Hello Everyone
This blog site has been started to express my thoughts and other such random ramblings that I just want to get out of my head.
People who know me, please, no names. I shall use only nicknames/handles here, and just as I respect your privacy, please respect mine.
For those that don’t listen, their comments will be removed. Further, I hope with all that I reveal, they will learn something new about me which might shock, surprise, or even amuse them.
People that do not know me, first of all “Hi” and welcome. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but please, no flames.
You will notice that some of the blogs have limited access, those will be available only to a select few people as there are some sensitive issues about which I’ve written, however, I don’t want the world to know about, for now. I shall be revealing the password to those to view, but please do not abuse this privilege. I will know about it and the password will be changed.
Everyone is allowed and even encouraged to express their views by commenting. If you don’t like it, please respect other people’s views, stop reading and move on. However, if you are still here, then I hope it will be interesting for you.
Cheers,
Lucid
Update 10/12/11: I’ve decided to make all my posts public. Even those that were password protected earlier. So, enjoy.
My girl
Hello one and all, and before you ask, I’ve been very busy all these months. It all started in march when by chance I met my future wife…
Yes that’s right you all read that correctly. It was an amazing series of coincidences that fate led us to each other.
This is in a system message to to just inform everyone about it, but I will be doing a proper post of that… Shortly 
Keep watching this space
Lucid
I’m writing
Hello friends,
Yes I’ve been away for a while but as I said, I’d post something only when I had something to write about and avoid sub-standard posts. You will be glad to know that I’m writing again so keep watching this space.
Lucid
An ode to a friend
This is a tribute to a very dear friend of mine, Tings/Tingu/Tigger/Moti as she is affectionately called by those that are considered as her ‘inner circle’. Over the last few years, she had become an indispensable part of my life. Sure there were times that we have not seen eye-to-eye on things, but that never had let it come between us as friends and individuals. This, is my a personal way of letting the world know about this wonderful person that leaves us tomorrow and heads over to the big, bad city of Mumbai to start her new life.
I met Tings, well was introduced to her, way back in 2000-2001 when she was a naive little girl, just entering adulthood. She was quite gullible and a little quick to judge in her personality, set in her beliefs and stubborn in nature. Our mutual and another close friend “Ratz” is who introduced us, him having been talking to her online (back then on ICQ). She was our ‘daily dose of entertainment’ as it started out. We used to find and plan to talk to her (through a 3-way chat) everyday about some topic or the other that annoyed, scared or caused her immense amounts of curiosity, only to have the joke revealed on her, she would get into a proper hissy-fit and log off, leaving us laughing, but she always came back after a day or two.
Due to a series of unfortunate events, and partly I blame my own immaturity, that caused us to fight and be almost hostile towards each other. For many years, it was a sort of cold war, with frosty receptions if we ever did manage to cross each others paths in life. After I went off to Australia and then subsequently, to Gurgaon, the whole reasons for the fight got blurry and forgotten, maybe we just grew up. I discovered that Ratz had re-acquainted himself with her and also pushing me to put the past behind and give it another chance to know her. I thank the day that I listened to his advise and Tings and I started things off with a clean slate.
Over the last 5 years or so, it has taken a slow and uphill task from being acquaintances, to friends, to close friends and to a stage where I feel real sadness and a sense of loss thinking about her impending departure. I don’t remember how and when we transitioned from acquaintances to friends, but we started to talk about ourselves on the phone regularly, meeting up on common social events and eventually we turned into this exclusive clique that were almost inseparable. We all have friends that are defined by what we provide someone with, I think I’ve held a number of posts in her life over these years – an emotional dumping ground, gossip factory, philosopher, judge, encyclopedia, her conscience, prank planner, etc. Just too many to mention.
Even since she got engaged a shade over 4 months ago, I felt what she was feeling, happiness, sadness, depression, longing and fear. I too felt her happiness of getting married, her sadness of leaving everything and everyone behind, the depression of having to adjust in a new environment all over again, the longing of having those closest to her within arms reach and the fear of the unknown as she embarks on this new direction in her life. Unlike her, when she did give into her emotions from time to time, I instead tried to be the pillar of support, always assuring her that whatever she was going through was normal and help her accept the transition as best I could. True, there are certain things that only certain people in your life can provide, but she knew that she could fall back on me if she ever needed anything from a supportive comment, a reassurance or even a compliment.
Over these past years, I’ve seen her blossom from that stubborn, naive, rigid little girl to a wonderful person inside and out. She is kind, compassionate, caring, always ready with a smile and very accommodating. She will put her life on hold if you need her help and then of course, follow it up with a well meaning lecture 
I’ve seen her transition from the time when she used to say “Chee, eish, yuck yuck” with the mention of anything remotely related to sex to having the courage to ask when she did not understand something or was curious about it. I’ve seen all sides of her personality from love, affection and naughtiness to sadness, anger and helplessness and the wonderful thing about her remains that she still has a positive outlook to life and is meeting the challenge of starting a new life, head on.
It’s never easy for those left behind, I feel like that right now. I know for sure that she will be a loving wife, a great companion and an amazing mother in the future.
I’ll do the best to remain a friend you can depend on Tings, remember I’m always only just a phone call away.
Lucid
The Shivering Traveler
The time for travel was revolving in my mind since the day I found out that my cousin sister is going to get married in Delhi. Now, ordinarily I love travelling and was looking forward to meeting my extended family after a really long time. It is one of those few moments when we take time off from our busy lives to just re-acquaint ourselves and spend some time learning about how we’ve changed and reminiscing about our younger, carefree days.
I was looking forward to the trip, however, there was only the one thing preying on my mind …. The Cold. Yes. That is my greatest weakness (in elements, of course). I’m just too sensitive, with the slightest chill I pull out the thermals, the warm socks and my trusty jacket. I’m still waiting for the chill to be a little more unbearable before I need the big guns (The Muffler). My friend Stuey, up in the chilly (brr!) north of Canada told me that it was nearing -5′C there and I got shivers just reading that statement. I remember my time living in Gurgaon, at it’s peak the temperature had dipped to 2′C and the heater had conked off, so I was wearing the following before I could sleep: Warm socks, Shoes, thermals (lower and upper), sweatpants, sweatshirt (full sleeves), sweater, muffler, gloves, warm cap & lastly very thick warm blanket. Yes, I feel that cold, I wonder if I visited Canada at this time, how I would look as a Popsicle.
Back to the trip. It was just with a miracle that we reached the flight on time thanks to the wonderful traffic of humans at the airport, waiting to get their luggage X-rayed. I personally have no grievances at the extra security precautions, but they COULD at least try and have a few more installed? Travel time has become ridiculous nowadays, you need to travel for 7-8 hours just between destinations (for a 2 hour flight). Don’t believe me? Try this: I left home at 9:15 and reached the airport barely at 11. Checking in and security check took another 30 minutes (that’s after we were waved ahead of the line due to our flight schedule) where the bored security guard took his time running that magic wand all over, under, around and …. other places where had he not been doing his job, would have gotten him a black eye. Flight was 30 minutes behind and landed at 2. Baggage claim to the car took another 30 minutes and then to the destination, another hour and a half at 4. Took me 7 hours and I was flat out bushed (despite sitting on me a** the whole time)
Oh well. That night I attended my sister’s engagement ceremony where the topic du jour was the freakishly cold weather. Yes, I was dressed in with my trusty thermals, full suit and a sweater underneath the coat. It make me look more so like a walrus, but hey, I always live by the maxim “Comfort before fashion”, which let my carry a small smug smile all through the event while the other “fashionable people” were crying through foggy breath. The next day was some function that I was sort-of required to be there for, but skipped it to go to Gurgaon for a business meeting. Yes! Even in this situation, I need to work (The irony of the situation is that it is ‘suggested’ I should go by my dad, and then he turns on me and berates me for missing the event. Darned if you do, darned if you don’t.)
After the meeting that took me bloody ages to complete (satisfactorily, if I may add), I met up with a very very dear friend of mine for lunch. You will all remember her as “Sweet Devil” from my earlier blog. We met at her suggestion “The Big Chill Cafe” (Ominous, but worth a visit, I’d definitely recommend) and naturally me being the freaky, punctual sort, reached earlier than the appointed hour whereas SD needed a few (ok, more than a little few) minutes to reach. I did the dutiful thing and got a table, ordered coffee and a small salad while I waited for her to arrive. Now this devil is supposed to be a bubbly, chatty, flirty, can’t-stay-still-on-a-single-topic kind of punchy powerhouse online, the real life persona was a tad … mellow?
Yes, I can be a meany and say that she was so blown away by my awesomeness and charisma that she became a docile dormouse, but really, who would believe me? I think she was a little terrified with who I may turn out to be, although we’ve seen each other’s pictures online and spoken many times, there’s always a little apprehension as to the person may turn out out to be a genuinely nice guy, or a nutcase. I can’t make up my mind on how to categorize myself between the two, so let’s just go with the safer option … nutcase. Moving on, I guess she deemed me harmless enough because she finally relaxed (once her favourite food was brought out to her) and I saw large glimpses of that online persona as we spent the better part of 2 hours just learning about each other. The twinkle in her eye when she spoke about her favoured dessert was a sight to behold. Of course, she suggested (Ha! more like batted her eyes at me) that I try one too. (Sweet Devil, I’m not forgetting the pain of that wonderful dessert. I think I gained another 2 unwanted kilos just from that. There goes a month at the gym, Oh god why???) Overall it was a wonderful day and THE best highlight of my trip.
The wedding the next day was, well, like a wedding I guess, a little subdued but still, essentially the same. Time spent between eating, pasting that smile for everyone I meet while getting only two standard greetings (1) OMG! How you’ve grown, I haven’t seen you in such a long time and (2) When are you calling us for YOUR wedding? . My standard well practiced replies (1) Yes, I know. (Muttering to myself: “THIS is why”) and (2) When I find the girl to marry (muttering to myself: THIS is actually why)
However, the other times that were special throughout the trip was sitting around with my now (grown up) brothers and sisters. I remember them about half my height and running around doing whatever it is that kids do. Now most of them are either my height or in most cases, taller than me, sitting with them as adults and having a few drinks and passing around the hookah while talking business, politics and remembering our favourite childhood moments (God! I feel like middle-aged already, I kept embarrassing most of them with old stories that had them wishing to be anywhere but there). However, the good thing was that they too enjoyed my company, small solace in my advanced age *grumble* *grumble*
Next day, another 7-8 hours of travel and the shivering traveler was back to his old haunts and his life here. It was a great break from the daily grind and I hope that the near future brings my family and I more opportunities to ‘hang’. Peace out, yo.
Lucid
Watch this space…
Watch this space… New blog coming soon…
The 10 Facts of Life … Part 4
Continuation of the facts of life …..
