You Rock Richa Singh!!

It's a supposedly happy event and a extravaganza when your friend gets married. Apparently in this case it does not appears to be so because for me a friend married indeed is a friend lost!

With my dearest friend Richa Singh entering the holy matrimonial phase of her life I stand to lose a mentor, guide, philosopher, counselor (career, relationships and otherwise), fellow party animal, comrade-in-arms, future political rival and business associate. The last two very probable to happen! :)

Richa Singh and I started with an entrepreneurial venture- a youth magazine called 'Sub Zero' in NCR but as fate would have it we two outcast-ed creatures in socially awkward college setting teamed up to preserve our intellectual and moral sanity resting on the pillars of our schools La Marts and CMS GomtiNagar respectively (she hated my school, she still does but it was better any given day- except the girls!!) resulting in a secret war against our social environment.

Dearest Richa Singh is tying the knots today with Vikas Agarwal and I'm not there for her at this important event of her life. She's not talking to me at all. I'm waiting for her to calm down and slander me filthiest insults in her vocabulary followed by a fierce hated speech on my misconduct and unbecoming of a friend and eventually forgiving me for the unpardonable sin I have committed.

Then one fine day we'll be chatting about anything and everything that has happened in our lives. crossed our minds, some news we have read, some opinions we have formed, some philosophy, some books, some movies, some memories, some future plans but alas! I guess she'll a married lady now. Now is there DO'S and DONT'S on how to talk to former best friends and now married lady? On what topics should I talk?

"Who does the dishes when maid is not there?"

"Did maid come today?"

"Ummmm... Are you happy?"
(For the record me and Richa Singh are never too happy- our standards are too high for mortals and earthlings!!)

Lucky Dearest Richa Singh has found a wonderful husband and him a wonderful soul mate and companion for life. May God bless you both with health happiness and wealth(also friends like me ;) )  and as you walk around the holy fire swearing love and companionship for next so many births once again may God bless you both!

"Chutti nahin dete apni company main bula le yaar!!!"

You Rock RS!!

Blues And Book Stores

We all escape our pain, our emotional wretchedness and sentimental over weariness.. Yes that's exactly what we do.. escape our pain.

How do you chase the blues away? When things are not going your way... People are not reacting the way you want them too?? World crumbling down... hopes crashing... dreams tumbling... mental breakdown... thoughts collapsing into black hole of despair and nothingness. I know I have painted a gloomy picture but this is how you feel and may be a hell lot worse. Then you leave the little world behind and enter a world to forget everything leaving all dark thoughts in the rear view mirror.

Some go shopping, some go bar, some go long high-speed drives, some eat till their tummy explodes or wallet gives up doling out currency, others will torment their facebook friends by posting all sort of weird non-coherent updates. What's your escape?? We all escape our pain, our emotional wretchedness and sentimental over weariness.. Yes that's exactly what we do.. escape our pain.

I go to book stores.

Corporate book stores where the attendants are too busy/lazy/self-absorbed to bother you or ask if you need help. Bookstores are the only place where I have never been approached by anyone asking what I'm looking for. Tried walking into cologne section of a store? They pounce on you like vampires low on human blood supply, like wild rapists given a license by government to unleash their havoc! (More of that experiences in another post)

Book stores are my answer to wonderland of Alice.

Book stores are my answer to wonderland of Alice. It's a whole world of knowledge in a cave. so much so it overwhelms you with the amount of thoughts and ideas coming to you from all sides and directions. So many books on so diverse issues and subjects. Each book with it's magnetic pull attracts you to delve into it's secret and in no time you are surfing the ocean in a small kayak and letting the waves take you where they want you to go. So you start at top-sellers and navigating through strange channels you pass through new-releases, architecture, photography, Indian writing, self-help. comics, kids, romance, classics, fiction, non-fiction, management, biographies, computer, western philosophy, religion, on sale books, magazines, poetry, fantasy, chetan bhagat, health et al.

No world No time exists. It's me, my thoughts and my reason.

Each book each section drowning you in it's wealth, engulfing you, a universe in it's own with all the secrets unknown and truths waiting to be unlocked, and then your lost lost in thoughts, lost in philosophies, stories, fantasies, classics. I am lost to say the least and overwhelmed. You feel like a speck of grass in the vast constellation of stars.And yes I forget the pin haunting me, tormenting me, torturing me. I doesn't exist at all.. in fact for the time I'm in the book store there is no world outside the book store. No world No time exists. It's me, my thoughts and my reason.

What's your escape?