Birthdays are always special. For one thing, they remind you that time is running out :( and for another, they remind your friends/loved ones of you :). This birthday was no exception. When V called from US, fond memories of yester years came back.
I remember two incidents particularly. For some strange reason, we used to be obsessed with our belongings in office (this was when we were just interns in y!). Even to go to the cafeteria for lunch, we used to make a huge scene of whispers, signals and signs, pack our cubicles up, zip our bags, put them on and be off, get back after lunch, unpack the whole thing and start working with a grave face, not realising all the while, that we were causing acute embarrassment to ourselves and immense entertainment to passersby.. until one day, a snobbish senior of ours confronted us.."edukku neenga BITS oda maanatha vaangaringa? Unga bagsa yaarum tookindupoyidamaata." (Why are you spoiling the BITSian name? Nobody is going to flick your bags). If I remember right, we hung our faces, jolted at the idea of having to leave our dear darling bags behind.But we did it ! (for the sake of you-know-what).Ugh! We hated ourselves.
Another one is the y! cafeteria. We had free lunch (that makes it yummier, doesnt it?). Anybody who has graduated from BITS would agree with me when I say that we were famished and deprived of good food all four years. On the other hand, B'lore offered us such huge variety that one could still be famished because one could never choose what to eat first. So this is what V and I did. After the above mentioned ritual of packing our sacks and marching to the cafe, we would place ourselves in the most comfortable corner of the cafe and start our next elaborate ritual.. eating! First it would be rotis, sabji, dal with papad. Then it would be rice with rasam/sambar. Then some sweet. Then curd rice (V cant exist without this :P ). And each of these courses would have second helpings. we wouldnt be satisfied even then. Fruits would follow next. Finally when there is nothing else to eat, we would pick our sacks and march back - going fat and chubby all the while, of course :P. One day, unfortunately, we had to share our table with a few guys who spoke Telugu with each other. V and I conversed in English/Tamil and observing that, one of them, dared to comment on our food.."Ammo! Veellu enta tintunnaru! Ippudu banana kooda tintunnaru. Ganta nunchi tintunee unnaru." (My!How much would these girls eat? After all that food, they are eating bananas now and they have been eating for an hour!!). That was the end ! It hurt our feelings. our hearts cringed and turned and cried (you can add more verbs for some more spice). We decided gravely and in sorrow, took an oath. No more gluttoning, no, not at the cost of our dignity. :D. We cursed the guy would become sooooo fat that he wouldnt ever get married. How dare he ! And how poor us !
Then there was so much more. The early morning blues, bathroom struggle, discussions, PG aunty, M kutty (she used to always play my fav songs whenever we went to eat), Mungaru Male, falling in love with Sonu Nigam, the bus journey - the running,panting and sleeping, my shloka reading in the bus, SHOPPING (we shopped like crazy - mostly window shopping in big places, actual shopping in small places), staring at the Central, our pride in our first bank account and pay check, the PAN card office, running in B'lore rain, the ISKCON temple ordeal (S was left behind and we all screamed at the conductor), popcorn prasadam, GURU SONGS (all of us were crazy about "Tere Bina". We would melt and dream and cry :P ), the dhobi lady and the little kid (Umesh), the distance education supervision and extra money, the long long walks on MG road, bunking office and walking to Commercial Street (When? in the afternoons), the volvo buses, the all day bus pass, the DOGS (I hate B'lore dogs. I remember I cried when a pack of those killed a kutty boy. It was all in the papers), Mohan Nayak (Ha! V and I can never forget that guy and his "Madam.. rose madam.." lol), fights in PG, yells, tears, strikes (we wont have food in PG strike. Ha!), house hunt with S (once I remember we got scared seeing the house owner lady and ran. She looked like some.. Uf! never mind now), trips back home, train journey alone for the first time, home alone with S and all night chats, brief interludes in the y! gym and resolution to come even on weekends (which never happened), Sai Baba mandir and the walks on Sundays, creepy guys who keep calling you, turn up at ATMs and ask you to come to Cafe Coffee Day ( after which you would run for dear life)... much much more...
REALLY, it pays to be silly and stupid sometimes, in small things. Looking back, they provide the loveliest of memories. And thus today has begun and would be spent, in nostalgia.
