Lucky me!!!

As the title suggests this blog is about how lucky I’ve always been.
I’ve been so lucky throughout my entire life that I can flaunt openly about it without any remorse. You might wonder what I’m flaunting so much about…it’s the fact that have great friends around me who really care so much about me. Even when I take them for granted and don’t speak much with them, they still love me. They accept me just the way I am. Sometimes it makes me wonder.. What have I done to deserve such great friends in life.. I must admit that I don’t have friends in great numbers… but the ones I have are a select few, who have strived to make my life a happier, better and beautiful place to live in. When I say that I have a few friends, this old adage comes to my mind. It goes like this..

Making a million friends is not a miracle,
The miracle is to make a friend who will stand by you
When a million are against you….

When it comes to friendship I think even the most smallest of gestures and expressions mean a lot to your friends. I remember once I had convinced my dear friend Rabiya to perform the mimicry that she had prepared so hard for. She tried to bail out at the last minute thinking its stupid but after much persuasion she finally did it. I didn’t know it had made such a big impression in her life until she mentioned it again after several months in an NGO group meeting in college. At the end of the session we were asked to share any memorable events in our lives if any and Rabiya came up and mentioned the incident which obviously I had long forgotten. She thanked me for being her friend. The emotion I felt then was indescribable.
I often wonder when I’m around with my pals if I really deserve such great friends in life. The conclusion is always the same ‘God must really like me’.
I must add that my friends have always had time for me despite the fact that some of them were preoccupied with their love life. I really thank you guys for always being there for me and I want you all to know that I’ve always been only too happy that all of you found the love of your life(this goes especially to Mal, Roo,Nandi and Sala).
Of course when I mention my friends I have to mention my dear friend Pravee. She was my sole refuge during a particularly bad period in my life which I spent in Bangalore. I was dreadfully homesick and to add to my predicament I had psycho roommates. But all that vanished when I was with her. I remember the first time I saw her in blore. She seemed to be this very serious no-nonsense type of girl. I figured out that she was just not my type but Im glad that fate decided otherwise.
I would have to be ungrateful if I fail to mention my childhood friend Cindhu. She was my dear friend who has always been with me through thick and thin. Whats great is the fact that whenever we speak to each other over the phone which is almost rare, it seems as if we were never apart and time had just rewinded itself.
My friend Suga has been both my philosopher and guide. In short you can call her my Guru. She was the one who kindled my interests in spirituality and made sure I explored it. I often wonder if we were twins coz we both think and act the same which is sometimes troublesome.

I’m so glad that fate has always brought in the right kind of people into my life at the right time. I must also beg for forgiveness from all those friends who I have not mentioned in this blog. I assure you all that you have all been the ones who shaped me into the diamond which I am today. You have all played your parts in grooming me from a shy and sensitive girl to a bold and pragmatic women.I would like to end this blog with a feeling of pride for having such a friend like yourself. Take care my friend.

The characters portrayed are purely not fictional. if there is any resemblance to anyone then it is not coincidental.I hereby solemnly swear that the incident that is described here is true to the best of my knowledge.
I know what ur thinking…for what is all this build up for??? Actually the whole incident is just a simple one that might have happened to anyone.. but I could not resist exaggerating as this is my first blog and I want it to seem interesting.
Anyways the day was 29th July 2006 and it all began when my friends called me up and we all decided to get a belated bday gift for our friend Prabhu. Of course the immediate question that now springs in ur mind would be why is the gift belated??? But for those who know me too well will obviously understand that the idea of a gift simply slipped my mind like how rain drops slip on a glass pane and now coming to the next question.. why did this slip my friends’ minds also???..its obvious too..they are all MY friends.
So let’s not deviate anymore from the subject. We all had planned to meet around six to six-thirty in the evening in Hyderabad central after we came to a consensus (which was arrived at after several long hours of argument) that we would get the bday boy a formal shirt. Of course when my dear friends mention a time they always don’t mean the Indian standard time… they probably mean Saudi Arabian time. So I thought it will be too late by the time I get back home after dinner and so tried to pass the offer by giving some illogical excuse. But my friend Sowmi only knew me too well and completely grabbed my attention with those beautiful four letter word…SALE…ah.. how I love that word.. so i was lured to hyderabad central like how the children of the village were lured by the pied piper’s music.
So I calculated that we would all meet around 8.00pm IST. So I was there sharp at 8.00 pm waiting for my friends in Hyderabad central at the same time feasting my eyes on the clothes which were put up for sale. I was so engrossed in shopping that I didn’t notice that the time had flown like a quick breeze. It was already 8:30 and entry my tall, dark and lanky friend Venkat who has a notion that he is the ultimate techie guru of all times. But too bad we have to flatten his ego once too often. He also has the uncanny habit of calling all his male friends ‘man’ as if to constantly remind them every time that they were indeed male(thankfully he does not call his female friends women ;) )
So I think that gave you an overall picture about him. I would also like to add that his timing of entry was not all that good. I was jus looking at a beautiful kurta, which seemed to be begging me to take it…but I had to leave it all alone crying after me while I went to meet him.
Parting with my beloved kurta pushed me into depression and as most psychologists say depression causes hunger.. so now since the cause of my hunger is justified, let me move on with the rest of the incident. We went to fuel station our only place of refuge for two hungry lost travelers. But no matter where we went the crowd kept following us like the moon that follows us in the night.
The fact that we had to stand in a queue, place our order, pay and get the bill and then stand in another counter for food itself looked frustrating. And what was more frustrating was finding a seat among those hungry mongrels that refused to budge even after finishing their food, just to make a conversation as if it were the last day of their lives and they had to spill everything in their hearts before they left this mortal world.
Finally we split up to get French fries and pav baaji. I went to get the fries and Venkat left with a determined look to get the pav baaji. As I waited in silence to get the fries..my token number was finally called out and finally I got to lay my hands on the fries… but to my utter shock and horror I was not served tomato ketchup but it was substituted with mayonnaise( how can anyone think mayonnaise would substitute the unparalleled tomato ketchup) . With a sad expression I turned to look for a seat amongst the crazy crowd. And there it was, a two seater , which was just vacated by its inmates.
So now that my mission was achieved I began to look for my lanky friend to see if his luck was as good as mine. Continuing to scan the area I called up sowmi enquiring about her whereabouts, when a rude chap came and took custody of my hard earned possession, in this case my partners chair. Armed with only a cell phone and half in conversation with sowmi I ran to the intruder and demanded my prized possession back when he replied he would not return it with an expression in which kids usually say ‘finders keepers’. Annoyed with immatured men like this one I went back to my place sulking about the fact that the world was full of such brats. Still venkat had not returned with my food and I was starting to get worried that it would get cold. After another 15 minutes he turns with a stupid smile saying something about the guy forgetting the order…Guys …. Guys… Guys.. I sighed mentally…. they really cant seem to do anything by themselves..wat will the world do without women… it would be catastrophic.. forgive me for being a feminist but if you had seen all the guys that I knew in my life you would come to the same conclusion. Of course you cant blame venkat for just quietly standing there without even wondering that it has been over 15minuites and still the pav baaji was nowhere in sight..its in their genes.. always getting distracted by the women around them forgetting the very purpose of their mission.. and it was Venkats mission to get my food and he had almost failed.. but better late than sorry.. so we finished having our food and then entry Sowmya and Praveena.
So by now its 9.00pm IST and I see the two of them mumbling something about the traffic that evening. so to tell a few words about Sowmya and Praveena. First ill begin with Sowmya.. my ever radiant and talkative friend. She is the kind of person with whom you can have an interesting conversation even about boring subjects. And Praveena is my lanky friend who is the girl next door, with shoulder to lean on type (only too difficult for me to lean coz of her height).
So finally our team went about the mission assigned to us. We went rummaging through the various sections and finally cutting the long story short, we found the one that the three of us agreed to.. but Sowmi was not happy with the color though but we managed to coax her into buying it. She obviously thought ‘if u cant fight them then join them’.so finally after waiting for in queue to purchase our product we finally got it packed. It was then that Sowmya and Praveena announced that they were extremely hungry. So we had to go back to the place of the hungry mongrels. Finally by the time we ate and left it was 11.30 pm.. and I was sulking about the fact that I was late.
I have cut short many events and even censored a few that had taken place for the benefit of my friends and for viewer discretion. Eventually Venkat was bullied and beaten up by three girls and this shows that its hazardous for men to be among a majority of women.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Finally I would like to thank the people who were responsible for inspiring me to write this blog. Rabiya the eternal prodigy has inspired me to write a blog from time to time. I also thank Venkat, Sowmya and Praveena for making this blog possible.