J for Juliet, J for Josh

As sit at the Koyambed bus stand waiting for my bus, to start my journey home, I'm thinking of today's post. But with that thought also come thoughts of my day today which isn't yet over.

I had a fun day in Chennai meeting and catching up with friends I hadn't seen in a while. But let me start at the beginning of the day.

Reaching here early morning I took a long bus ride across town to Tirvanmayur where Dosai lives. And there I got to meet Sam for the first time, and she is a doll. Like all babies I love, she doesn't cry when I take her in my arms and so we chat a bit before it's feeding time. Then she hogs while her parents and I chat.nbsp; Yeah yeah, it was a chatty morning. :-D

After a long overdue session of catching up over a couple of coffees, we get ready and head to Church. After all it's why am here, today is the big day, Sam's to be baptised.

St. Teresa's is a fairly large church with a large congregation too it seems, as they were packed with back to back services. Sam's baptism service was in Tamil so I didn't understand much. But that said, a couple of things stood out for me in the service. The choir sang in English (except 1 Tamil song) and they sang well. I found myself looking forward to every musical break in the program.

The other was the professionalism with which it was all done. The service had a presentation that ran along side it so at all times even though I didn't understand what was being said, I knew which part of the service we were in. And in all of this professionalism they got personal too, the priests called up two boys to the pulpit and the entire congregation sang happy birthday for them. :-)

Then like all good things, even this one got better. We trouped out and into the hall for some good Biryani. And with lunch came more friends and more fun.

Now that my purpose of coming to Chennai was achieved, I started to think of making my way to Koyambed. The bus stop seemed off the route for everyone but Dosai didn't blink when he said he'd take the detour to drop me. However he had a sleeping baby and a tired wife to take home so I didn't feel like imposing and said so. 'But' , he said, you took a larger detour to come to Chennai.' I just nodded and said ok as I felt tears well up.

After a two hour wait my bus has finally started the journey homeward with the Kannada movie 'Lucky' playing. Time for me to get back to the point.

'Josh' is a Hindi word that when translated into English loses some of it's meaning. In Hindi it means infused, enthusiasm, energy, spirit, and passion. The word Josh has a lot of strength, and means more than any of these words mean singly.

Josh is what I felt today as I travelled to Chennai and back within 24 hours. Josh is what I felt as I caught up with friends and did all I did. Josh is what I feel as I type this post on my phone in a moving bus.

Josh is what I want this year ahead of mine to be filled with...

PS - Not home but we're half way there :-D
PPS - 'Lucky' is a bad movie, not worth the time. But the songs might be topping charts, coz the guy next to me was singing along, loudly!

Read More

F for Foxtrot, F for Friends

I can't remember dates! It's true, I'm terrible at remembering days and events. My family and friends know this and thankfully they are forgiving when I miss birthdays or don't remember when something happened. With my terrible date memory there are birthday's galore I miss wishing friends on. I don't do it on purpose, I do try to remember but dates just slip my mind; I forget my own birthday and wedding anniversary almost every other year. The positive in all of this is I guess that I don't hold people to dates. Che of course benefits the most coz there is no way he'll get called up for forgetting a date (the first time we met, the day he proposed, our wedding date,...); after all I've forgotten it already. :D

Friends are a gift, they make you feel better on a bad day, they listen to you rant when you're not making sense at all, they rejoice with you even though they secretly think you are overdoing it, they lend a shoulder to cry on when things go wrong and don't say 'I told you so', ... the list would goes on and I'd run out of words before I'd finish listing out all friends do.

I didn't have close friends through most of school. I had friends yes, but they were more acquaintances. I was quite a loner through school; I preferred books and their characters. Until about 3rd standard my school was a co-ed and I hung out with the boys, well, they were more fun. Then after, when it become all girls, I had a bad experience that just left me scarred. I didn't know if I could trust people when they said they wanted to be friends, I was scared of letting fellow students get too close and hurting me again, it was simpler to just stay away and stay alone. I did find my first best friend in school though, years later in 9th standard. :)

But it was after leaving school that I started to understand and value friendship. Pre-university brought new people and new friends into my life, and I learned to trust people again (corny I know :D ). What it also taught me was that friends come and go and their coming and going is not to be held against them. That's life, that's how it plays out and we don't always have control over these things. I learned that, what is more valuable than the person even, is the time friends spent together, that is what remains as beautiful memories, forever.

University saw me being a riot, the girl who was quiet through most of school was now progressively becoming boisterous; trying to make up for all those years of solitude and I haven't stopped yet. :D Our gang in college was loud and always up to something. If we didn't have something happening on the timetable, we were out and about doing other things. A lot of times we didn't care for the timetable, the world outside the classroom was more fun. We barely scraped though with required attendance and even begged and pleaded when we fell short. But boy, did we have fun!

Those years were something else. Thinking back to all we did, makes me smile now, though back then some of it made my hair stand on end. My friends saw me though some of my best and worst days and not once did they judge. Oh well, some didn't and we're still friends today. :D We left college promising to stay in touch, to meet regularly, to continue to bring the roof down, and all that stuff but our lives took different paths and the big group became sub-groups. We still keep updated on each other though, in our own weird convoluted ways.

My first job was my last corporate job. I worked with the same company for 5 years before saying goodbye to the corporate world. But after 5 years when I left I had made friends for life. We're still close today and it's amazing how we all still connect. These girls are my only girly group, where I can be the tom-boy I am and be loved for it [I think ;)].

It was a friend from work who got me started on biking and with those two wheels a whole new world opened up. Those two wheels also brought along with them a host of new friends, from all across the country this time. And what amazing people they are. It's a matter of pride for me today that there are very few cities in India where I don't know someone. These are friends who not only accept me as I am, but when I suggest something weird or fantastical, they will either give me an encouraging nod or say, 'Sounds good, let's go'.

It was a friend from this group of friends that brought Che into my life and he in turn brought in the dogs. The dogs not to be left behind, brought in more two-legged friends who have been such a comfort and solace in the last few years. They are the ones who have helped me keep my sanity, both in marriage and with five dogs! :D

Then of course last but not the least is my blog. I started it years ago as a place to vent, I wanted space to talk and rant. And rant I did, (if you haven't seen some of my early posts, you should :P ) along with sharing stories from my life and travels. But I made friends here too inspite of my ranting. :)

I'm awestruck by the number of people in my life who I can call friends. They enrich my life in so many ways that, I lost count years ago. They encourage, chide, scold, hug, embarrass, listen, care, nurture, ... and above all love me (I hope). :D It fills me with amazement and wonder that someone who spent her first 13 odd years fairly friendless is now overflowing with friends.

Someone who forever is forgetting dates still gets inundated with birthday messages and calls. It's true, it took me two days and many tears of joy to reply to each message and call I received. I'm smiling wide right now coz I'm still amazed.

I haven't named anyone here, but you know who you are, and all I'd like to say is - Friend, Thank You for being a part of my life, you make my life so much more beautiful. :)

Read More