Happy Married life Achu!

It all started on my first day in K.V. CRPF, Pallipuram,- Class- III-B (Grade-3 that is), Raichel ma’am allotted me the seat near this girl with little pigtails- Ashwini. During the lunch break she gave me a mango-bite which I later learned was a bribe to let her have the side seat in the bench. I wasn’t really happy about giving the side-seat away, but I let her have it. Yes, who knows, maybe she has more mango-bites at home. ;)

Little did we realize that the mango-bite and the side –seat of the second row in grade three would keep us bonded forever. It’s been sixteen years since then, we grew up from the girls with pig tails to college graduates with salon –hair cuts, moved to different cities, majored in different subjects, made new friends- but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that when we pick up each other’s call, we connect like the old times. There are no – ‘how-are-you’-s or ‘fine’s, just non-stop chitter-chatter about each others’ lives and everything under the sun.

We knew even when in school, that we didn’t have to hang out together like Siamese twins to be best friends.

We knew we’d be there for each other regardless of whether we flunked or topped classes.

But I’ve done heaps of stupid things out of my possessiveness. Passing notes to Aparna and Neeraja, asking them to stay away from MY best friend to things I don’t even want to disclose here, until you told me the most sensible and mature words that could be said by a 13 year old – ‘Your place in someone’s life remains intact, if ever they've given you that place, no matter how many people come into their life afterwards. There are no replacements for people close to you’. 

Girl, you are AH-MAZING. Don't let anyone or for that matter, yourself, convince you otherwise.

In a few hours from now, you’ll be wife to the love of your life and a few time zones away I’ll send  a sincere prayer that you have the most amazing life that you deserve.
Not being able to see you all dressed up and blushing as a bride, sucks! -_-Good luck, Achu. I love you. I don’t have to tell you how much.

                                            

Happy Happy Married life!

 *Hugs*

See you soon Mrs. Nair. ;) :-*

P.S: Okay , but even he's also not allowed to call you his best friend.

Of love and lost friendships

I lost someone who I believed was one of my best friends, to ‘love’. Yes ‘love’ .We cut contacts and bid adieu to a 7-year old friendship – one built over love for the same books, The British library, Maths tuitions, Famous five, a zillion combine study sessions, Five rupee-softees and dislike for the same guys and teachers- over a phone call which I refused to answer.

I was hurt because there was another half of her life which she never told me about- a ‘secret’ relationship that everyone other than me knew.

She was hurt because I did not give her a chance to explain, or so I would like to believe.

At 17, she was a normal teenager in love and I was the nerd who beLIEved that the society always ought to be right.

I was brought up to believe that love and relationships were wrong and that being in a relationship is the worst thing you will ever do in life. Not that they told me the exact words, but people who had married people of their choice were looked down upon, their parents were blamed of wrong parenting or of giving too much freedom. 

It took me five more years and much efforts from a special someone and some close friends, to get over the belief and develop my own notions about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.‘Right’ isn’t about making the society happy but it’s about doing things that wouldn’t make your heart heavy when you go to sleep each night. As long as you can do that- you are doing fine.

So Dear Anne (!), if you are reading this , you might be frowning at my ‘hypocrisy’, but I want you to know that it wasn’t hypocrisy,it was ‘ignorance’.Ignorance that what's my 'wrong' need not be your 'wrong'.

From the unanswered greeting cards that I sent your way, and the way we looked at each other during the get-together four years back- I know things will never be the same between us.We have grown so much apart that we are probably strangers with mutual friends, but for the things that we know about each other.

But on some days like this, I still ponder over how our lives would have turned out if I had attended that one call of yours.I have no clue.
All I know now is that I should STOP thinking and click the 'Publish' button.

Spanish diary : Part-1

Hola people!

How’s 2014 treating you?

The new year did not start in a very good note for me, but then things fell in place and things are back to – okay. I’m beginning to enjoy this life- with new people, new place, and new things to learn from. Barcelona is beautiful- I love the sky here- the ‘blue’est I have ever seen, I love the way the wind gives me company on my lonely shopping trips, I love the way strangers smile and say ‘hola’ to me. I started my Spanish classes some weeks back and I’ve learned (only) enough to ask the shopkeeper for things and end up puzzling him.

The first months are always tougher than the rest and I’m hoping I can overcome all the hurdles with time. I have lost count of the number of times that I doubted my abilities, which is new to me.

There were even moments when I felt like the dumbest person to have walked the earth. But I have people who can make me feel otherwise, restore my faith in myself even when they are miles away.

In the last one month and a half, I have been doing more experiments in my kitchen than in the clean room. *Sigh.*

I guess all my bad luck is getting used up in the kitchen. Good for me. ;)

To top it all, I have friends who send me ‘appam- egg curry ‘photographs straight from their dining tables. These photos arrive right when I am mourning over the sambar-like-gravy that tastes nothing-like- it. Talk about timing.

After I posted my first few pictures from Barcelona, I’ve had people telling me how far I’ve gone in life. I think it’s mostly because I’m in a ‘phoran’ country and in India everything that is ‘phoran’ is so cool. I don’t mean that I’m not a happy person now; in fact I’m living my dream now, but it isn't that easy.

Trust me when I say that life abroad may be fancy in pictures- the parties, the places, the multinational friends- but nothing ever compares to the carefree life we had in the cocoon of our families. These, I think are the side-effects of growing up. I don’t like the fact that two of my closest friends – one’s the girl who exchanged her skirt with me when mine got muddy after a game of kabbadi and the other is someone who always wanted to be in my team even when I was a total loser in sports- are getting married.  I can’t be happier for them because they are both getting married to the love of their lives, at the same time I cannot get myself to face that in no time our conversations will change to what they cooked that day and their adventures with the saas.

I cannot make it for their weddings, and it sucks. Learning my lessons from this, I sent messages to my other close friends giving them a strict notice that either they are getting married in December or not. I know I am a lucky bitch when some of their parents agree to that. :D

With my first salary, I made my decision to bring smiles on the faces of people who were not as privileged as many of us. So, this June when the schools reopen one child in rural India will have a new school bag full of goodies that he/she badly needed. This was a small promise that I made to myself when I got my first PhD offer.I don’t mean to advertise this tiny donation and get applauded. For me knowing that I could bring a smile on child’s face is enough and it gets me a high. But, I mean to persuade people to donate; I mean to encourage people to share their little joys with those who were not as lucky, just like Dhanya inspired me to. Did I tell you she sponsors a child through Worldvision? Yes, she’s one of those nicest women on the planet. For those who did not know, Worldvision is a humanitarian organization which has been making lives better for a lot of people in India and many other third world countries.

Got your first salary? Kid’s first birthday? Parents’ wedding anniversary? 

Like they say:

*Wink* *Wink*

Share happiness. Spread happiness.

KKG