Bangalore Reunion With Schoolfriends

Bangalore Reunion With Schoolfriends

I had felt bad that I could not meet my school friends   at the 25^th reunion held on 20^th Dec,2013 in Delhi. Everyone had been calling me and I was very eager to see them. After all I would have been meeting them after 25 long years. And when they had posted pictures in FB and Whats App, I missed them even more .Everyone had a good time, I could definitely make out from the snaps. So when Srinivas invited me for a small reunion with the Bangalore friends I just could not miss it.

In fact I had totally forgotton all my school friends. Everyone gets so busy with one’s life once you pass out of school. Busy with getting admissions in colleges, deciding what you want to do in life ,making new friends wherever you go ,you sometimes leave old friends behind. And also I had shifted from Delhi to Bangalore  so I had more contacts with my IITTM friends in Delhi. And once in Bangalore I made new friends ,colleauges who became friends so lost touch with my Delhi friends .It was last year sometimes in September /October that suddenly one by one I started connecting with my school friends and my IITTM friends. And it was all thanks to Linkedin and Facebook. These networking sites definitely played  a big hand in connecting me to my long, lost friends who still remembered me. Linkedin helped me connect with my school friend Rajeev. It was actually I was searching for Rajesh Balachandran, my schoolmate who also was our Prinicipal’s son and it was in his profile that I connected to Rajeev,another schoolmate who later through mails and FB connected me with so many other schoolmates. I was so very thrilled to speak to them, chat with them, connect with them after so many years. 25 years is definitely a very, very long time. And I was surprised and happy that they had made an effort to keep in touch after so many years. I was told it was all thanks to Rajeev’s and Srini’s effort. Also happy to know that everyone is doing so well in life and four of them actually stayed in Bangalore.

 So when Srini’s decided that all of us meet on 17^th Jan for a small get together, I immediately said yes. With Srini it was the second time as I had met him last year at his son’s thread ceremony, the other 3 that is Srinivas , Sapna and Chandrashekhar from Bangalore and the surprise visitor was Anil who posted in Cochin had stopped over in Bangalore for a day. Srini had booked a restaurant Mekong, a Thai restaurant in Sarjapur for dinner. He had also booked a cab for me to take me back as I was the only one staying in Yelhanka and the other  3 in Sarjapur and Anil was staying in Richmond. So it was decided that we will have a early dinner by 8 pm and by 9-9.30 I will leave as I had a long way to go and Sarjapur was unfamiliar to me. But then time just goes off when old friends meet after 25 years  and start talking about old school times. I was really amazed at Srini’s memory. I always used to brag about my memory power saying that elephants can forget but me - never!. But when Srini was talking and reminding us of all the incidents happening at school I just could not remember any details except a few .In fact most of my school friends I had forgotten except a selected few. In afct I could not recollect Chandrashekar at all in my class though he said he was in the same section as mine and that embarrassed me a lot. I remembered Anil and Sapna.Sapna is still the same ,trim person.She has maintained herself very well in spite being a mother of twins. In fact she has modelled for the Jewels Of India.She does yoga and goes to gym every day. Srini , when I first spoke to him on the phone I could not place him but when I saw the school group snap I could later  place him very well. The picture that first came to me in my mind about him was in the school uniform with the blue scarf which represented the House he belonged to,i.e Venus. Anil has put on weight. In fact he was one of the best atheletes in school.  In fact Srini also remembered that I had joined Ramjas in 5^th Standard and my section was A. Hats off to you Srini. Never can I brag myself again.

Well the dinner was ordered once we finished the drinks. We let Srini and Sapna decide the menu for us as the and frequented the place before. I liked therooftop restaurant overlooking the Kaikondrahalli lake as a backdrop, nice atmosphere ,good service and the food was good too. Both Srini and Chandrashekhar ordered Veg and me , Anil and Sapna had non veg. In fact the best dish which still lingers in my mind is Payapa salad, a very nice ,tasty ,juicy salad. Then we had other Thai specialisties like Prawns ,fish  ,I do not recollect the names of the dishes.I should ask Sapna, again as I want to try out the Thai food again.i really loved it.We finally finished the dinner at 10 pm and the Chandru invited us to his place .We met his wife,son and MIL. After half an hour we left his place ,took leave from our friends and left. Anil said he will drop me and so we cancelled the cab. Before that I told Srini that from now on we should meet quite often.  As Anil’s place was much before me I told him to get down first and his driver could drop me .So before I left had coffee at Anil’s hotel ,talked about few more things and finally said bye and left by 11.30 pm. I reached home by 12 am. It was after a long, long time that I stayed out so late but then such occasions do not come everyday right!

Meeting these  four friends, the eagerness to meet my remaining friends has become more strong. I shall definitely plan a trip to delhi and meet my remaining friends.And the day will come soon.

Lunch With Mushtaq and his Wife

Lunch With Mushtaq and his Wife

I have been asking my dear friend Mushtaq to invite me in his house for a very long time but i do not know why he has been avoiding it.The last time i visited his place must be sometime in 2004 for a new year party with our office friends some 10-12 people.So in our 11 years friendship that was the only time i visited his house.And everytime i raised the topic ,he used to avoid,God only knows why.And once he got married,he had still not introduced me to his wife as i shared all his secrets so i thought that became another reason for him not to invite me .I had almost lost hope.As he always used to give me reasons that his relatives were there, or his wife was at her inlaws place or he's not in town etc etc.

So i made a decision of not inviting him to my place till he invited me When all of a sudden a plan was made for a lunch at his place.I could not believe my ears that the once fearful Mushtaq had become fearless ha ha.Well finally i made it to his pace on 22nd Dec,2013 for lunch.It was high tme i met his wife,Tamanna.Tamanna came across to me as a very friendly and a sweet person and of course a very good hostess.The two hour journey from my place to his place had increased my apetite.And the lunch was a lavish spread of Chicken biryani,two different varieties of kababs,two desserts one was a sort of halwa,i forgot the name and other was my favourite falooda.Shamelessly i has helped myself 2 big glasses of falooda followed by soda which was very very yummy without bothering about the calories i would put.I must say Tamanna is an excellent cook.

We spent our time talking about the trips that we had gone to Kalasa,our Getit trips ,some gossips.Our afternoon was spent watching  repeated telecast of movie" Athithi Tum Kab Jayoge".And even though i have watched it a couple of times i enjoyed watching it again.I just hope that the movie was not played intentionally for me and meant me indirectly he he :)

Well my main intention was to meet Tamanna,which i finally accomplished .I share a great rapport with Mush so i  was concerned whether i can share the same equation with his wife too and i was rest assured.Overall spent some quality time with Mushtaq and Tamanna and have plans to socialise with her more to get to know her better.I had forgotton to take Tamanna's number so that i could start talking to her and thought i would ask fron Mush.But again for some reason he avoids giving it to me saying what if i become her close friend than his  :). So Tamanna if you are reading this please take my number from Mush and keep in touch.