It was the first few months of engineering and it'd become popular knowledge among the entire hostel that i had pretty much anything one would need in my room...Being the only room with a carpet (which i'd lugged all the way from chennai! Insane i was, i tell you) and a wardrobe that consisted of more than 25 shirts (it seemed like there was some rule that prohibited having more - i obviously didn't read the memo!) it got a fair amount of attention... mostly unwanted, since way back then, i actually wanted to study (a shocker, i know)! But with homemade lemonade concentrate and sweets available almost always the confines of my room proved far too tempting for most. One such evening i heard my bell ring and there stood Guru Rajeev with the most nonchalant expression on his face... we were acquaintances at the time. Rajeev walks in, pretends to say hello and then walks to my closet, picks out my hairbrush, brushes his hair, uses some hairspray, styles it, looks into my closet for a nice shirt, decides there wasn't any better than the one he was already wearing, generously sprays himself with my deodorant and walks out telling me was late for a hot date!!!
This is my earliest memory of Rajeev. And I've sooooo many since then... Just thinking bout him makes me crack up and feel fuzzy. Once Rajeev, Sumesh and Chetan had come to the hostel piss drunk and we bumped into each other at the stairs... now these guys had been soooooo drunk that Chetan was tripping bout how everything felt like one was in Mars. And when we met, Chetan came upto me and said "Hi. I'm Chetan from Earth...who are you?". Instinctively, I replied, "Hi. I'm Ashoo, from Mars! Pleasure to meet you." :D ...still cracks me up!
With Damu, i remember waking up at "the boys' house" one morning and seeing him there smoking a navy cut. He'd arrived really late the previous night/early in the morning and taken one of the guys (who was still asleep) out to drink, gotten him drunk, and eventually so drunk that the guy had even thrown up but Damu had continued to remain awake... Months later Damu would tell me he'd come back to Manipal under extraordinary circumstances and with dire plans in mind which he would soon abandon. I also remember riding my bike with Damu behind me and telling him how i had just broken up with the girl i loved... Another really funny early memory (early being the key here, since we eventually became housemates and spent a lotta time together) of Damu was a night at 'Sphinx'. During the same phase when i'd been completely torn apart emotionally by the heartbreak of this relationship ending, (this was during the early days of the heartbreak when one hasn't had too much time to linger upon it yet but one feels the tearing need to just re-engage with life), me and Damu had gone to Manipal's only nightclub at the time 'Sphinx' one night. It was a fairly empty night but we'd already had a few drinks and were doing pretty fly... got on the floor and doing my thing by myself when Damu signaled to me that two women on the floor were vying for my attention... but i really couldn't be bothered and continued to do my own thing... eventually one of the girls actually came upto me and asked me to dance with her! They were American girls of Indian origin, pretty looking and it would've been ruuuuuuuude of me to say no... and being the gentleman that i am, i obliged! and then well, i did a few things that decent people would not do in public (that too on an empty dance floor) to this consenting girl... i can't recall her name... But i do remember how much me and Damu laughed about the incident... but funnily, i was still so heartbroken at the time and this incident really changed nothing in that regard. Damu helped me get over the pain, patiently being there for me through all the emotional downswings. I was there for him too on several occasions and have also done for him what no other man has (this cracks me up completely...but forgive me for i cannot say more... even 'we', shall have our secrets... but do not be offended for it is not merely mine to share or withhold)!
Damu and Rajeev are today probably among a very small group of guy friends to whom i've said the words "I love you bro"! We were all part of a larger group of fantastic friends - one of the best gang of buddies I've ever had the privilege of being a part of... each in his own way has been a fantastic friend to me... as good as anyone can ever hope for. And whenever we're together or talk on the phone we laugh like the silly stoners that we once were. They're both married (Rajeev even recently had a baby girl and Damu's wife is 4 months pregnant!), live in the 'foreign', doing fabulously well for themselves and somehow we manage to keep the warmth and camaraderie going. No matter how long it's been, every time we connect, that love and connection still seems to be there. We've soooooo many stories, sooooo many silly times and soooo many memories.... from stealing lingerie neon signs and giving em expired condoms during emergencies (yes, they do have expiry dates btw) to getting stoned and drunk and laughing till our stomachs hurt and consequently daring and witnessing em trying to enter a 5 star restaurant with nothing on but a dirty old wafer thin towel (!!!), we've had some really awesome times.
Often when i find myself upset and without people close by, i feel like reaching out to these guys. They've stood by me on many occasions and have helped through so many difficult times. And we've had some silly silly funny funny memorable times together.
It's great to have buddies. Especially ones that will be there for you in some way or the other, no matter what. Ones that time, circumstance and life find very difficult to take away.
I guess sometimes to find friends as these, you just have to go looking on Mars!
