A day in the life of LIFE

Well, What do you know? White Elephants flying into the sky, with ears as large as wings, were once considered only a figment of imagination in the Amar Chitra Katha story books that we read as children.

But, now that has happened in reality, with one of my closest friends - Anand (affectionately called aney), flying to the greener pastures of the Divided States of George Bush for pursuing his studies. Another post related to Aney's stunts and adventures can be read here

Even as I type this, I believe Aney is lodged in one of the lounges at Frankfurt airport like Tom Hanks in 'The Terminal'. Fortunately Aney is from India and not Krakozia, so he has all the help required in the name of the President of the Republic of India [picked verbatim from the Indian Passport, which makes me nostalgic for no reason at all, probably in anticipation that some day, I shall be touring distant lands] - By the way, I currently feel that I am in Sri Lanka (No kidding, I recently passed off a Sri Lankan 10 rupee currency to the local bananna seller in Chennai, on account of ignorance).

The only other country that has accepted to take me in for a year, has been the Sultanate of Oman (Muscat), which was quite some time ago...That probably is the topic of another post if and when I visit that country again.

Enough of nostalgia. Getting back to the point, Aney had invited us all for his get together party, which more resembled the engagement of an eligible bachelor. After repeated invites and reminders (most of which were through Orkut) we finally had the get-together on Sunday last, the 23rd of July, which also happens to be my Mom's birthday. I'd like to say 'Happy Birthday Ma', on the sidelines of this post

The groom's side - we a gang of potential kauravas (yes, Anand had invited around a 100 of us) was gearing up for the event on a scale as large as Mayawati's birthday party.

This acted as a precursor to my travelling to Bangalore to be a witness to the extravaganza

The bright lighting of the 100 watt bulbs increased the heat in the A/C hall, bringing memories of the "Vara pooja" ceremony that generally happens on the day before the wedding.

The guests started filling the hall, and the mix spanned across four platforms - The school gang, The plus 2 college gang, the tutions gang and finally the Engineering Gang.

Aney carried his Sony camera like Gabbar Singh adorned his Bullet cartridges in Sholay, and was busy in getting the crowd to interact with each other. But Indians, the way we are, find topics of interesting discussion only among people of the same sex, and very soon, the hall was divided into two categories, like the BMTC buses' seating arrangement, with all the gossipping ladies in the front seats and 'extra' gossipping guys being the back benchers as always.

Probably aney should have utilized my mimicry services to gel the crowd, but who values potential talent anyway? [:)]

Catching up with friends was quite memorable, and the stories down memory lane were refreshed in a jiffy. Right from fighting for place to park tiffin baskets @ lunch hour to running down the corridors for 'the twice a week games' hour, those were the days of "living life - Dil Se".

The fragrance of Masalaa Dosaas and Hot Badam Milk dispersed the gangs and we were soon joined by some late comers who graced the occasion nevertheless.

After all the photu sessions and flashbacks, we parted ways into the chilly Bangalore night, in the anticipation of crossing our paths again in life..

Aney's house, I am told resembled the Yeshwantpur market of late with luggage, luggage and more luggage being cramped into his room.

This is to wish Anand the best of luck in his endeavors, and wait a minute, we were talking of the Engagement, the hot snacks , the bright lights and the kaurava sena. And we all expected Anand to announce something major during the course of the evening akin to the party scence in Gupt, where Bobby Deol's engagement is announced.

But in this case, Someone must have definitely forgotten to invite the bride......:)

Take care Amigo...