Can great co-workers make for great friends?

Co-workers cannot be the best of friends!

I beg to disagree.

Almost everyone around me raises an eyebrow when I tell them that I am blessed to have colleagues who are such great friends. Mind you. Not just fair weather friends. They are a bunch of colleagues who leave no stone unturned in lending a helping hand to one another whenever the need be. 

With just the right doze of impishness in us, we as a team (touchwood) cross swords with any challenge that comes our way and come out victorious. From anytime whatsapping to impromptu eye talks, unplanned hullabullo to lets-get-serious-before-the-bosses-spot-us conversations, lazying around in the beautiful countryside surroundings under the wintry sun to scraping our lunchboxes free, we share a camaraderie that is too delightful and enchanting to be penned down in words. Though all of us share a great rapport, I am closest to Meenakshi and Maninder (Mams). 

As my anytime fun mates, they are the ones who help me keep the child in me alive at my workplace. I still can't forget the recent tumultous experience we had while watching RamLeela, or should I say Goliyan ki Raasleela- RamLeela! We came out totally blown away, dejected and with splitting ear-drums, thanks to the zillion gunshots that canvassed the fabric of the movie from the beginning till end. 

A while ago, adding to the list of incidents where we muddled through madness yet again was one whatsapp conversation when Meenakshi pinged me after seeing a new display picture that I had put up. Intending to say that I take after my mom, she texted, 'You look like aunty in your new profile picture'. As if on cue, before I could pop in a reply, she almost freaked out realizing the duplicity that the message afforded and sent in a hoard of smileys along with a message that read 'Oh! I meant to say that I take after your mom. I just read my previous message and realized that it reads more like as if you have auntyish looks in the new picture'. :P

I feel at the end of the day, it is light and humourous conversations like these that pave way for great bonds, professionally and personally. I am glad I have such people around :)

Time Flies!

It seems as if it was just yesterday when you and I roamed around Chandigarh sitting pretty on our scooties, chasing dreams and weaving futures. Wee days of womanhood, 2006-2009. Early morning rendezvous at your Paying Guest accommodation in the lush green Sector-36, last minute entries in the first lecture of our respective classes, shared lunches during the free hours, long musical sessions during the in-between hours, countless rubbish gossips that lobbied the day, serious help-me-na sessions while doing our MBA preparatory assignments for Bulls Eye and of course, the wonderful heart-to-heart talks that brought us closer each minute of each day of each week.

I still remember how we never agreed on anything under the sun. We were a Fire and Ice combination. You would go East while I would go West. You would rather practice mathematical analogies while I would just cozy around with a book. You would pick white while I would blindly choose black. You would vow by tea while I would prefer coffee. You would make faces even imagining Chicken while I would go ooohing and aaaahing over Chicken wings. You would prefer just the two of us while I would always socialize heavily. You would help Mum whenever you could while I would just shirk work. And yet, when it came to being friends, somehow we always knew we would be there for each other all our lives no matter what!

Despite having decided to pursue our further studies together, as fate would have had it, you stuck by what we had decided and landed up in an MBA college in Pune while I decided to stay put in Chandigarh and go in for a Masters in English and Linguistics. Time went by so swiftly that I din't even get a chance to miss you much. I got on with my new life and you yours. You came to see me with aunty before you finally left for Pune and left me teary eyed. You brought along many pairs of beautiful earrings for me wrapped in a crumpled newspaper. Dreading your choice, I dint even feel like opening them but as surprised as one could be, I was amazed to see that were all purely My Types. Chic, blingy and colorful. It was then that I realized that perhaps, you understood me and my choices way better than anyone else. No matter how loud and  audacious you had been in ridiculing my choices all the while, but somewhere deep down, you had always known exactly what I liked and what not. Would you believe, I still wear them often. They make me feel as if you are still around blabbering away to glory while taking digs at me. :)

We have been each other around a lot ever since you moved to Delhi, unfortunately just a month after I moved back to Chandigarh. I wish you were around in Delhi during my stint there. As ill luck would have it, you chose to stay in exactly the same locality as I were. I wish we could stay together reviving the good old dreams.

Khair! As I write this post on your birthday today, I feel blessed to have you around. Not to forget, this is the first time ever that I have wished you right on time in our 8 year long association. Blame it on my poor memory or twist of circumstances, I do have my regrets on this. But I truly have a feeling that its going to be a great year ahead for you.

You always believed that I would be the first to tie the knot but today as I see things coming, I have a strong sixth sense that even before we know it, you are going to be whisked away on a white horse by a Prince Charming. I can already see it coming and may be, it is this feeling that is making me go weak in the knees.

By the way, do you really have it in you to make a shy, soft-spoken and head-tilted-down bride? :)

I am sure you do and you are going to make your guy one lucky man on the face of this earth. My best wishes are with you, today and always.

Happy Birthday, K! Have a great life.

Time flies. Period.

The Joy of Solitude

We all move around in a busy world, where business and busy-ness are the only two words that rule our lives. Gone are the days when humanity took retreat in the lap of solitude. However, there are still a few of us who continue to halt and take some time off our neck-deep busy-ness and immerse ourselves in the wisdom of solitude.

I personally feel wretched if I don't get my share of solitude from the monotony of everyday life. Beyond a week, my mental faculties cannot continue to work if not given their share of solitude and retrospection.

Solitude is heavenly, provided it is received with the due share of respect that it deserves.

A few of the sounds of nature that I relish during my share of solitude include the following:

• Nothing beats the tick-tock sound of the clock. It is more soothing than perhaps, any other sound in the world at the dead of the night. 
• The pitter-patter of the raindrops on my window sill.
• The sound of a gentle breeze gushing through my ears on a perfect moonlit night.
• The first-cry of an infant reverberating from a neighbor's house as he wakes up early morning after a sound sleep.
• The clicky sound that the ice cubes make while being dropped into a glass tumbler.
• The 'aaaah' sound that escapes our lips while we rejoice smelling the coffee brew, snuggled in our duvets in chilly winters.

and therefore, I say, life is beautiful. Give it a little of yourself, and it shall reciprocate manifolds!

Serendipity

As I sit back and write today with tear-clogged eyes, flashes of events and incidents that occurred lately cross my mind. I feel stuck in a time warp. High and lows are an inevitable part of our lives, yet it isn't everyone's cup of tea to endure them with the necessary grace and poise. 

Not many months ago, I used to be a very different person than what I am now. 

I feel hollow, I feel drained. I think I am eventually losing up on my appetite to interact and be informed. I can already sense a sea-change within me which I am sure, is not going to do me any good!

As always I found no other place than this blog to come back and shed some copious tears. As the masters of wisdom have said, life moves on, I am trying to usher in a wave of life, unfettered and ill-informed. To be honest, I won't mind if God takes away my life right now, right here. 

I strongly feel that I have lived my part and don't feel any more surge to explore anything anymore.

Dear God, if you are listening kindly do me a favour. Just end up things before they get to worse. I truly feel that sojourn on earth needs to culminate into its rightful end sometime sooner than later. I have been here, lived it but now I wish to disappear and get a taste of the after-life.

May be, its not as tormenting as the one that I am leading at the moment.

Moving on yet, standing still!

We all move on in life! Don't we?

It wouldn't be wrong to say that life is all about moving on!

Moving on towards an unseen, unheard and unpredictable future.

In my limited span of life, I've very often come across people struggling to move on with the vagaries and vicissitudes of life. Professional upheavals, familial obligations, guilt drains, break-ups, heartaches, failure phobias  - there may be a plethora of reasons. Though it is NOW that I realize how easy and difficult these are while preaching and practicing respectively! 

Given my current state of mind, I really Want to move on. Rather I badly NEED to move on yet somewhere something tugs at my heart and appeals me to hold on for just a bit longer.

Till this day I thought that only 'unsaid departures' hurt deep, but at this juncture I am being compelled to contemplate that what about the well-called-for departures? Don't they hurt as bad as the unsaid ones!

Penancing Times

Just when I thought that my life was on a perfect ride under the perfect reins, destiny played its trick yet again. And why not?! Life never fails to follow its forever-cherished dictum - An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!

I am sure I must have been incredibly indifferent/rude to someone or many, that I have been robbed off my all patience and good times. Life hits back, HARD!

Well, there are sane souls out there who tout me as 'inhuman' and unworthy of being a human let alone a girl. Honestly, I do feel there must be some truth in their arguments, some credibility in their anguish and a tremendous amount of hatred and hurt in their value judgements. Why on earth otherwise would someone hate someone else with such intensity and vigour?!

I have no clue as to what went wrong or where and in what intensity. Though I do feel strongly about the fact that if I alone am the cause of all their worldly suffering and misery, then I should better keep myself (my-evil-self) away from them. After all they too deserve their fair share of undiluted happiness and contentment in life.

I know it's not going to be easy keeping away.. yet it will at least render me some amount of satisfaction thinking that they'll be happier 'off' me. I had nobody practically nobody in this world to share this piece of news with, so thought of coming back to Nostalgic Reminiscences and crying my heart out. Though now that I am here, I feel almost blank and rudderless. Huh! I think not even this blog loves me any more!

P.S. - I am not surprised. May be, I deserve all the hatred.

Thus, spoke my head!

Strange are the ways of life. Every time we begin to feel that the going is right, life topsy turvys it all. The topic of contemplation that is infuriating my grey cells today is the sanctity of human relationships ;-)

There are time when I am forced to wonder how 'close' is actually close when it comes to bonding between/among friends? Going by the same conventions, how 'true' is actually true and how 'fake' is actually fake when it comes to opinionated differences among friends? We are taught ever since our pre-nursery days that friendship is perhaps, the most beautiful intangible creation of mankind on the face of this earth, and that, friends are meant to stand by each other NO MATTER WHAT! But how relevant are these age old dictums in the face of the present times?

I personally fail to feel their presence in the moderately large web of friends that I move around in. The glorified notions of loyalty, perseverence, trust seem to have been hibernating for quite some time now.. Most of us aren't even aware of such voids and the marginally few, who are, fail to make any sort of amends on their end to bring back the bright old lustre to the once-revered relationships.

I personally opine that being frank and outright is definitely way better than being a lousy-mouse waiting for the right moment to act!

A Token of Thanks!

Nostalgic Reminiscences is slated to reach it's 100th post shortly! :)

Fellow bloggers, I am sure, would understand the whirlpool of frenzied excitement rampant in my heart on achieving this landmark!

As luck had it, this blog could have reached its maiden century way back, had I not abandoned it all of a sudden. However, as destiny played its part, I am back here yet again waiting to be enthralled by its silent razzmatazz. However, I won't really give away all the credit to the destiny alone. I need to mention here, someone without whose encouragement and peppy motivation, my come back wouldn't have been possible so soon.

I don't really know whether he would appreciate this gesture on my part or not. Hence, I wouldn't take the liberty of disclosing his identity as yet. He's a new friend, the latest addition in my league of friends.. a common friend who transcended to the status of a sweet, nagging companion in an impressively short span of time. I don't think that I'll ever be able to voice it out in person or not, so I am scribbling my heartfelt gratitude for him right here, right now!

Dear friend, thanks a lot for taking the pains of going through every single post of mine listed here. I was and still am in awe and absolutely overwhelmed by this ultra cute gesture of yours, to say the least. I still am at a loss to figure out what actually drove you to this place. I've rarely come across anyone who showed such a keen interest in my insights. I am still groping in the dark trying to figure out what really made you take the trouble of going through every single entry of mine posted here.. No one has ever done that before, and I have no idea whether anyone would do it in the future or not. :P:D After all who really is cranky enough to read crankier things written by a slipshod like me?!! ;P:P:P

I would have loved to know your answers but since I see you getting geared up for your dream destination ahead, I don't really think it's feasible on my part to tickle your mind with my silly inquiries.. I am sure the tough journey ahead wouldn't spare you the time or energy to visit this place again..

I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this truly amazing gesture. I am thoroughly touched and humbled by this maiden favor accorded to me, and would treasure it for years to come..

P.S. - Every time I now visit my blog, more often than once I think of you and your ultra sweet gesture and find myself thanking you from the deepest core of my heart.

Thanks, for reconnecting me to my world! :)

Fragments of Reminiscences

While browsing through the message folders of my cellphone, I stumbled upon a few messages sent by a once-great-friend of mine. Life is queer and you never really know what the future has in store for you! The entire equation from strangers to friends, friends to buddies, buddies to the best of friends seems a little dubious to me, most of the times.

Anyhow, as my eyes chanced upon her messages, whiffs of memories came gushing forth.. I just thought of preserving the last remnants of a-once-beautiful relationship here, on my treasured space..

"I luv you maggie :-) thanks for making me feel so special.. And who says that the day was dull ?? You truly made my day.. I kept you waiting but chalta hai ;-) I dunno if you ll remember me some years down the line bt i always will .. :-) my mom and nanu are very happy for u did so much for me... And i really value those people who bring a smile on their faces and you just did that!! Thanks, and u'll always have me around.... Always :-) love"

This message had been sent on Feb 02, 2010. her b'day..

A lot has changed since then. And we have moved on happily with our no-talking-pact.

A New Wave

Life is on the verge of a new tide. A new wave of renewed hopes with fresh promises is about to hit the shore of life. I'm about to get into my second year of Post Graduation. This might in fact, be my last year as a full-fledged student. I might study ahead, I might not! Speculations are rife and many..

There are times when I speculate about the future course of life..looking quizically at the times to come. How similar or different they would be with respect to my present life.. Since the thoughts are not really welcoming, I often prefer to dispel them.

However, sooner or later life WILL take a new course irrespective of what I feel or want .. and I would be compelled to follow its destined mayhem.

Till then, too much to think! ecisions are tough and impending..