Since last week, at least four people have told me, while talking to me on phone, that I am very silent and asked me if I am busy / I'm not interested / I am bored. It wasn't any of these. I was not busy. I was not disinterested. I was not bored. Perhaps I do not have anything left to say. Perhaps I've just fallen out with words. Perhaps something I wrote long ago is coming true now.

अपनी आवाज़ भूल जाता हूँ
कितना खामोश रह रहा हूँ मैं|

झरने लगे नीम के पत्ते

Very soon, another batch will be convocating from IIMA. It is yet another farewell season here and Senti NB is up and running again. I was a little sad last year, when my batch-mates were leaving to chase their dreams - I was going to be an almost stranger in my own place very soon. But this year, I was very much sure of not feeling anything - after all, I have very few acquaintances among my junior batch and friends - none. Yet there is a bothering about this parting too.

And this parting will be followed by long days, dense nights, and lonesome times. Summers, for the past two years at IIMA, has been like this, with hardly few people on campus and fewer around. Perhaps this is going to be the norm of my life for at least two more years till I complete my thesis and bid adieu to the beloved IIMA. For the time being, I am going to be sad, nostalgic, and joyous for the friends and foes as they fly from here to horizons. May be, I'll also leave someday just like this; however, till then, as the leaves fall, let's celebrate the parting and sadness, dreams and joys, and summers and loneliness...

झरने लगे नीम के पत्ते
बढ़ने लगी उदासी मन की|

P.S. - The above picture is taken from Perspectives NB, where it was posted by Amit Patel of IIMA.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

I've been watching a lot of FRIENDS lately. Although the show closed in 2004 after running for ten seasons, I got addicted to it recently. I usually watch one episode at a time with my daily tea - 20 minutes of tea with FRIENDS :)

What I like most about FRIENDS is their dynamics - they spend time together, eat, drink and party together, fight and pull each others' legs, play pranks, get mean, and what not; yet, they all are best FRIENDS.

But as I am, I find something or the other everywhere to get philosophical about. So here too, I find a lot of practical lessons of life. Like - how important it is to move on in life, and real friends go to any extent to do something for each other, and forgiveness is always a smile away, and no matter how much you fight, your friend'ship' never sinks.

And like every fan of FRIENDS, I too identify a lot with them... well, at least half of them. I am a cleanliness and orderliness freak like Monica; and like Ross, bookish and bore, geek, and can just put every one to sleep with my 'interests'; and like Chandler, I also keep throwing PJs to hide myself behind those laughs.

I often wonder where all the characters of FRIENDS would be now, what would they be doing, and above all, are they still F.R.I.E.N.D.S.?