The Beginning of a Forever

Its a fine day

“I will be there for you, always” you say

My heartbeat increases, while kids around us play

I make a hurried prayer to God “Let it forever n ever stay”.

And that is how it all began, in a coffee shop far far away

There were you, me and our feelings which till then had been kept at bay

The shy smiles, awkward gestures and stealing glances coming my way

Made me smile and my heart sway

Ah!...Those days when it all began were like a dream

The most beautiful days of our life

When the days melted into unending nights

The New Year came and brought a new beginning for us

It was time to wake up from the beautiful dream that our life had been

There were lots of trials and tribulations for us yet to be seen

We fought and we made up

Every time learning a new lesson, discovering something new about each other

These lessons continued till the rains came

We learnt how to forgive

Loving is understanding and being understood, is what we discovered

Courage is being brave for you

It is being selfless and true

Being there when you need it the most and deserve it the least

The journey is still on….

And now I know it’s not about the destination

It’s about you and me walking side by side

Always, looking out for each other.

“Love is a passionate search for truth other than your own, and once you feel it, honestly and completely, love is forever. Every act of love, every moment of the heart reaching out, is a part of the universal good: it’s a part of God, or what we call God, and it can never die.”- Shantaram

Har ek Friend zaroori hota hai..:):)

Abhilasha- She is always high on life, except the times when she is actually high. ;). She brings life to a party with her enthusiasm and ability to put a smile on everyone’s faces. One of the most sporting persons I know. She has taught me how to be professional yet completely irresponsible, serious yet naughty, hard working yet lazy and the list goes on.  She is the one who on asking “ Is this looking bad?” will tell you bluntly “ Yes, it is” but will make sure that it ends up looking great.:) She will fight with you but fight harder for you. My life would have been incomplete had I not met you or rather as you would say" tricked you in becoming friends with me".:)

Nidhi- She is the most level headed person I have ever known.  She is the friend who will hold your hand and help you in climbing down a cliff when you are scared but also the one who will add horns to your head when you are not looking and have a good laugh over it.Being with her, you end up having very good food or no food at all. She has inspired me with her ability to give just the right amount of freedom along with the closeness, which you should in a relationship. Last but not the least, my ultimate shopping partner who does not let you feel guilty when you buy something overpriced just because you fell in love with it.

Pujal- She is the one who on meeting, you feel is “too good to be true” literally and then you know her and realize that she is even better than that. She is the one who turns up her nose at almost all edible items in your vicinity.She is the girl you feel like taking home to meet your mother (females too, though there is a long queue of males ;)).She is the one who cheers you up, when you lose her umbrella and tell you “It’s, Ok”.  She amazes me always with her goodness and her ability to see things positively. I don’t just love you but treasure you for what you are.

These girls have inspired me, taught me, threatened me (I am not kidding) and have always been there for me. Thank you so much for making a difference in my life.

I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...

I'll be there for you
I'll be there for you
I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...

– Rembrandts, F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Siblings Forever..:)

On this day, I think of all the days because of which this day is so special to me. When I was a teenager, brother (that too ELDER) was the most dreaded word in my dictionary. He was the creature who snoops into your room and refuses to understand the meaning of the word “privacy”. He reads your locked private diaries, listens in to your conversations with all your friends and fills in your parents on what they were about without even censoring it. He is the one who glares at all your male friends and also at your female friends to know more about the male ones. Then I think I was too young to completely understand the depth of this relationship, it was just about who scores over the other in our incessant fights. Over the years which we spent under our parent’s roof, the trials which we went through as a family and the times when we looked out for each other just like siblings should, strengthened our bond and brought us closer. Though, these years never stopped his snooping around among my stuff (specifically, my cell phone..Humph!) but the fights became more and more civilized with each passing year :).We grew up.

Then, another milestone came in our relationship when he got married and I got a wonderful sister-in-law who had all the good things of a sibling without the bad ones. She didn’t interfere, but she made sure that she was there when you needed her and couldn’t say so. She didn’t tease you about all the good food she had, instead she cooked them especially for you. She is the one with whom you share a knowing exasperated glance when you see your brother flaunting his new watch, telling his tales or making funny faces to irritate you. She is the one who sends him to my room to cheer me up when I am angry with him for shouting on me and also the one who makes him realize that the other dress would look better on me than the one he has “painstakingly” selected. She came in our household and became an integral part of it. 

On this day, I just want to tell you both that I love you guys and thanks for being there for me always.

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”- George Moore

Life is not made up of moments, some moments make your life........

Today I experienced a moment which I would cherish forever. There is something special about some moments which gets you disconnected with everything else and it’s you and the time and the place .It is like when you sleep in your mother’s lap, it is like when you have a good book, coffee and it’s raining, it is like when your beloved gives you a glance which says it all and your eyes sparkle. These are the moments which make you feel that life is beautiful and what the true purpose of life is. Today, sitting at Marine Drive with my friends, I experienced such a moment where everything else faded into oblivion. Was it the sound of the waves crashing across the rocks, the droplets of rain which caressed our faces, the wind which seemed to whisper sweet nothings in our ears or our voices which were  getting lost  somewhere in the depths of the ocean? I don’t know but what I do know is that it was perfect.

I will always remember what I did this summer….

For the days gone by..Sigh!

 Memories which make me..High!

The smile on the face of the twin angels..Oh! My my

All the cooking I did thinking..Come on..Let’s try!

Everything went into the pan..Fry!

The love I got,

Well, no more on that..Don’t pry.. ;)

The thought of going away,

Again makes me..Sigh!

Aromas and Spices..:)

Cooking – This has always been a topic of contention between me and my mom. She wants me to do it and me always insisting her to do it. The days I used to enter the kitchen, I could almost hear bells toiling with every step I took. But unlike the welcoming and warm smile you see on God’s face when you step inside a temple I was always greeted by a sad “lot of work, now” look on my servant’s face and a stern look on my mom’s face. Now, things seem to be changing. They rightly say there’s always more terror in the anticipation than in the actual BANG. I discovered that I had to make friends with the pots and pans and the scary looking cook books to make any headway. I owe a lot of gratitude to my sister-in-law on whom I was as dependant as a foreigner is on a translator when he is in a foreign land and doesn’t know the local language. I have started enjoying the riot of colors of the fresh vegetables, the churning noise of the mixer, the sizzle of the pan, the smell emanating from the vegetables cooking in the rich gravy, the Indianness of the spices (being so diverse, they all are together in the same box just like us, Indians) and the grandness of all the dishes lined up on the dining table. The Golden Rule of cooking I feel is looking for the signs, like the one you get when maybe you miss an ingredient and that item catches your eye because you had it all neatly arranged on the stand, the color and the smell of the gravy tells you that something is missing somewhere and no Dil maange more here, it’s better to put a little less of something than putting a lot of it. This journey has just begun for me and I have a long way to go before I even reach a resting place, midway to my final destination. So I wish Happy cooking to everyone who cooks whether it be out of necessity (includes wife’s strikes... ;)) or out of personal love and choice. Cook love for your loved ones.

The Companion

Those eyes which speak a thousand words

In which I always see my smiling face,

They fill up with tears just like summer rains

When they are over you are not even sure they had come

The smile which is like an enchanting temptress

Who draws you and holds you captive forever 

You just can’t get enough of her

Even in grief, she has an ethereal beauty

That hair which is just like the head which it is on                          

Unique, a mind having a mind of its own,

Which can never be tamed

Sometimes crisp, reflected in a cropped military look

Or when complete mayhem prevails, in unruly curly hair

But what takes your heart away is The Heart

Pure, selfless and giving

An abyss of love for others

And my resting place….:)

Transience

Some things just need to change…

I have been trying and trying, but in vain

There is just so much of pain

And I have realized there’s nothing to gain

Some things just need to change…

Elusive and spellbinding while it lasts

Was it just a magic spell cast?

Which, now belongs in the past?

Some things just need to change…

How do I let go of this bond?

This created ripples in my life

Just like a stone thrown in a pond.

Some things just need to change…

Like Columbus, I have an America to discover

There are lost relations to recover

And new ones to flower.

Some things just need to change…

Is it a beginning or an end?

Or a sign Heaven send

Some wisdom you should lend.

Some things just need to change…