I always thought that coming to Chennai would be as good as an experience as it was when I went o Bangalore last summer and boy, wasn’t I wrong. Turned out to be a humid, dirty, dumb experience altogether, filled in between with limited food options and non-attractive females. No offense though to anyone. But I knew that Harsh is also coming to Chennai and that somehow comforted me that I was not the only one who would be screwed.
Someone told me, i think it was pammi, that Ali was going through a surgery. Talked to him the other night and he sounded just like he used to in the hostel and the moment i heard his voice, i knew that was going to be alright. A touch sentimental, but I hope he gets well soon and whatever bad happens to him, should happen in the brothels of Dubai.
The only thing that reminded me of Delhi here was the traffic, somewhat worse in fact. The breeze is alright and the beach is fine, but it is not good enough to bargain for what I had in Delhi. It seems funny sometimes that most of my friends, who are not from Delhi, have their jobs in Delhi and around and I and Harsh are in Chennai. Can’t say much on his part, keeps busy in his phone on whatsapp much of the time and you know, that works in all places. So, it is not much of a change for him anyways.
We took a house in besant Nagar, quite close to the beach and I do keep boasting about it to people on phone, at my office and on chats, but in reality, how does it matter anyways? I cannot go there on weekdays, due to office (yeah boy, 8 to 8 literally including the travelling time) and I could go there on weekends anyways. I once started to make a list of wonderful things at my home and their probable substitutes here and I could not make the list, because the right hand column was empty. So I started filling it with the left hand column things and I filled in a whole page without any salvation or useful happy output. And then, one such day, filled in gloom, I talked to bamfal and he gave me happiness by telling his miseries at work. Seriously! Who works on Independence Day? And Night-outs! I breathed somewhat easier. I remember him telling Akul that he was so happy at his office that no one called him ‘Bansal’ but by his forgotten name ‘Abhishek’. Not so easy now, huh?
And then I met Harsh, who had just travelled half the country to this city. You bet. 30 hours in train and then landing in Chennai. And the worst part was that he had only ten days accommodation. So, when I called him on his day of checkout from hotel, they (he and kgp) were sitting at the reception of the hotel, with their baggage, with nowhere to go. That seemed funny, at least when he said it on phone. And the ultimate con I did by switching my home and flat-mates at the last moment, getting myself snapped of a good amount of money, sufficient for a month of luxury for an iitian. We went to the beach on the first day I was in my new place and I was too scared to go in the water, or at least have it touch my feet.
Occasional chats with kapsi, rungta kept me going, being in touch with old mates, knowing about their lives and telling them about mine. It has become kind of a habit now, to know everything about everyone amongst us. It will be very hard to leave it. Maybe I don’t want to. And everytime I talk to them, the feeling comes to me that my life is worse than theirs. That they are having much more fun than me. Maybe it’s true, maybe that was always the difference between me and !me (mahajan will understand this one). Gandharva took a separate place and Ashish took a different road altogether. But I am happy that they are happy. And it will be nightmarish to know that they don’t think the same for me.
Chatted with Bisai the other night and it was like he was right next to my room, like we used to chat when we were in fourth year. He told me that Jaithliya has gone into hibernation and i said, "What else would you expect with my mattress?" Also talked to saboo some days ago and it was real fun talking to him after a long time. And the way he told me about the laptop thing, it was as if something inside me came back to life, making me believe that no matter how much we grow up, wherever we are, whatever we do, friendship and its fun will find its way into our lives, into the lives of me and my friends who are bonded by this amazing thing called friendship.
PS: Rungta… I took your advice from my previous note that I should write more often.
PS2: Thanks Anna. For being the only one among the tagged people who took the pain of calling me up to ask about my health during my jaundice.
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