It's that time of the year again...

It just seems like yesterday that we ushered in 2009. Though it was a quiet celebration, because I was still recovering from a relapse of malaria, it was all that a celebration looks like in my mind...friends, family (well, almost, it was T's family and her house, and that sort of qualifies), good food, a long adda session...all in all, a great time.

And zap, it's time to usher in 2010 already!

As I get into the festive mood, the kind of looked forward to, but not really eagerly anticipated, year end contemplation begins to make its presence felt. It is something that has become a sort of tradition in the past three Christmases that I have spent in the city...where I look back at the year gone by and thank the people who have made the year memorable. This ritual has great significance for me, because it is my way of creating a family out of friends in this city where I have no relatives and no family to fall back upon. Some of these people are friends from college, some others who I met here, but all of them are today an integral part of my life.

Festivals, for me, have always been associated with traditions. This ritual is also my attempt at creating traditions and establishing a familiar pattern in this phase of life on my own.

And then, of course, there's New Year's eve...unlike most people I know, I do not have any plans in place yet to bring in the New Year. So what does someone, who's not interested in braving maddening traffic after work on the last day of the year to squeeze into a smokey place filled with people packed like commuters in rush hour traffic in a Churchgate bound local from Virar, do? Dunno yet, but we'll discover the answer in the course of tomorrow :) Of course, Nuts has invited a bunch of us over to her place tomorrow for a house party with the promise of making waffles on New Year's morning, before I leave for the airport to get to Cochin for a dear friend's wedding. Yeah, I know, is she sweet or what!      

And of course, somewhere in between, there is packing to be done for the trip, work to be finished and resolutions are to be made (and hopefully, stuck to, this time around!) On that note, time for me to sign off now...wish you and yours a very happy new year!

PS. On that note, have often wondered, is there anyone out there, who's reading all that is the outcome of me pouring my heart out on (virtual) paper? Anyone at all? If so, it'd be nice if you gave me a holler, if only to return my sincere wish! :)

Until I am ready to pour my heart out again in the new year....

Toodles!

Change in the offing

Yes, gentle reader...change is in the offing. And no, I am not talking about the imminent change of year and decade that is a mere 10 days away (though that too has had a role to play in the change that this post is about).

The change that I talk about is the change in the layout, design, title and theme of this blog. The ongoing process of change, I would like to believe, mirrors, to a certain extent, the change that's happening with moi. Why this sudden spouting of philosophy, you ask? Well hang in there, and you shall be told all in the more detailed post that follows on this topic. But the long and short of it is that I have often wondered what to write about, given that there is so much that I have wanted to say at any given point of time. So now, I have decided to streamline things a little and in this blog, focus on the life of the single, footloose and fancyfree in urban India.

Over the past four years or so, having met several young people staying away from home by choice and totally enjoying the experience, as well as the freedom, trials, tribulations and reality check(s) that come with it, I suppose it's time to reach out to others like us, and what better mode that this...so hang on tight, 'coz we're ready to take off!

Happy reading!

For my girlfriends

So there I was the other day, hard at work in office, when I got a call from a friend, Puru. After the customary, "Oh it's been so long, how've you been?", "Bhalo, tor khobor ki (I'm good, what news at your end?)", Puru told me the reason she called...she was leaving. She'd put in her papers at work and was set to leave the city in another two weeks. We promised to catch up that evening at Tea Centre, one of our favourite after-work hangouts, but Cyclone Phyan played spoilsport and we decided to postpone the catch-up session.

About ten days later, R, another member of the girl gang ("GG" for future reference) and a dear friend from day one of college, called to say that she and another friend, AD, had already decided to host Puru's farewell at my pad and had also informed other GG members accordingly...and since it had struck her only now that she'd omitted to tell me about it, she thought she should let me know. "Sweet!", I thought....but said "Sure...I'm game!"

So there we were, three days later, on a Saturday evening at my place, much confusion and delay later, all GG members, including A, who's recently moved base to Bengaluru and was in town by chance. I looked around at the circle of my girlfriends, all chattering at the same time and animatedly discussing varied topics ranging from Lux Perfect Bride to supernatural experiences to in-laws to other GG members in other cities...ALL at the same time, when we all realised that this scene, which was such a regular occurence during chilly winter nights in hostel that we took it for granted, had become a rarity in the hustle and bustle of life today. About the only time all of us managed to get together was to host a bachelorette party for someone who was getting married, or to bid farewell to someone who was switching jobs, and cities. We'd met a fair number of times for such occassions in the past couple of years...

When we'd come to Mumbai, excited young lawyers fresh out of college and still wet behind the ears, we'd been a huge group of about 15...today we stand at just about 5 people who are regularly in touch with each other. Yet despite these dwindling numbers these girls formed the backbone of my social support system in the city, my family in the absence of blood relatives. And despite the physical distance, each one of them is only a phone call away.

I realise that this post, which originally started out being my two bits on the place of friends in one's life, is turning totally sappy, and I am revealing myself to be a true blue mush pot, but what the hell, these amazing girls deserve all of it...here's to all my girlfriends...I love you all!