Just before I left office, many of my friends either lost a bet with me, or they had to give me a treat. Every time, I insisted on a Bournville. So, sure enough she knows I like dark chocolates.

After the gifts session, as usual, pulling each others’ legs went on. Should I mention that I was the scapegoat most of the time? I’ll skip that part 😛
Apparently, those guys were really hungry and there was nothing at home to eat. I made some delicious tea (Oh yes! They said they liked it.) and tried to keep them entertained. Soon, all sang the birthday song & clicked some snaps while I cut my cake. I hurriedly gave them some cake to appease their hunger a bit.

My Birthday Cake 🙂

Meanwhile Amma swished her wand, converted the lunch’s potato curry into masala (Guess they didn’t know that). You should have seen those faces when I announced they will be having Masala Dosa. I swear I saw someone punch the air & say a triumphant ‘Yes!’ 😀 They relished the food while repeatedly saying that the sambhar was awesome & the Dosa was superb.

From somewhere my sister appeared and smeared some icing on my face. And I was like :O.

After a few more sessions of pulling legs (mine!) and some laughters and chit-chats, they left.

When I checked my phone, I had a voice message waiting. My friend Sharu and her parents (Yes, her parents :D) sang the birthday song for me and wished me!!! 😀 Isn’t that lovely?

That was one of my special days folks. Whether it is typing that message, ringing me up and telling me how much I mean to you, appearing out of the blue and ringing the doorbell, recording a birthday wish with the entire family, singing the birthday song while handing me the coffee, ringing me up at 11.30 PM with an intention to talk until 12 AM and be the first one to wish me, cooking my favorite dishes or getting a custom-made gift for me. Love you all for this love. 🙂 :*

 

Once again, Happy Birthday to me. 😛 Love myself too for this love! 😀

PS: Next time you’re planning to come home unannounced, let me warn you in advance. All the snack items here, finish in a jiffy. So ensure that you’re sufficiently loaded. 😛

How to recognize the words wrapped with feelings

Words are beautiful. Like the notes of a song. But without the right feelings, there is no music. Yes, it has to be the right combination. In life, there are moments when we wish to express some feelings, but words aren’t adequate. And sometimes we have too many good words with no feelings. We don’t realize but there are also moments when WE FAIL TO RECOGNIZE OTHERS’ WORDS AND FEELINGS maybe due to their lack of resources. Do you know how to recognize the feeling packed words? It is simple. They linger. They come back to you in a good and memorable way, leaving a smile on your lips! 🙂

People say never take your eyes off your goal. But sometimes when we take our eyes off the goal, we notice what we had been missing. It could be a relationship, or it could be a friendship. Sometimes, we try to hold on to it because it once was the perfect thing in our lives. But while we put all our energy and focus on that one friendship, we compromise many others. Ultimately even if we manage to save our friendship, the crack in the pot remains. The hand that comes to heal the crack wouldn’t be the one that caused it, rather it would belong to someone we had avoided all along. Then we know what we had been missing. While we were running behind a friend that we tried to keep, we were being followed by the friend that tried to keep us. It isn’t hard to notice. His consistent endeavors to keep us close will have umpteen feeling packed words. Most of it would be, ‘Hey! are you alright?’ Never lose him! 🙂

People say possessiveness or jealousy causes a hitch in the relations. And so all of us hide our jealousy and pretend to be ‘casual’. But have you heard someone tell you, ‘I used to hate it when you talked to those guys. I used to hate them too. But now I like them all, because you talk to me more these days.’ I have heard these words. And it brought a smile to my face. It was one of the sweetest sentences I have ever heard.

People say never overdo things, that it may look dramatic. You met your friend after a long time, and you were speechlessly happy. But did you bring your happiness from within, let it emanate from your eyes and trickle down your lips? I did. And guess what? I got a feeling wrapped up in words. I just smiled brightly, with my eyes wide and a spring in my voice I said, ‘Hey! Hello!It has been really really long! Where on earth were you? How have you been? I’m so glad you are back!’ He just replied me casually and smiled.
The next day I got this from him, ‘When you began talking to your best friend again, I started distancing myself from you. I was scared that, that friendship of yours would end our friendship. But you have no idea what I felt seeing your happiness when you saw me yesterday morning. It was definitely a new hope for our friendship!’ Till today I wonder, had I not expressed my happiness that day, I would never have known that someone somewhere cherished my friendship.

A friend was leaving office for his studies. Few of us decided to meet over an ice cream. We spoke for hours together and one by one people started leaving. After having every flavor of ice cream possible, we ordered another ice cream. Four spoons dug into one. The owner of the ice cream was cornered three against one. However he tried to stop us from having, the moment his spoon left the ice cream cup premises, we attacked! After dropping ice creams everywhere and breaking few spoons due to ice cream fights, we decided to let him have the last few specs of it. As we left the parlor, the one leaving our office said, ‘Thank you guys for such a wonderful evening. I will never forget this day.’ And, we stood at the doors and spoke for another half an hour. Finally we bid our goodbyes and then, ‘Really, this was a memorable evening. Thank you all. From tomorrow I will have only books for company.’ And then we walked to the ground floor and began talking. After that we shifted further and stood there talking. A car that was parked nearby hours ago, left the parking spot.  After a while, another car took its place. And, we were chatting. By now, many more ‘Byes’ and ‘Thanks for the lovely evenings’ were over. Finally I made up my mind and said, ‘For the last time, Bye! I really got to go.’

An ice cream and four spoons 🙂

I don’t even remember the flavors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Why don’t we round up to ten?’
Crazy as we may seem, ‘Bye’
‘Bye’
‘Bye’
‘Bye’
‘Oops! That is an eleven.’
‘Oh yeah! Ok then let it be twenty next.’
And sure enough, a ten more byes rang up in the air. And then, ‘Bye!’ 😛
He got whacked on his head. ‘Idiot! Why did you say the extra one?’
‘Now make it twenty-two. It’s a good number.’
‘Bye!’
‘No! twenty-five!’
‘Alright! Bye’
‘Bye!’
‘Bye!’
‘Bye!’

Silence…

And an outburst of laughter. All of us dispersed without another Bye. Thank God! If someone had said another bye, being the crazy lot, we might have counted another twenty-five byes! 😀 Once I reached home, I had a text waiting in my inbox. It said, ‘Had an awesome evening. Tons of thanks. Laughed a lot!’ It definitely was packed with feelings. But you know the best part? All those twenty five ‘byes’ were simple repititive words packed with  feelings too. Apart from the random crazy stuff that only friends can do, it also meant none of us wanted to leave. Those byes’ were just the excuse we needed.

PS: All my friends know that I despise ice creams. But somehow, that day, it tasted too memorable! 🙂

PPS: Close your eyes and think of your friends’ words that still linger. Pick up the phone, ring them and say that you remember those words. You just created some words wrapped with feelings.

To my old friend…!

Lonely and friendless I sat then
less than six years was I when,
my mom had gone to get me a friend,
someone for me forever, till the end

She returned after a while,

held her arms out with a smile,
there lay a little canine curled
-a snowy, cute little pearl

She had come into our home and straight into my heart
I beckoned her to me – our friendship’s start.

She jumped on me, I sat on her
She chased me , & I chased her
She licked my cheeks & I caressed her
Fun was all we had together

                            ***

 

Time had distanced us and pulled us apart
I returned & called out for her with all my heart
Four strong paws came running with glee
And the next moment, she was on me.

She clung to me and woofed aloud
she ran around my legs to show her love
She licked my face wet and neat
She was happy to see me  indeed.

Year after year, after my holidays I returned
Each time she aged, and older she turned.
After one such stay with her
I went to say goodbye to her

She silently approached me and sat before me
She looked into my eyes with hers, black and beady
She looked weaker than ever before
I was pained to see the sorrow her eyes bore.

She could no longer leap on me
& so, gently placed her paws on my knee
She licked my cheeks once or twice
and stared unblinkingly into my eyes.

It was her language of farewell to me
I caressed and kissed her and left in a hurry
Not knowing when we`ll meet again
But knowing that our hearts couldn`t bear the pain

Many more months passed before I returned
I opened the gates and called for my friend
listening for the sound of her paws I waited ,
Silence answered. It was all that reverberated

I called for her with all the strength in me
None placed her paws on my knee
None came to lick my cheeks
None came and ran about my legs

None came and stared into my eyes
None answered my silent cries
An empty kennel, a longing heart
None said to me about the missing part

Silently she entered my life
Twelve long years she stayed there
One fine morning, she left the place
and now a garden of memory remains

Lonely and friendless I sit now and then,
And, remember that summer evening when
My mom went out to get me a friend
Someone for me, forever till the end.

…In my heart…

Dedicated to my most faithful friend ever!

A day for the old times’ sake

7.30 PM – Rain – A steaming cup of tea.
I’m very happy today after a really bad week. Or maybe it has been ages since I’ve felt so good, a warmth and calmness within myself. The credit goes to Vidya, Neetu and Anu 
My college friends. Speaking of college, it was the best 3 years of my life so far.

Today suddenly I decided to go meet them at their college hostel. And so I reached there by 10.30 am and from the cheery welcome then to my reluctant goodbye in the evening at around 6.00 pm, time just flew.

A few biscuits for my empty stomach and a cup of electric-cooker-made coffee reminded me of one thing. Of the ice creams I rarely had after college. Ice creams weren’t my priorities. But at college one ice cream shared by 4 -8 of us, was something I would never miss. Biscuits weren’t something I preferred. But in their company, it tasted yumm..

As usual when we got together I became myself again, that ‘Me’, only my college mates had the good fortune to see. A different person altogether. I was hyper-animated, imitated everyone I ever knew, talked about all the things I never spoke of for so long, definitely bored them a bit giving details of my difficult times at work- I know they’ll forgive me for that. They told me their stories at college, we discussed about everything we used to discuss when we were once together.

We confessed about the pranks we played, of the pranks we knew others had played, of the tough and lovely times, of the exams and holidays, of seniors and juniors, of our lord. The way we used to make plans at college that one day we would visit each others’ homes, similarly, we planned that one day we’ll visit our college.

I didn’t even realize it was lunch time. We all went out, had lunch and walked back to hostel. My plans were to leave after lunch. But the dark rooms and the gloomy atmosphere gave the old ‘hostel’ feeling and we became our old four atp selves again and talked and talked and talked. I was already getting warning messages from my sis at home and yet I hung on till evening. They got tea for me from the mess. Yet again reminded me of how we were not allowed to get anything out of the dining hall at college and how some of us used to sneak things out.

After a while, I said, I have to leave. They would never know what I felt then. I said that and I sat there again for an hour or so, and I knew that if allowed, I’d sit there for ages together. A sudden decision and I startled them by jumping out of the bed, put on my slippers and said a hurried bye. They walked me to where my activa was. Anu knows about the high standard brake that it has. It’s designed to stop approximately one km after the brakes are used ;). And so she asked me to show how the brake functions. I was supposed to put the brakes when I reached a certain tree. ‘Silly’ I thought. ‘As if I would do that’. That was just a part of the silly talks and suggestions we used to have.

I started it and took off. As I reached the tree, my hands on their own held the brakes and as usual, the activa stopped after 2 mtrs or so. I turned back, looked at them and I smiled while they gave me the go signal. I smiled at myself and at them. However silly their wishes were I’d always do anything for them. That’s how it always has been and will be.

I’m back at home now and I miss them. My throat has gone sore. As I sit alone now, I realize it was a day, a company that I badly needed.