My Best Friend's Wedding!

It was 20th April, 2009 and I was hurrying up towards the railway station at 5:30AM to make sure I don’t miss the same and I’m on time for Rajesh’s D-Day!!
Reached Majestic Bus Stand and figuring out how to reach the railway station. I was too sleepy and was traveling for the first time by train to Mysore all by myself. Spoke to a stranger and he said, he’s going by the same train and I could follow him. I could not match his walking speed though I was running :P
Thanks to the beautiful saree I was wearing that Rajesh had lovingly gifted me for his wedding :)

Stood in the not so long queue to get my tickets. Fought with some unknown who tried to occupy the little space which was left between me and the person in front of me. He, unwillingly moved out and I felt I have won the war early in the morning! I was kinda uncomfortable in the saree, had ran and my ankle was aching, the footwear was slippery. Too many wrong things at the same time and making this man move out of the queue brought some happiness :)

It was my turn to buy the ticket and I was surprised to know the price!! Its 42 bucks to mysore which is dirt cheap! The lady in the ticket counter asked, “for the 6:25 train?” I check my watch. It was 6:23AM. Asked for the 7AM one for which she said, “this ticket could be used for both.” I collected my change n the ticket, started walking towards the platform. I dint know which platform I need to get into to catch my train. Another question popped up in my mind. Which platform should I get into?? Quickly found a TC who was busy explaining things to some passengers. I just stood in front of him to grab some attention so that I could ask him my queries. It worked and he said, “yes?”. I smiled and asked him for my platform number and he was courteous enough to tell me, “Platform number 6.” Thanked him and started running towards the basement which will lead us to the required platform. Reached platform 6. Found some train there and read – “Mysore – Bangalore” Some happiness again. Somebody looked at me and said, “Ladies aadre last coach” (For ladies, it’s the last coach). Neither did I know there’s a separate coach for ladies!!

I made myself comfortable in the less crowded compartment. There’s was a medical student next to me sincerely trying to study her subjects. Two good looking men came in checked if it was ladies coach. The girl next to me nodded her head and they moved to the next coach. I felt I should have moved with them too to the next coach. But I was too lazy and decided, I’d settle in the current one. I was too lazy to move my arse to the next one. Two more ladies came in and it was just the 4 of us in the compartment. I called mom to inform her, train started and would call her back once I reach my aunt’s house in mysore. Called a few more friends and bugged them (Actually woke them up).

Started listening to the radio and after we reached the outskirts, the signal was week and I switched to the songs in my phone. And while I was listening to songs, I started to think on our (Mine and Rajesh’s) journey of friendship. It was in the year 2003 when we had enrolled ourselves for the MBA course @ PESIT. It close to a month or two and we had spoken once coz we were gonna be in the same team for the assignment.

The statistics class was goin’ on and I had no clue what my great friend was doin’ in the last few benches. The lecturer asked him to move to the first bench where I was sitting (I was in the first bench of the middle row. There were 3 rows). He sat on the first bench of the first row. She looked at him and said, “Here. Next to her.” He said, “Ma’am, I don’t know her. So, I wouldn’t prefer sitting next to her.” The whole class burst out with a big laugh. The lecturer couldn’t control the laughter too, she smirked and said, “So what? Sit next to her.” Poor Rajesh, don’t know what he thought of me, sat next to me. That’s when we started to talk, and I can’t believe its kinda become non-stop now!
He asked me, why I’m wearing the pearl studded ring for which the answer was, “coz’ my dad asked me to.” I asked the same question to him about some ring he was wearing, and I got the answer – “Coz’ it controls my wavering mind.” These were our first conversations and if I’m not wrong, I think, after this day, we started discussing on many other topics but the subjects related to MBA :)

He always used to fiddle with his mobile phone and sms his GF. Since I never had the luxury to have one on my own, in case, if I had to use his cell phone, he used to promptly ask me for the money – be it Rs.1.50 or less :)

We mostly sat together for the classes and talk all the time. I remember a lecturer had almost thrown us out of the class coz’ we were talking non-stop. He also used to make sure we sit apart :P
It was during the accounts / finance class, I used to sit next to somebody who knew the subject well. I hardly knew / understood anything in this subject as I was from the science background. And Rajesh used to hate me for this. But, I could not help.

One of our classmates, I don’t know for what reason – was it to play a prank or he was jealous or whatever, started sending an email to me from a junk email id asking me not to sit next to Rajesh, he’s not good, he has a girlfriend and I should stay away from him etc.. I knew it was somebody from my class but, I never bothered to respond as that was of least interest to me. But, this got a little serious and I had to inform my dear friend about it. Just to make the emailing guy more jealous, we would talk more, hangout more with each other and spend loads of time together during college hours. This actually made the two of us very good friends. Later, with some R n D and a friend’s help, we figured it was one of classmates who did all this and he left a sorry note with a rose on my bike. Rajesh teases me about this till date!!

He lost his first phone when we went to drink lemonade next to our college. I remember, it was a Motorola handset and he was very sad to know he lost it L
For a few months, he dint buy a new one and was feeling good about it. Late, he did buy a new one and again, got engrossed into it :)

There were times, he used to say, he’s really pissed with me but, never gave reasons! I’ve stopped figuring out why he gets pissed with me.

If there were lectures from some strict lecturers, we used to write the conversations on a chit of paper n pass it to each other for the next dialogue. If am not wrong, Rajesh’s still has all those chits. Those days were really fun. We used to hang out so much together. A few people incl a few lecturers misunderstood we were seeing each other :P

He was one of the laziest bums when it comes to the matter of making presentations or the assignments. Most of his assignments were done by me and fortunately / unfortunately we always were in the same team. Not coz’ we were close friends but, the lectures used to make teams based on the registration numbers and ours was 4 numbers apart. His was 61 and mine was 65. This was an advantage for him and most of the times, I used to do his assignments and at times, he used to copy it from mine. Time just passed and I enjoyed spending time with my classmates. It used to me who always forced many of my classmates not to miss out on the college trips. But, when the date and venue for the trip was decided, I dint go coz of some ego issues with my dad L
The next day, I see an email in my mailbox from Rajesh which said “There were times, when many of us dint wanted to come for the trip and you were the only one for it and forcing all of us. And now, when all of us were boarding the bus, it was only you whose absence was felt.” I really dint know what to say but our favorite word “Sorry”

Since, we were very good friends, for all the official and unofficial reasons, we made many telephone calls. Since, I dint have a cell phone, it was obviously the landline he always called on which my folks used to closely monitor. Everytime, my friends (especially guys) called home and dad used to pick, he used ask their bio-data. Name, from where he’s calling and for what has he called. The same question was posed to Rajesh too many times and once he answered for the question “From where?” as “From home” :P

Days passed, years passed and it was time for us bid good bye to our college days. He got placed in Blue Star and me in TCS. And he was offered the highest salary compared all our batchmates! Lucky Rajesh but, he had to move to Hyderabad. I surely did miss him as we could not talk as frequently as before but, somehow managed to make a few STD calls. Most of the times, it used to be Rajesh who called me and not me :)
And everytime, he came to Bangalore, with my repeated instructions, he used to get something made of the pearl or bangles. That’s what Hyderabad is famous for apart from the Biryani and the biscuits from Karachi Bakery!
I don’t know if I can call it telepathy or whatever. There used to be times, when I used to feel low, and he used to give me a call exactly at that time. Be it 12 or 1 in the night and used to find me weeping. I’ve still not able to figure it out, but, generally he never used to call me at that hour but when I used to be really low. He’s given me moral / emotional support whenever I needed badly.

A little more than a year after he moved to Hyderabad, he took a transfer to Bangalore. Along with his family and other friends, I was very happy to see him back in Bangalore. Talking got more frequent but meeting wasn’t so. Both of us had our own constraints and limitations. More than him, it was me who had all the limitations.
Like a revenge, his work in Bangalore consisted of many presentations that he had to make himself. That’s when he realized, he should have done some work during the college days too! And I had a big grin which conveyed the message; he should listen to me when I say something!! :)

He’s probably one person, I’ve openly shared most of my thoughts. I think, there’s nothing I have not discussed with him. Though he complains I’ve not discussed about some of the major decisions I’ve taken in my life. Yes, I did not but, I neither did discuss it with anybody else :(
I’m not sure if it was right or wrong. But, I cant go back and undo what has happened. I’m sure he’s pissed with me for this as well.

All that I can say is, good or bad, right or wrong, whether I’ve informed him prior about my good / bad / ugly decisions or no, if I got into any kinda trouble, he used to be just there for me checking if I’m ok. Got late at office, he used to pick and drop me home. I’ve gone out and it has started raining, he used to pick and drop me home. Though at times, there used to be a Gyaan Download, he used to do it as if it’s his responsibility.
For the past two years, most of my crying and dying used to be with him. Frustrated with anybody else, I used to scream at him, he used to know I’ve fought with somebody.

I can definitely not miss on this. Though he was born and brought up in Bangalore, his kannada speaking skills were average. Always said "thotti" ( dust bin / tank) for tuti (lips), "car ethkond barteeni" (I'll carry the car and come) and "Aunty, nan amma kobbu kottidaare" (Aunty, my mum has sent fat) for "Aunty nan amma kabbu kottidaare" (My mom has sent sugarcane).
Offalate, it has gotten better :) Should I take the credit for this?? Well, lemme not take so much credit :D

It’s very surprising to know, we’ve never been to a movie till date. We’ve known each other for 6 years now and not even once we’ve gone. During college days, many went incl Rajesh. Since I dint want to miss the accounts class, I ditched all of them.
Its again surprising to know, we’ve gone to a few temples together :P
He knew he’d be cursed if he dint take me!

He was one of the critics for me. Why is your dress like this? Your hair isn’t combed? Why have you cut your hair so short? Why is your skin like this? You have lost all the charm you had during college days? Why are thinking so much unnecessarily? Ooph!! The list goes endless :)
I think he’ll never let me miss my dad! He’s as good as my dad in all this.

His parents, like any others’ had started looking for the suitable brides for him. He used to give me details on all the gals he used to see. Infact, I had checked a few gals’ profile (he wanted me to) on a few matrimonial sites he’d registered. A few good, a few not so good, if good, the horoscope doesn’t match etc was the issue.
Btw, he’s mentioned he doesn’t drink / smoke in his profile and its all a big lie :)

Finally, with lots of bride hunting from his parents for him, he finally found his partner / soul mate in Gayathri – a pretty fair female like a fairy. Got engaged in the month of Feb (this was predicted by somebody when he went to Sholapur, Maharashtra). And the dates were fixed on the 20th of April, 2009. And that’s when he had to change the job and got too busy with it. He was asked to work from Chennai and was there most of the time when his parents were doing most of the shopping for him in Bangalore.
The D-Day had finally arrived and he was all set to lose his bachelors!

My train arrived in Mysore almost at the sametime when my flashback had come to an end. I got down trying to figure out which way to go and reach the Jockey Quarters Circle (First time I heard this, I burst out into laughter – thanks to the perverted mind, until my dad said, its near the race course) closer to which Nikita Bhoje Gowda Kalyana Manatapa was located. Reached there after the muhurtha and wished the couple whole heartedly for all the happiness in their lives forever!!

For all those, who thought a boy and a gal can never be “Just Friends”, we are the live examples proving them wrong! Who said, its not possible? Platonic relations are something that definitely exists when both the parties are clear about intensions and heartily wish good things for others. And these come with no expectations in return!

I don’t know about others, atleast for me, having such people around makes me smile all the time!!