hey sista, soul sista....

In just a couple of days I have witnessed three of my good friends (who are all incidentally, girls) getting good jobs and I just want to post here how proud I am of them (and to remind them not to forget me when they celebrate. hyuk hyuk)

Firstly, Pauline, poe, holly goodhead, beyatch, my 2nd ho (or whatever niceties i can come up with). Met her through my ex-GF, who is her best friend. The first night we met we were all bunking together on the floor of a small apartment and I, the "mang chhe" one, had pushed and nudged her frail frame all the way off the mattress and under the bed! That made me so embarassed the next day I spent a considerable time avoiding her just to save myself from further discomfort. But we gelled after the years: our mutual interest in literature, bawdy innuendos and jokes, debates and other things made it customary for the rest of the gang to warn us not to indulge in talking about our studies everytime we got together. You didn't have to give us a couple of beers to start off on postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis or anything literary. It just happened spontaneously. After the years we have shared much more than just academic talk. We have become really good friends. We tease and consult each other about our love lives; she still threatens to make pubic a video where i allegedly (and I stress, ALLEGEDLY) strip-teased wearing a thong on a drunken brain-fart moment; I love imitating her hyuk-hyuk laugh and pointing out the bittersweet irony of her pretty face and flat chest (she is gonna kill me if she knew i wrote this. haha) But she is brilliant, and I love her, and I am so proud of her at this moment.

Secondly, Jamie (Code name: J). I had known her only quite recently and that too more due to the fact that our paths have crossed in the academic arena. But from the first moment, one feels completely at ease and comfortable with her. She is warm, friendly, has the sweetest smile which is very therapeutic; and I can always count on her for kuhva. I would embarass her on this blog if i knew a bit more about her but sadly that has to wait. Hehe. But seriously she deserves all the success she's getting and I only hope that she will be kind enough to help me out on my slave work once a while after she leaves me for the glory.

And last but definitely NOT least, Ramdini, Dyne, Sin Woman, Alanis, my soul-mate, BFF etc etc. Words cannot express how proud I am of her, and I do not possess the capacity to describe what type of person she is. I think we are twins separated at birth. In kindergarten, in a fancy dress show, I was Superman, she was Florence Nightingale (truth be told, she should have been BOTH Superman and the Lamp lady). After my 3 year stay in Lunglei, we were reunited again in Mary Mount. The dear nun had us play the hero and heroine in a campy and hilarious puppets-on-a-string version of a play not even remotely resembling "Romeo and Juliet". High school came. We sat near each other in class and talked and talked and talked. We talked about anything and everything. We did the whole "hook-up-with-this-girl-coz-shes-the-one-for-you" and "told-you-so" routine more than a couple of times. Her dad passed away while we were in Class X. I still regret not being able to comfort her and be there for her then but the strength that she showed in overcoming the most tragic of circumstances made me realize how much better a person she was than I could ever be. After High School, we stayed at different places, but we still corresponded via letters (no internet during those times) and we talked about our misery, drawing strength from one another. Sometimes I'd visit her in Calcutta on my way home or back to Delhi. She told me about the men in her life, and I of (or absence of) the girls i have known. I can still vividly recall the time when we were experimenting on some stuff (:D) under a tree near the lake in Jadavpur University, listening on one earphone each to Alanis Morrissette's "Under Rug Swept" album. During this time I was the shy-ish and kinda mysterious guy, she was the bohemian hippie. We just connected in a metaphysical level. Our friendship is the type that defies all logic about boy-girl stereotypes. I have had to face countless questions and doubts about the reason behind the absence of any emotional or physical involvement in such a close association. But it just is, and has always been just that. Do I need to give any "reason"?. She went off to the far east and during this time, correspondence was kept to a minimum, We were living our own lives. But I always knew that no matter how long or far the distance, we were still "us". But the danger with this feeling is that you can take the friendship for granted, which I have been guilty of a number of times. But like any relationship, we have had some periods of strain and disillusionment, of misunderstandings and the like. But she is too loving a person to take issue with my mood-swings, my passive-aggressive and self-destructive tendencies and many faults that she always forgives me and we are at the moment where we have become better persons and our friendship is continuing strongly. She is an amazing writer. Her stuff can make you go wow! think and make you cry. I love it that whenever my male chauvinism and excess testosterone comes to the fore the alanis/fiona apple/maya angelou side of her feminist inclinations irritates her that she chides me but we always end up laughing at ourselves. Conversations with her are always an intellectual high. If I could she would be my first choice as best-man for my wedding, and I would do the same for her even if I was compelled to wear a dress (on second thought.. lemme just think about how horrifying that would be). Well, let this be a kind of homage to my dear friend; I love you dearly and I am super-thrilled at your success. Here's hoping for many more wonderful adventures.