Vantage points..

Coffee after work

Time: A year and half ago..

It was during the days in first year. The guest lecture had just finished. So did my job of typing the draft and mailing it to my group. I packed the laptop and headed out. The phone buzzed as I was boarding the bus which was bound to campus.

The 'Trio': Back then in first year.
Picture taken by Mr. Young

It was Smart Dude. The idea of snacks struck him.This time the trio was accompanied Mr. Young. We headed to Caffee Coffee Day as it was one of the closer option available and my penchant for Frappe. Despite donning formals, I did not hesitate to head for coffee, as more or less I resembled a sales folk(no offence intended) tired after day's toil.

As we settled down, we ordered ourselves coffees and snacks. Gold Lady and Mr. Young took turns in clicking pictures. Smart Dude had a lengthy telephonic conversation and then joined us as the snacks were served.

Things have moved slow and such memories have always been at back of my mind. As I always believe, such moments can never be replicated, but we can cherish them forever.

Boredom on horizon

Time: Yesterday..

Saari duniya ek taraf hai, ek taraf hai hum..
When you smile for me, world seems alright..

A rejoiced Smart Dude replayed these lines again and again on his music system, as we were returning after some work. While returning a common notion struck me. What makes two, three or multiple persons as friends? Its 'purpose'. Each and every person in the circle shares the same purpose: whether it may be as weird as going for booze or as pious as visit to holy place. The notion struck me as I wondered what made me to tag along with Smart Dude or Gold Lady or Mr.Brave n Strong or others.

Even the rays of sunshine could not
inspire Smart Dude to come out of
boredom. (Image quality regretted).

I did realize that friends not only have a common area of taste, but also
common area of distaste. From making faces on the prospect of certain dishes to dampening the emotions on the prospect of an unwelcome person, the range of common distaste varies.

As I ordered food from, Smart Dude was super busy in his world of boredom. Singing songs in super slow tempo, posing super sad expressions and recurring the lyrics like a stuck cassette player, Smart Dude exhibited all attributes of a bored person to a perfect level. Luckily we finished the food and headed back to campus.

We are tensed

Time: 2 weeks back..

"Sir, what do you do when you are in distress?" I asked a senior volunteer who was travelling with me in train.

"When I am distressed or don't feel comfortable, I say no. But saying no has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. I have had a lot of trade-offs to do in life. But ultimately I was confident of my skills. That gave me confidence" replied the old man.

I suddenly found his words of wisdom to be apt. Somewhere in heart I do believe that our confidence has some co-relationship with the faith we put on our skill sets.

A relaxed Mr. Savior
poses after presentation

The next day I had a presentation to deliver. The day was filled with tension as my presenting partner was drowned in his set of issues and I with mine(I had a subject presentation coinciding the same day). After initial rushing to faculties, we were blessed by their suggestions to incorporate changes.

The next day we had presentation. To our surprise, we were received well and provided with lots of constructive suggestions. The incident taught me one thing: listening to varied people sometimes brings new learning and hones your skills.

We came out relieved and had our pictures clicked. Mr. Savior, who supposedly happened to be my presenting partner was happy for the thing to go smoothly. Realizing that we happened to be in suits,we snapped pictures of selves.

Numerous vantage points as these lie in the memoirs in mind. Sometime when they get flashed, I feel luck recalling such rare moments.

The February fun

It was the party time again! The boring 'trio' got on again. But this time, there was fourth umpire on the field. Mr. Brave 'n' Strong accompanied us. Apart from being my roomie, Mr. Brave 'n' Strong has an amazing sense for critic, satire and humor. Needless to say, often I am on his radar of humors.

After fooling Mr. Smart Dude for around 10 minutes by assuring him that we have reached the spot(we actually didn't), we finally managed to reach the food court. Smart Dude was furious, but burst into laughter on seeing me chuckle. Gold Lady hijacked the Activa of Mr. Brave 'n' Strong and took a test ride in the perimeter of the parking lot. We soon boarded Smart Dude's car and headed for dinner.

Good food, cricket, humor and satire were on the agenda as we enjoyed the regale. Often critiquing and appreciating each other(Gold Lady was out of this fray, but she was active in drawing my attention on the group), we enjoyed shifting the topic from person to person. We headed back @ 10:15 to campus. Two presentations set on the next day had made me nervy, as I was flummoxed during the dinner as to what would I present and how. Mr. Brave 'n' Strong opened the lid of the secret of one of my presentation plans to Smart Dude and Gold Lady. The next one hour went terrorizing me as to how will Mr. Brave 'n' Strong, Gold Lady and Smart Dude ensure to spread the news across the batch and get maximum audience. I was so frozen by the thought of being grilled that I preferred to gaze at a local cricket tournament telecast on TV screen. Quietly I ate dinner, enjoyed the AC and my appreciations by the three of them and headed back to campus.

yeh mobile mujhe dede Gold Lady!!!

It is rare that we the trio have common subjects. And if we do, we(at least I) am scattered from the rest. After quietly settling on a comfortable seat, I was spotted by Gold Lady, who blackmailed me to accompany her and Smart Dude on the front row. I did not had choice, but to oblige. The next one hour was a silent fun as we shared biscuits, popped up allegations(from branding Smart Dude as e-waste) and taking my class(which had become a routine by now). The class ended, but the fun hadn't. Smart Dude had left his mobile, which the Gold Lady spotted and coolly slotted the mobile in her bag. I was a part of the crime as me and Gold Lady made a safe passage to Smart Dude's car, while he rushed back to the class from the exit after realizing that he might have left his mobile.

After a while we saw a flummoxed and smiling Smart Dude coming out of the exit and yelling 'mobile do mera'. However, he wasn't able to crack down the crime of Gold Lady, who smartly started marching towards canteen. With a 'kamaal hai, phone le gayi' attitude, Smart Dude finally managed to recover his phone back from Gold Lady. Soon, I and Smart Dude were accompanied by Mr. Non-erasable and headed to town for snacks.The snacks sessions were full of gyaans with Mr. Non-erasable speaking on a philosophical note. After a good snacks we returned back to our abodes to look for the next day.

An exam tomorrow, classes and some work. It looks like I have my plates full as of now. But the moments such as ones described above may seldom come again.

Repertoire of good moments

Chicken Ghee Roast Day

It was the turn of trio to hit a good restaurant. Occasion? Gold Lady's birthday. Blame it again to my shyness which forced Gold Lady to dump her celebration plans and execute the clandestine plan of treating the trio (no prize for guess the third person in form of mischievousness Smart Dude). Those were the good old days when we relied on Auto. We soon hit one of the nice restaurants at the city, located near a beauty shop.

Gold Lady's phone was abuzz with calls. In fact the way she greeted her relatives, conversed with them and closed the call taught me a lot of things. I was supposed to be excused that day for being too traditional, as I constantly kept hearing single word "pranaam" reverberating in her conversations. Smart Dude was relaxed and clam. His attention was transfixed to the television. Unfortunately I was seated opposite to him and all I could gaze at was their faces, a wall and the air conditioner. A flurry of american accented words were blasted in the air by a group seated nearby. Their pandemonium of fun and discussion aroused suspicion between the three of us. In case you stumble upon these accent, you would wonder if these are real or fake? 

After assuring(or say assuming) ourselves that the accent was fake, we played with words. Smart Dude often poked Gold Lady for her accent. The order was once again initiated by her, and this time she wanted to try a different recipe. So, what did she order?A chicken ghee roast. 

It was time for the birthday girl to be trapped in the illusion of name as the dish tasted out way contrary to her expectations. Perhaps that was how I remember that day as : the Chicken Ghee Roast Day.

The Russian Salad Day

It was time for me to host my birthday treat. Again it was the trio and we three headed to the best hotel in the city. After initial dilly dallying, we finally settled for menu. Smart Dude wanted to try something different now. And in the process he ended up ordering Russian Salad. Destiny ensued Smart Dude the same fate as that of Gold Lady during her birthday treat. The dish turned out to be contrary of expectations. We soon decided to hustle to nearby restaurant and had a good meal.

Wake me up, when 8'o clock ends

The test of time is the toughest in the world where punctuality is the motto. End up being one minute late and you are off. End of waking 30 mins late, and you loose attendance for losing class. End up waking 12 hours late, you seriously wonder introspecting yourself and quitting things. The fear of quitting things(yes, I did went through a scenario where I ended up waking very late owing to illness) brought me to establish trust with my two buddies: Smart Dude and Nonerasable Man. We established a mutual consent where the one waking up early would ring the other two(I was lazy in this department). I often remember Nonerasable Man banging my door to wake me up. When I look back at those days I realized how an unsaid principle is established among people. We three happened to be the member of same group too and it often helped us.

The world of satire

It was yet again the time to hang out at a pastry outlet in the city. Smart Dude was kind again to pack me in his car and give a ride. My soul thanked Gold Lady for springing the idea of going for the cake at night, as I was damn hungry for a pastry. 

We settled with our orders. I could see Smart Dude giggling and asking me to check out the rest room. When I did I found something unusual. A poster read:

A similar poster as this was discovered by
me (Photo adopted from: www.etsy.com)

" If you sprinkle when you tinkle be nice and neat and clean the seat"

World today has turned much sophisticated to educate people about basic etiquette. Gone are the days of carrot and stick. The mood of today is 'satire'. 

No wonder I find it funny and attractive, but I also got the message quick and clear. Companies and retail outlets are doing everything to : a. educate people using their premises, b. politely list the rules without hurting them. 

As the days go by, we would often see such humongous satires with the basic message relating to etiquette and behavior.