Old friends are better than Gold
Published by Mysorean on Thursday, August 18, 2005 at 6:30:00 am.
Sometimes you are having a very busy day. Work is keeping you busy from morning to late nights. You are jetting around the city at a mad pace to get things done. Just then, there's a call from a friend (Gowtham, and since we are friends since school, we call him Goddi) whose marriage you didn't attend because of this same work. Feeling good that he actually didn't take your absence (despite being friends since schooldays to engineering days!) from his marriage to heart, you answer the call. If the first sentence you hear is, "I am in Chennai", trust me, your joy will know no bounds!
I almost jumped on hearing that. It was 9.30AM in the morning and I was starting my Independence Week with a great surprise. I was supposed to be in Office by 9.30AM, but I was still lazily stuffing myself with breakfast. We agreed to meet for lunch. He was here for a visa interview for his wife. (Preethi, is a fellow batchmate from NIE Mysore. We knew that these two were going around since the time they became friends. Yes! It's a crime to miss their wedding!)
It was 12.15PM and I was in Higginbothams trying to figure out what books to gift the newly-weds. Finally I chose to give them three books: 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' by C. Rajagopalachari and 'Autobiography of a Yogi' by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Goddi isn't much into reading. Neither was I till a few months back! ;-) So, hope it helps Preethi and later Goddi can learn from her!
We had lunch together at Sangeetha's on Ethiraj Salai. I don't remember the last time Goddi and I had lunch together! Not that we cried over lunch! But we were very happy we were able to meet before they left for the US. We first fought over the Linux - Windows topic as both the three of us were into computers either by profession or interest. They are both electronics and communications engineers, so they know their computers bloody well! Goddi is a Linux freak and I have become one after getting into my present job. Ok. I am not digressing into my Linux Love!
The best part about having lunch with a friend is that you can talk and talk and talk to your heart's content and eat to the same scale! ;-) Nobody is bothered about etiquette. Of course, we are not going to spit food around and laugh with our mouths full! At times, it's tough to control even that, but we manage to do it! The college jokes are too irresistible to just enjoy by giving a corporate smile (the kinds we give to a supposed joke by bosses!) We were just laughing our way through the lunch. It was one of the most light-hearted lunches I have had in a while!
During schooldays, Goddi and I and six more of us from our gang would have lunch together. We would share whenever possible and have a generally jolly lunch. During college, we used to hang out in the canteen with a by-two tea and a samosa or whatever! All those days come running back to me now, when I recall our lunch together! Probably, the last one for years to come! Some people call me stupidly emotional. Maybe this is the reason! I drag too many things into the present from the past. I like it, I do it! These moist eyes that I have at present give me a recall of those happy and carefree days.
But, (Preethi and) Goddi, you made my day yar! It was such a hectic day on the work-end and I never felt the load even for a minute on my mind. My body slept only for 4 hrs that night and worked for 36 hrs with that 4 hrs sleep (not a nap because it was from 1.30AM to 5.30AM!).
Old friends are better than Gold. If I was asked to choose from a kg of gold or 8 hrs of sleep on that day, I would have chosen sleep. Yeah, now you know I am lazy to what extent? But now I know that God chooses to give you something that you and your brain can't think of. From the next time, I will choose to have a friend over for a day at Chennai than anything else to rejuvenate me!
Thanks for being such a great friend, Goddi!
Tomorrow:
I almost jumped on hearing that. It was 9.30AM in the morning and I was starting my Independence Week with a great surprise. I was supposed to be in Office by 9.30AM, but I was still lazily stuffing myself with breakfast. We agreed to meet for lunch. He was here for a visa interview for his wife. (Preethi, is a fellow batchmate from NIE Mysore. We knew that these two were going around since the time they became friends. Yes! It's a crime to miss their wedding!)
It was 12.15PM and I was in Higginbothams trying to figure out what books to gift the newly-weds. Finally I chose to give them three books: 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' by C. Rajagopalachari and 'Autobiography of a Yogi' by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Goddi isn't much into reading. Neither was I till a few months back! ;-) So, hope it helps Preethi and later Goddi can learn from her!
We had lunch together at Sangeetha's on Ethiraj Salai. I don't remember the last time Goddi and I had lunch together! Not that we cried over lunch! But we were very happy we were able to meet before they left for the US. We first fought over the Linux - Windows topic as both the three of us were into computers either by profession or interest. They are both electronics and communications engineers, so they know their computers bloody well! Goddi is a Linux freak and I have become one after getting into my present job. Ok. I am not digressing into my Linux Love!
The best part about having lunch with a friend is that you can talk and talk and talk to your heart's content and eat to the same scale! ;-) Nobody is bothered about etiquette. Of course, we are not going to spit food around and laugh with our mouths full! At times, it's tough to control even that, but we manage to do it! The college jokes are too irresistible to just enjoy by giving a corporate smile (the kinds we give to a supposed joke by bosses!) We were just laughing our way through the lunch. It was one of the most light-hearted lunches I have had in a while!
During schooldays, Goddi and I and six more of us from our gang would have lunch together. We would share whenever possible and have a generally jolly lunch. During college, we used to hang out in the canteen with a by-two tea and a samosa or whatever! All those days come running back to me now, when I recall our lunch together! Probably, the last one for years to come! Some people call me stupidly emotional. Maybe this is the reason! I drag too many things into the present from the past. I like it, I do it! These moist eyes that I have at present give me a recall of those happy and carefree days.
But, (Preethi and) Goddi, you made my day yar! It was such a hectic day on the work-end and I never felt the load even for a minute on my mind. My body slept only for 4 hrs that night and worked for 36 hrs with that 4 hrs sleep (not a nap because it was from 1.30AM to 5.30AM!).
Old friends are better than Gold. If I was asked to choose from a kg of gold or 8 hrs of sleep on that day, I would have chosen sleep. Yeah, now you know I am lazy to what extent? But now I know that God chooses to give you something that you and your brain can't think of. From the next time, I will choose to have a friend over for a day at Chennai than anything else to rejuvenate me!
Thanks for being such a great friend, Goddi!
Tomorrow:
- Old friends are better than gold - Part II
- Mysore goes Wi-Fi
