Chak de...Patel

Was just watching the movie Chak De...India. In the climax of the movie, when the Indian goalkeeper Vidya successfully defends the goal and centre forward Komal runs towards her and hugs her; the moment of my life which flashed before my eyes was from 3 years ago; the moment when Patel won that table tennis match and won the sports general championship back at kgp for 2004-05.
To some of my closest friends, this might come out as strange, may be weird; some may not even like it. Some I hope will understand. Whatever it may be; the truth is that moment was and will always remain big for me. I don't remember who played the final game; whether it was Devesh or Chaubey or Srikant Da - I think it was Srikant Da - but I remember that moment was one of sweet success. Result of some very passionate and dedicated work from a lot of us; that success was, at that point of time, so huge that it even eclipsed my getting through JEE. And though only a few days later, a series of events changed the tide of time and what followed was one of the saddest periods of my life; but at that moment I was happy and I was proud; and for that moment, I will ALWAYS be.

I hope, out of the few souls, that have been with me through those times, there would be at least one who would understand this oddity.

Pillars...

Life moves on, people change, friends change...life moves on. But some pillars are always there.

Searching for something on my gmail, i came across mails from my wing-mates, from each one telling what they had to say about the rest. And that led to memories...

Guys, this is an ode to those times. Our relationship was not perfect; far from perfect. But we were there during tough times, and good times. We learnt a lot from each other, we developed with each other; we found solace in each other; and i found an island of comfort in you when i was surrounded by the one of the very few dark times of my life.
Looking back, I couldn't have asked for more. Those memories are amongst the very core pillars of what I am today. New pillars get added, new stories get built, but these are there to stay.

Take a lift...

Last weekend,on my way back from Vashi after meeting up with a few friends, I had to leave the auto I was in because I was getting fed up of the driver's endless ramblings and I had a feeling he was drunk, though I could not smell anything. It was too late in the night - around 1 or 1:30 - and the autos around there didn't agree to take me; so I started walking towards my place, planning to get an auto en route. After getting on the main road along Powai lake, I thought of taking a lift and a man in a red car obliged. We got talking and what a coincidence it turned out to be.

The guy lived in the same apartment complex as me, and is a graduate from IIT Kharagpur(though much senior to me, circa 1985) and a resident of Nehru when he was in kgp. He works in Crisil and some of the people that have just joined our ratings advisory team at GMC were working in Crisil before here and he knew them well.

It was really great to meet someone so unexpectedly in the dead of the night and finding out we had so much in common. It was just the second time I had taken a lift in my life, and this happened. Can't help thinking what an interesting life a habitual hitchhiker would have, meeting so many strangers and getting to know them and trying to connect the dots...

Finding Something

Finally orkut paid off. Wandering aimlessly through the friend network, I landed at a link to a blog. First couple of things I read had already made me post a scrap to the author. The blog's title quote about how we do not know ourselves rang so true and then another quote on the sidebar, from Harry Potter series, reminded me of times when I was in company of people with whom I could spend hours discussing about things which, on the face, seem so meaningless.
Having established a connection to the blog, I went ahead to read a few posts. The beauty was remarkable. The simplicity in which so wonderful thoughts were presented; the frankness and naturality of the stories being observed and written, endeared me to the blog.
Another addition to my google reader.