My Birthday And My Buddies

It had all started in the year 2007. I was at home enjoying my vacation and very unsure as to what I was going to do as part of my graduation studies. I had little chances of entering into medical studies and a career in engineering looked very obvious then. Nevertheless fun and frolic hardly seemed affected. So in the last hour of 6th July 2007, around eleven thirty, I had surprise visitors at my gate. When I looked down from my balcony I was amazed to see three close buddies, Ravi, Alok and Pabitra aka Pabby standing there with evident upbeat and clear intentions of giving me a bash. I welcomed them home and the rest of the time became part of the best of best memories I have so far preserved in my mortal mind.

That was the first birthday occasion for me when I cut a birthday cake. Now many would jeer and giggle at this revelation but yeah this is the truth. I had never cut a cake before; not birthday, not any other cake. Birthdays used to be different for me before. During school days, the day used to be more or less a normal occasion for me with just my parents and friends wishing me and making me feel special. However as I entered my intermediate studies, the custom widened a bit. Now I would be wished by parents and friends like before but then in the evening I would throw a small party at a restaurant inviting my group of close friends and we all would eat and make merry before the day signaled its end. But hardly any of us had cut a cake on our birthday. So blowing candles and cutting my cake the way I had seen in television and movies and moreover with a surprise element involved in it, had obviously made me feel elated on that birthday of 2007. We didn’t have cameras then and even good camera phones were either rare or costly. Still my friends managed to capture me in visible delight. Thanks buddies.

Now there was one more specialty about that birthday of mine. The day was seven/seven/seven J. Not all are lucky to have their birthdays falling on such unique dates. But I was lucky. Lucky to be born on such a day; lucky to have good friends who care for my happiness; lucky to have my friends plan a surprise for me on such a unique birthday and finally, lucky to experience the unique feeling of cake cutting on a unique birthday. Speaking more of the day I am eager to add two more things for you readers. One, this birthday was also my first birthday when I had someone I knew who shared her birthday with me. She was a friend of a friend. And so it was the first time in my life that I wished someone a ‘Happy Birthday’ and got to hear a ‘Same to you’ in return. And this feeling has always been a very special one for me. Two, Later that day our own Taj Mahal was also included in the list of New Seven Wonders of the World. So all in all, the day had really been a great one for me, both as an individual and as an Indian citizen as well.

And now I fast forward four years of my life. Four conspicuous and vital years. I am an engineer now. A computer engineer from a reputed university. The birthday I described above came at a time when I was not very sure about my education. But the birthday that came this year, i.e, 2011, is different in the sense that my education is over now and I am ready to embark upon my professional career. However, I still find some similarities between the two: -

1. Uncertainty; What to study in the first and when to leave in the second.
2. Two of the three friends could still make it happen for me. I missed you Alok.
3. The venue was the same – my room.
4. The surprise element prevailed.

And few dissimilarities as well: -

1. For the first time I had a friend with me who had come over to my place to be a part of my birthday bash. Someone who had been irreplaceable in my life in the four years that I skipped to reach here. I call him Vinay.
2. There were five friends this time.
3. I cut my cake in the last hour of my birthday.
4. I was horribly decorated and beaten.

Nevertheless I enjoyed a lot again this time. This birthday kicked off with a surprise carefully planned by my friend Vijayeta and finally ended with a surprise cake cutting along the lines of seven/seven/seven but in a more pleasant manner. Adding to all this, there was this huge multitude of phone calls, text messages and more than a hundred and fifty wishes over Facebook. These are records at present. J

This birthday marked the end of my student days. Hereafter, I don’t know the course of my life. But friends are meant for a lifetime. Thus, I dedicate this compilation to all my friends who have shown deep care, love and affection to me over the years. I convey a big thanks to all my buddies who have loved me and helped me come this far. I pray you to never desert me and keep playing the influential roles that you’ve been playing until this far.

Jaane nahin denge tujhe… jaane tujheee denge nahin. J

A Modern Wedding

PRIEST: Today all of you are 'attending' this 'event' to witness the wedding of Mr. Jonathan Samuels and Miss Katherine Hunches.

[Priest now addressing the groom]

PRIEST: Mr. Jonathan, Facebook profile id 657489354, in Facebook since January 2008, is willing to post on his Wall that he is married to Miss Katherine Hunches, tagging her in the same. Do you agree Jonathan?

JONATHAN: I do Father.

[Priest now addressing the bride]

PRIEST: Miss Katherine, Facebook profile id 785647353, in Facebook since June 2008, is willing to post on her Wall that she is married to Mr. Jonathan Samuels, tagging him in the same. Do you agree Miss Katherine?

KATHERINE: Yes Father…

[Someone suddenly barges into the hall and yells]

STRANGER: ‘End’ this wedding ‘session’!

PRIEST: Who are you son and why are you creating a scene?

STRANGER: I am Peter, the cab driver. I ‘report abuse’ this ongoing ‘event’.

JONATHAN [in anger]: You have not been granted ‘permission’ to RSVP this ‘event’. Don’t force us to ‘block’ you.

PETER: I can’t let this wedding go on. This is injustice. Katherine loves me.

[Everyone is aghast]

PETER [in a wailing tone]: Katherine, you love me, don’t you? ‘Comment’ on this ‘post’ of mine.

KATHERINE [stammering]: N…No. I don’t.

PETER [deeply surprised]: You’re lying Katherine. Just because you discovered my involvement in Mafia Wars, you just can’t marry someone in front of my eyes.

JONATHAN [in extreme anger]: Get out of here, you bloody ‘Crazy Cabbie’.

KATHERINE [in a committal tone]: Yes P...Peter please go away. Stop ‘attending’ my wedding

PETER: No Katherine, I can’t let you leave me. Don’t you remember the day I proposed you? You said you love the ‘Spaghetti and Meat Balls’ at ‘Mariah’s Café’. I had proposed you there and you had accepted my love. We had then celebrated the wonderful moment with a helping of ‘Delicious Chocolate Cake’ and your favorite latte. I am sure you ‘Like’d everything on that day. You can’t fake your feelings now by saying that you don’t remember anything.

JONATHAN [disturbed at this revelation; in low tone]: Is it true Katherine?

KATHERINE [stammering again]: N…No dear. I...I don’t even know him outside of Facebook.

PETER [eyes gleaming]: Lie! Lie! Katherine you can’t do this to me. You can’t just set ‘Privacy Settings’ on me. Tell me don’t you remember at all the times you have spent with me? Our trip to Treasure Island, the fun we had in CityVille, visiting a horde of Cafés in Café World every weekend. Don’t you remember anything? Will you lie in front of a priest?

KATHERINE [with discomfort]: Listen Peter I ‘Like’d you that’s it. I never loved you. I was with you only as a ‘Friend’. Now I am going to start a new life. And I wish to ‘Unfriend’ you from now on. So please allow us to carry on with the wedding. Please go away Peter. Please leave. Now.

PETER [in a weak tone; about to cry]: Is that all you could say Katherine? You know only two days back I had ‘updated’ my ‘status’ as being ‘in a relationship with’ you. You must have got a ‘notification’ for sure. Now you wish to ‘Unfriend’ me from your ‘account’. Ok. I am going. You will never find me in your ‘Friend Suggestion’ again. But remember, my ‘Profile’ will always haunt your ‘sessions’. You will never be at peace. [Now sobbing] Good bye Katherine. God bless your ‘Home’.

[Peter leaves the hall. People start murmuring]

PRIEST [taking control again]: So... Do you agree, Miss Katherine, Facebook profile id 785647353, to post on your Wall that you are married to Mr. Jonathan Samuels, tagging him in the same?

KATHERINE [in teary eyes]: Yes Father, I do.

PRIEST: The bride and groom may now come forward and update their statuses.

[The couple updates respective statuses on different computers]

PRIEST: The ‘Friends’ from either side may now kindly ‘Like’ the ‘updates’. With this I now declare Mr. Jonathan Samuels and Miss Katherine Hunches as lawfully wedded Husband and Wife. They may now come forward and ‘poke’ each other.

[Couple starts poking each other in glee]

PRIEST: This ‘event’ comes to an end. I request all of you sitting in front to come forward and bless the newly wedded couple by writing on their ‘Walls’ and then ‘Logout’ of the hall. May thy peace prevail Almighty.

---------------------------------------- Curtain Falls J ---------------------------------------------

End Of College Days

And so a beautiful period came to end just days ago… I am talking about my B.Tech at ITER, Bhubaneswar. Those lovely four years of my life that I am going to miss like hell. Fun packed and full of delight were those days that I have just left behind. I haven’t seen heaven nor do I wish the Gods put me there when I leave this earth but now that I am home after a rueful farewell with my college and friends, I sense that maybe the place where I lived and studied are actually places in the abode of heaven. It is common human attribute that one gets world-weary and feels boredom doing the same daily thing and staying at the same damned place every day. Routine work has been known to suck since days of the kings I suppose. Now that I am home, I feel even hell would be better than living like this, away from college and buddies, staying indoors, sitting glued to my laptop all day long, having got nothing to do, no damn business, no partying and no hang-outs. The list of complains now seem endless. But in months from now when I shall embark upon my professional career, I will realize that there is indeed nothing like home.

Anyway, no point stressing on human attributes. We are the way God has made us. There has to be this absence of a harness on our demands. Otherwise we wouldn’t be humans at all. So is my case now. Presently I am missing my college and college days a lot. It’s that feeling inside since days now that if only there had been another couple of semesters to study at ITER. Though doing classes was never a first priority and teachers could never appeal any student on earth, yet the feeling persists in my mind. The main reason for this feeling, as can be inferred very easily, is the ever-appealing word- FRIENDS. Also, speaking rationally, lawns, playgrounds, cafés, cake shops, restaurants, etc. inside college premises have never been known to suck, however ill-reputed or strict the college management is. Classrooms only, when donned by teachers, have the universal repute of being the most boring and life-threatening areas in the world (:P). But again, those tiny breaks between two periods – yeah yeah those five minutes which we used to gain tactfully by screaming ‘no sir/ma’am please not anymore... next class, next class, next class sir/ma’am please’ - are again wonderful moments in our lives. Now who would negate this?

If I recollect from my student days, those wish-they-never-end minutes of gap were used for a variety of activities. It’s a pleasure recalling them actually. Some, mostly females, go to fetch water from the purifiers installed in the corridors, that later on, others, mostly boys, find pleasure in gulping down with just a ‘thanks’ or sometimes not even bothering to say so; boys, like me (;)), who go along with girls well (and sometimes, warmer with girls than boys :P) come out of their seats to the other row where girls are seated and some topic always crops up in between that lasts for the whole time and often goes only half-way; guys take out their cameras or mobiles-equipped-with-cameras to take snaps of the class and zoom in on pretty girls (this, I mean photography, happened almost every day towards the end); girls start hullaballoo-ing over a thousand topics they always carry along with them; a plump girl dies laughing in the front benches and two or three guys stare at her and say ‘sala pagili’ (she’s gone mad); boys and girls together engage themselves in severe leg-pulling of the other sex citing the victim’s ways of saying certain things, doing things, gait, nature, behavior and the like; some find it the right time to talk to their special ones over phone and yet some others find it the best time to sleep or do pending assignments (sometimes the same person does both of these and that’s when you call it time-management :P ). Lastly some guys also find pleasure in thrashing one of their friends over no reason or talk with a friend from another class standing at the door or moving in the corridor. All this and much more before the devil enters the class and robs you off your (sleep? No way :)) joys and continues with the latest portion of the syllabus.

So when a classroom can be place for so much activity during a short break of a couple of minutes, one can very well comprehend the amount of pleasure we students have derived from other areas of the college premises. Playing games inside campus; relishing ice-creams and delicacies at the cake shop; sitting with your partner in one of the many seating areas across the premises; hitting the road on your bike with full speed with the stereotyped idea of getting the attention of girls moving around; canteens bustling with noises and shouts and khatti  (gossips); restaurants doing hefty business; boys flocked in front of the ladies hostel waiting for their acquaintance to arrive or already engaged in conversation and the like.

College days just promise so much of fun by only screwing us a bit. And at the end, we realize that we had actually joined the institution wholly for academic purposes and to gain qualification in studies. But with passage of time, academics gradually got pushed to background and other things gained dominance. And what if we get screwed a bit? We have to study (a bit, at least) to cross the hurdles and leave the college as graduates. A little thrashing and screwing is mandatory otherwise why would the college have us in the first place? But in the end, it seems whatever happened, happened for our good. We got what we aspired for and in fact, we got more than that. We made a family, our own family comprising of a good number of friends. And as we set out of our alma mater, we can assure ourselves that though the education that we got inside the gates might not help us, but the friends that we made inside, will surely be there with us wherever we go and however time elapses from now on. And even worth mentioning here is that, some teachers also influence us during our time of stay. Now exceptions breed the difference, don’t they? Not all teachers can be bad. Some inspire us by their intellect, some by their humane side and some by their guidance. So all in all, college life has so much to learn and experience, more than what several tens of books or a carefully designed syllabi expect us to learn.

And just as so many have done before, I too enjoyed my college days a lot. I had my own family of friends, my own ways of enjoying, I studied a bit, I treasured my relationships, I adored certain teachers and mentors, I carved a niche for my own self in my batch and now, as I sit at home, I have got plenty of things retained in my mind about my golden days in ITER. I have got many people now who truly miss me, I have got people who care for me and ask me to meet them asap, I have a whole set of wonderful memories that I have collected over a period of forty four months- the time I stayed in ITER, I now have an elaborate and neat collection of photos with my friends taken on several occasions and sometimes without any occasion and they have now become my prized possession. And last but certainly never the least, I am a graduate now who is awaiting his joining letter from a renowned company.

Thank you people who accompanied me in this unforgettable journey of my life; thank you guys and gals who have lent me the privilege of using the amazing word ‘friend’ for them; thank you teachers whom I have genuinely shown respect and who, at some point of time, influenced my stay in ITER and helped me survive the obstacles.

I dedicate this piece of composition to all the people who made my life worthwhile in ITER and who now make me say that ‘I thought I was entering hell but now as I walk out of the gates I realize that if there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this’.