A Bowl of Elusive

Back in school, there was a guy called Rishikesh Bhatia (name changed) and he was a bully. He was short but domineering, maybe because he came from a wealthy Punjabi family and Punjabis are naturally boisterous, at least in comparison to the east Indian population. Coming back to Rishikesh, he was entitled, loud and angry. I am sure there were reasons for him being the way he was, but I had my own troubles and tribulations to keep me busy and look at him from a 360-degree angle. I did not like him that much and I am guessing he did not like me either. But we rarely crossed paths, our friend circles were different, and we did not have to interact most of the days. And then one day, we got into a fight. I can’t for the life of me remember what the fight was about. But I do remember how it played out. When school ended, I was walking home with another friend, dragging our cycles along with us, just outside the school gate and Rishikesh Bhatia came charging at me from behind with a long st

I have always looked at human relationships from the perspective of an outsider. You can attribute this to the fact that my upbringing was less usual than others. If you read my blog, you know about my childhood, the fact that I was orphaned at an early age and was brought up by my father's parents. All relationships have been difficult for me to understand. I have written in length about my chemistry with my family and my old flames. But another relationship I haven't written much about is friendship. I usually had a tough time making friends. It was just one of those things that allude you. There wasn't anything I was doing wrong, there was just a lack of  the basic connection.  I did make some friends along the way, but when I look back at those friendships today, I can't help but feeling they weren't normal. You know, take for example, Buddhadev, one of my very first friends in the second standard. He and I were both a little nerdy back then and maybe tha

Majedar, one of my best friends is not speaking to me right now. Why? Because the last time I was in our hometown, I didn't call him up. Instead, I happened to call another friend, Keshav and inquired about Majedar's whereabouts. When Keshav informed me that Majedar wasn't in town, I saw no point in bothering him, so I didn't call. So, Majedar, the drama queen that he is, took offense and hasn't spoken to me since. "Majedar" is not a name, by the way. It mean "enjoyable" in Hindi. The word resembled his surname, so we ended up calling him that for fun. We all have that one friend who's a little dramatic. For me, that's Majedar. We have been friends since the eighth grade. We were a a lot close-knit group of 3 to 5 friends who spent a lot of time together in school. And after school ended, even though, all of us moved to different places and pursued varied careers, we still stay in touch. I've realized over time that childh

Praveer (left), Anjaneya (right) & I: Goofing Around at Miramar, Aug, 2010 There was this group of boys and girls in my college who ruled the scene. They were pretty or rich or both. And I guess some of them were smart as well. If you're having a problem identifying them, these were the guys who still post sepia-filtered pictures on Instagram showing a group of them at some shack in Candolim, sipping wine and cocktails, looking pretty. I think you got who I am talking about. And then there were the "other guys". They were not all that rich or pretty but they had the advantage of numbers. They hailed from in and around the state and they stuck together. They would only speak in their mother-tongue and when in groups, loved to bully people around. They would create fake profiles on Facebook to talk shit about the creamy layer guys, the ones I mentioned in the first paragraph. And then were the other other guys, guys like me. Guys who didn't really fit