At a friend's marriage

Friendship is a great thing to have. Everybody thinks “en friend-a pola yaaru machan”. After sitting next to the same person for about two years, you get to know about each other more than you would wish to disclose. You get to fight really bad, become the partners in crime and those few days when your neighbour is absent to school, you are bored like hell. At the end of the school life, you realise that you had been friends all along! Then on the farewell day, the promise of being in touch comes by. For the next few years, through the college life, the circle grows little bigger and you still hangout together. You join work and for a few months there is absolutely no contact.

Out of the blue, this person calls you and says he is getting married. You had been together in most of the tough times till now. How would one let his friend take this punishment of marriage, alone? So you are all geared up to attend the marriage. On the day of the reception you go early and be with him when he gets ready. Many new people come to the dressing room – friends from his work life and you are introduced to those complete strangers. The reception starts and he gives grateful looks at us for being there at this important juncture of his life! So there he is, on the stage with his wife, welcoming the guests and there you are in the midst of complete strangers. We discuss general topics first and those guys get lost discussing platforms like Java and windows. The only platform you are aware of is the railway platform, at the maximum, platform93/4 of King’s cross!

When your thoughts start drifting away, you see familiar faces – people who studied in other sections of the same class from the school. Then you remember “before the two years this fellow spent with me, he had spent 10 years in some other section”. There are greetings of “Hi Siddhart, how are you?” The real trouble starts only now. You do not know their names. The face is so familiar, but the name – not even worth a try! It would have been great if the conversation had started as “hey I’ve seen you in prince school but forgot ur name” rather than “Hi Siddhart,How are you?” You get involved in the conversation just to be abreast with the names of the people you are conversing with. Red shirt – so and so; Scene party – so and so; latest arrival – so and so; there is also an instance when you fix a person with a name and just when you are sure of your guess, a new arrival greets someone else with the name you had given to this person! Phew, that was close; When all these things are running in your mind someone exclaims “hey look, so and so is coming”. I look in the direction as everyone and notice someone with a familiar face and checked shirt coming. He greets everyone, notices me and says “Hi Siddhart”. This time I am prepared and I say “Hi so and so”. With a sullen face he says “I am not so and so, I am ‘this and this’ and the so and so you are talking about, could not find the address and I just brought him along!” there it goes and everyone breaks out laughing! Suddenly the attention turns all towards you and everyone wants to know if you got their name right. Now this is easy. You point at people - red shirt (saying this in your mind) so and so, Scene party so and so, Latest arrival so and so, checked shirt so and so. Having passed this test, you give a sigh of relief and before the sigh has left your lungs, a new person joins and the crowd says “hey nobody call out his name, let’s see if Siddhart gets him right”.

I quit!

If you attend a close friend’s marriage, make sure you are acquainted with at least a few of his other friends! 

சென்னையில் பெய்த மழை

வருடிச் சென்ற குளிர்காற்று

வானம் வாழ்த்திய நல்மழை 

முகமெல்லாம் முத்தமிட்ட மழைச்சாரல் 

மனதெல்லாம் புரண்டோடிய உன் நினைவுகள்..................!

A humble message to parents

His eyes were still trying to get used to the light in the world. He gave a tiny squeak and closed his eyes resigning into what he would be deprived of in all his life, sleep. Oblivious to the stare from the elders, the gold chain adorning his delicate neck and all the celebration around him he continued to sleep. It is not every other day that a new member joins the family. As he slept, the mother looked at him with all her love and said “Look, Krishna has come home!” Every neighbour and relative, some long lost and almost forgotten, visited the parents and unanimously seemed to agree with the mom; and there starts the journey of the little one.

On the first Krishna Jayanthi after the child started walking, the poor feet were dipped in rice-flour-paint. The little one finished the daunting task (for the mother of course) of drawing “Krishna feet” in almost 2 minutes. The impression of the feet on the floor, however distorted due to the uneven walk of the little one, looked beautiful to the parents. He was dressed like Krishna and from somewhere in the neighbourhood, the mom found a gopika and photos were taken with the innocent kid holding the flute wondering if he should hit someone with it and the gopika giving expressions of blushing. Again, completely oblivious to what was happening around! Everyone who saw the photograph said that it was cute.

Then the kid grew up to become a teenager. He got himself a mobile phone. He started having night outs, night studies and of course, exchanged numbers with people of opposite gender strictly for educational purposes; girls are good at having log of the deadlines, being attentive in the class and stuff like that. But somewhere around this time, all of a sudden someone removed the Krishna out of him. He ceased being Krishna and got demoted to a human – a normal male teenager, when in reality this was time when he actually started being Krishna! The same mother who said “Krishna has come” now goes to his dad with complaints like “its 11.30 in the night and he is speaking to someone in the phone. I am sure it is a girl.” “That day I saw our boy with that girl in his bike.” “Our son is exchanging looks with the girl next door and she is giving him blushing looks.”

At this point of the journey, we stop for a moment and think. You know mom, this is not fair. I think you have a little confusion between Krishna and Ram. You were the one who told me the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata; you ought to know better than me in this regard. Ram is supposed to be the Maryaadha Purushotham. Not Krishna. You can be a little more generous in the “numbers” with Krishna. Now conveniently, Krishna becomes famous for his Bhagavat gita. Moms have this little habit of reporting incidents of Krishna’s childhood and directly fast-forwarding the story to Bhagavat Gita! Krishna never had an adolescence or what? If it had not been for television and books, your adolescent boy would ask “Raslila? What Raslila?”

Whatever…! I just have a message to say to all the parents. Next time you see your dear boy flirting/dating, bring the above picture to your mind and feel happy that in the real picture in front of your eyes, there are not so many girls.

And if you do see so many girls, feel proud that your boy has at last become Krishna all by himself! Not many guys get to be in the place of your son! :)