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Note 2: It has been 3 full years since I was at IIM and started writing this blog!!!!! Wow! in the three years the entire landscape of life changed!!!!
Note 3: when you get bored, skip to the last paragraph
Note 4: Leave a comment!!!!!
Hooked on this song - "Dua" from a hindi movie Shanghai - listen to the remix by DJ Lemon!!!
The date finally arrived i.e. it was December 16, 2013, ahead of the New Year celebrations my boy had finally arrived from the scorching heat of the Caribbean (i honestly thought there were 2 r's in that word). Well it seems that these days the only life events that I tend to blog about are about Vivek. Against popular belief i would like to take this opportunity and say that there are other things that happen in my life but I often end up writing about some interesting things that happen and for ever find a very dear part of my memory.
Often foreign travelers show up to Canada and enjoy the cold weather for it was predictable and expected and more often than not they end up here for that same precise reason that we hate the country, cold weather, snow (guess they are not shoveling 80tons of snow each night of the winter break) and just more cold and frigid and sub-zero temperatures which make this place inhabitable at times. But our dear friend Viv who obviously has spent a good portion of his life in Canada decided to show up to the doors wearing nothing more than one of those "hollister" surfing t-shirts and a pair of beach shorts!!!!! I was surprised he did not have people wanting his autograph and a picture at the airport but more importantly, i was questioning how the immigration officers could commit such a blunder and let him into the country with such attire!!!! shoving the bags in my non-drive-able car we set out on a journey of what was going to be one of the most memorable weeks of my life!
My belief in God increased multi-fold when the renters to a place we own decided to abruptly move out and left behind a house full of nothing but junk. To my rescue Viv had arrived and I was thanking my lucky stars for I would have a helping hand in clearing the junk out of the house!!! And I lured viv into helping me out by promising an evenings feast provided we were able to clean the place to the point we could eat off floors. A few hours of tough cleaning and the place was remarkably in a better position than before but the biggest challenge lay ahead of us. It was a big 1980's or so fridge. This fridge belonged to an era when half the things we eat today had perhaps not been invented yet and an era when metal came cheap for it seemed we make appliances to survive a world war of some kind. This fridge was easily a couple of tons and then some and with its current stature it still boasted a cold interior. However this friendly creature which had been a part of every owner of the house before and including us had to go. The challenge was not emotional as many of you are guessing but the fact that this beast was kept in the basement and to bring it up required a considerable amount of effort. I had very high hopes of viv and much as expected, viv looked at me startled and waked away in dismay as if I had asked him to marry me or something!!! "are you out of your mind?, NO i am not doing this" were some of the comments he made. But like every other time, I managed to convince him in helping me bring this beast up. I was also happy that Viv was an engineer and thus he will be able to use his talent and skills to precisely maneuver and bring it up in a jiffy, but 40 minutes into bringing this thing up and climbing only 2 stairs I was seriously doubting his ability of doing anything engineering related and was cursing the university who gave him the degree!!! One way or the other using my superior skills and precise presence of mind, we were able to lug the beast up and put it by the curb side.
In the next few days, we attended more parties than I had attended in my whole year combined coupled with multitude of bdays. My tally of people I knew who had bdays in the last 5 days of the year was in double digits now and I was looking to find answers as to why the moms couldnt just wait a few days or was it that the summer months brought the romantic side out in humans to the point where accidents like such were much more prone to happen. Now dont frown, we are all adults here!!! or are we? hahaha... Mary's house party was highly anticipated cuz we were promised that the food will NOT be hosted by Mary. During our last expedition to her place, she had graciously presented us with the food that she prepared which I kid you not would have been tasty provided it would not have been over cooked by a whole 2 hours! Me being a good sport and supporter of my dear friends efforts was the first one to reach the garbage can and proposed we order pizza for the night. However, this time ammi had prepared some delicious food which Mary tried her level best to take credit and redeem herself. Well they say that a truth prevails and Mary also slipped for she came and inquired how the "kofte" she prepared tasted. Startled!!! i looked at my plate and looked at Mary and wondered if she was inquiring about the "kari pakore". The redness of her ROJEE cheeks was marvelous for she knew she had been caught.... and me being an amazing friend made sure everyone found out about it... laughs, smiles, a few games later we all headed out reminding ourselves of the epic night we had!!!
The very next day was another games night at a 47's house where folks seemed to have developed psychic powers. During a game of charades people seemed to be guessing names of movies before anything was even acted!! The efforts of the people were very commendable and memories of that night was impeccable. Acting out the movie "kamasutra" was proabably the hardest of them all and like grade 6 kids every adult in the room giggled looking at the ceiling and pretended they were all comfortable with the idea of such a movie being acted before a large audience.
This day was also Boxing day and the day the deep freeze started in Toronto... and for days to come Toronto was buried under frozen ice during which period many homes lost electricity and may lost a a tree or two in their front/back yards.
For the the remaining 10 or so days, Viv and me did many things together among them was a trip south of the border for shopping. Now the deals were so amazing that we could hardly resist ourselves from buying everything in sight but since we were a day traveler customs had a $0 limit on imports and thus bringing all the purchased merchandise and declaring it would defy the entire purpose of going there thus, we developed an ingenious way of bringing things back. We wore them!!! the efforts took about a half hour in total and unbelievably we wore about 12 layers of tshirts to top it with a sweater and a jacket followed by 4 layers of pants each. We were hoping they didnt request us to come out of the car for we would shamelessly walk out with tags sticking out of our shoes, pajamas and hats like we had just raided a store and ran out! At the border I was questioned by a rather disappointed officer who seemed disgusted by our shopping declaration of $60 the exact dialogue was as follows:
Officer: how long were you there for and where did u go?
Me: 3 hours and a couple malls
officer: how mcuh did u buy?
Me: $59.67
Officer: Thats it really? (eyebrows raised).
Me: Yes
Officer: Hmmm. wow Okay go ahead!
I mean to our defense, we are guys and we can shop $600 worth of stuff within minutes so this was no big deal.
Exiting a little while later we took the load off our bodies and repacked the entire merchandise that we wore and was now making us sweat like Niagara falls underneath.....
From that point on the count down began to viv leaving to when I dropped him back at the airport for his next journey of about 20 months or so. Sometimes in life you are so blind sighted that you forget what you have and what the cost of achieving what you want. The cost is often only calculable in hind sight when both money and time have been spent. But perhaps they also say that there is no cost to chasing a dream and one should never live with regrets. We too live with many regrets yet read one of those fb pictures and learn to believe that we have no regrets in life. Every second of our being is blessed with decisions, some of which we are not so proud of yet others we could not have survived without. Then there are people in our lives who we are better of not being in touch which is contrasted by those who we would not even imagine a life without. In this so called journey of life we meet many people some of whom may not be around anymore yet you wish for their goodwill and health with each passing second and wish you could turn time around. A conflicted life I/We live and each passing second is on loan so smile and embrace your presence, fly high like a kite without any reason, live life to the fullest, chase every star in the sky and make every dream of yours come true......
crying a prayer so loud that god turns around
and all i have to say to him is that i am hell-bound
this life may not have been so perfect
hope there is a chance for a second round!!!!
Ajeeb daastan hai yeh!!!! Kisi ka pyaar leke tum, naya jahan basaaoge. Yeh shaam Jab bhi aayegi, tum humko yaad aaoge..
Note 2: It has been 3 full years since I was at IIM and started writing this blog!!!!! Wow! in the three years the entire landscape of life changed!!!!
Note 3: when you get bored, skip to the last paragraph
Note 4: Leave a comment!!!!!
Hooked on this song - "Dua" from a hindi movie Shanghai - listen to the remix by DJ Lemon!!!
The date finally arrived i.e. it was December 16, 2013, ahead of the New Year celebrations my boy had finally arrived from the scorching heat of the Caribbean (i honestly thought there were 2 r's in that word). Well it seems that these days the only life events that I tend to blog about are about Vivek. Against popular belief i would like to take this opportunity and say that there are other things that happen in my life but I often end up writing about some interesting things that happen and for ever find a very dear part of my memory.
Often foreign travelers show up to Canada and enjoy the cold weather for it was predictable and expected and more often than not they end up here for that same precise reason that we hate the country, cold weather, snow (guess they are not shoveling 80tons of snow each night of the winter break) and just more cold and frigid and sub-zero temperatures which make this place inhabitable at times. But our dear friend Viv who obviously has spent a good portion of his life in Canada decided to show up to the doors wearing nothing more than one of those "hollister" surfing t-shirts and a pair of beach shorts!!!!! I was surprised he did not have people wanting his autograph and a picture at the airport but more importantly, i was questioning how the immigration officers could commit such a blunder and let him into the country with such attire!!!! shoving the bags in my non-drive-able car we set out on a journey of what was going to be one of the most memorable weeks of my life!
My belief in God increased multi-fold when the renters to a place we own decided to abruptly move out and left behind a house full of nothing but junk. To my rescue Viv had arrived and I was thanking my lucky stars for I would have a helping hand in clearing the junk out of the house!!! And I lured viv into helping me out by promising an evenings feast provided we were able to clean the place to the point we could eat off floors. A few hours of tough cleaning and the place was remarkably in a better position than before but the biggest challenge lay ahead of us. It was a big 1980's or so fridge. This fridge belonged to an era when half the things we eat today had perhaps not been invented yet and an era when metal came cheap for it seemed we make appliances to survive a world war of some kind. This fridge was easily a couple of tons and then some and with its current stature it still boasted a cold interior. However this friendly creature which had been a part of every owner of the house before and including us had to go. The challenge was not emotional as many of you are guessing but the fact that this beast was kept in the basement and to bring it up required a considerable amount of effort. I had very high hopes of viv and much as expected, viv looked at me startled and waked away in dismay as if I had asked him to marry me or something!!! "are you out of your mind?, NO i am not doing this" were some of the comments he made. But like every other time, I managed to convince him in helping me bring this beast up. I was also happy that Viv was an engineer and thus he will be able to use his talent and skills to precisely maneuver and bring it up in a jiffy, but 40 minutes into bringing this thing up and climbing only 2 stairs I was seriously doubting his ability of doing anything engineering related and was cursing the university who gave him the degree!!! One way or the other using my superior skills and precise presence of mind, we were able to lug the beast up and put it by the curb side.
In the next few days, we attended more parties than I had attended in my whole year combined coupled with multitude of bdays. My tally of people I knew who had bdays in the last 5 days of the year was in double digits now and I was looking to find answers as to why the moms couldnt just wait a few days or was it that the summer months brought the romantic side out in humans to the point where accidents like such were much more prone to happen. Now dont frown, we are all adults here!!! or are we? hahaha... Mary's house party was highly anticipated cuz we were promised that the food will NOT be hosted by Mary. During our last expedition to her place, she had graciously presented us with the food that she prepared which I kid you not would have been tasty provided it would not have been over cooked by a whole 2 hours! Me being a good sport and supporter of my dear friends efforts was the first one to reach the garbage can and proposed we order pizza for the night. However, this time ammi had prepared some delicious food which Mary tried her level best to take credit and redeem herself. Well they say that a truth prevails and Mary also slipped for she came and inquired how the "kofte" she prepared tasted. Startled!!! i looked at my plate and looked at Mary and wondered if she was inquiring about the "kari pakore". The redness of her ROJEE cheeks was marvelous for she knew she had been caught.... and me being an amazing friend made sure everyone found out about it... laughs, smiles, a few games later we all headed out reminding ourselves of the epic night we had!!!
The very next day was another games night at a 47's house where folks seemed to have developed psychic powers. During a game of charades people seemed to be guessing names of movies before anything was even acted!! The efforts of the people were very commendable and memories of that night was impeccable. Acting out the movie "kamasutra" was proabably the hardest of them all and like grade 6 kids every adult in the room giggled looking at the ceiling and pretended they were all comfortable with the idea of such a movie being acted before a large audience.
This day was also Boxing day and the day the deep freeze started in Toronto... and for days to come Toronto was buried under frozen ice during which period many homes lost electricity and may lost a a tree or two in their front/back yards.
For the the remaining 10 or so days, Viv and me did many things together among them was a trip south of the border for shopping. Now the deals were so amazing that we could hardly resist ourselves from buying everything in sight but since we were a day traveler customs had a $0 limit on imports and thus bringing all the purchased merchandise and declaring it would defy the entire purpose of going there thus, we developed an ingenious way of bringing things back. We wore them!!! the efforts took about a half hour in total and unbelievably we wore about 12 layers of tshirts to top it with a sweater and a jacket followed by 4 layers of pants each. We were hoping they didnt request us to come out of the car for we would shamelessly walk out with tags sticking out of our shoes, pajamas and hats like we had just raided a store and ran out! At the border I was questioned by a rather disappointed officer who seemed disgusted by our shopping declaration of $60 the exact dialogue was as follows:
Officer: how long were you there for and where did u go?
Me: 3 hours and a couple malls
officer: how mcuh did u buy?
Me: $59.67
Officer: Thats it really? (eyebrows raised).
Me: Yes
Officer: Hmmm. wow Okay go ahead!
I mean to our defense, we are guys and we can shop $600 worth of stuff within minutes so this was no big deal.
Exiting a little while later we took the load off our bodies and repacked the entire merchandise that we wore and was now making us sweat like Niagara falls underneath.....
From that point on the count down began to viv leaving to when I dropped him back at the airport for his next journey of about 20 months or so. Sometimes in life you are so blind sighted that you forget what you have and what the cost of achieving what you want. The cost is often only calculable in hind sight when both money and time have been spent. But perhaps they also say that there is no cost to chasing a dream and one should never live with regrets. We too live with many regrets yet read one of those fb pictures and learn to believe that we have no regrets in life. Every second of our being is blessed with decisions, some of which we are not so proud of yet others we could not have survived without. Then there are people in our lives who we are better of not being in touch which is contrasted by those who we would not even imagine a life without. In this so called journey of life we meet many people some of whom may not be around anymore yet you wish for their goodwill and health with each passing second and wish you could turn time around. A conflicted life I/We live and each passing second is on loan so smile and embrace your presence, fly high like a kite without any reason, live life to the fullest, chase every star in the sky and make every dream of yours come true......
crying a prayer so loud that god turns around
and all i have to say to him is that i am hell-bound
this life may not have been so perfect
hope there is a chance for a second round!!!!
Ajeeb daastan hai yeh!!!! Kisi ka pyaar leke tum, naya jahan basaaoge. Yeh shaam Jab bhi aayegi, tum humko yaad aaoge..
Friendship as special as yours brings a smile to my face. Sweet memories to hold on to and a long life to life. Enjoy every moment.
ReplyDeleteLife is one round, and one round alone. It's filled with ups and downs, friends and foes. Embrace the journey with open arms. There is perfection in the imperfect. Search for it. You may find peace there.
Firstly I must say your blogs really do capture a good essence of your memories. Secondly you don't have to clarify writing about vivek - we all know that he is your jigar da tukda :P. Lastly, m so very sure life will give you many more rounds and many more memories! Many more memories of Vivek and you bhava :P
ReplyDeleteYou guys crossed the border for shopping and DIDN'T take me along?!?!?! :O....how could you? <\3 :(..to avoid such mistakes in the future I think there needs to be a serious talk between the 3 of us..thankew :P
ReplyDeleteOn another note,for all the other readers- Mary is a splendid cook! As may have been portrayed otherwise in this blog..
And finally, even I thought carribean had two Rs in it and its spelt the way I spelt it :/...probably a USA vs British English thing...
Anyhow,overall a very enjoyable read (like always) :D
Friends rating: 2.75/5 (you lost marks with the Mary and shopping bit :P)
someone very dear to me once said:
ReplyDeletelife is a vast field
with beautiful flowers and many trees
just make sure you pick the right flowers and climb the right trees,
because flowers are your friends and trees are your dreams....
:)
You're hilarious, Rohit. :). Keep it up.
ReplyDelete