ALMOST 21 AND A CAREER OPTION DOWN THE DRAIN

Putting up another post so soon is so out of character for me but I really had no choice, I had to write this. If you  have read the previous one then by end of this one you will totally understand the sentiment.

I am back from a surprise pre-21st birthday party my friends gave me at 'Candies', Bandra. I have just taken out all my gifts and gushed over them in front of everyone at home and the stupid, happy smile that I can feel on my face must be wide enough to give the Cheshire cat and inferiority complex, I am purely, blissfully happy.

I should actually be a little sad because today I realised that one of my childhood ambitions is totally out of the window. I maybe somewhat of a local authority on detective fiction and flicks, but a sleuth I am not. I am not only absent minded but also practically dumb at deciphering little clues. It is no wonder that when B crept up behind me and closed my eyes, my brain told the little voice in my heart to shut-up and be reasonable, "How can B be here?"

Instead it doesn't matter. Ok, I am not James Bond or Sherlock Holmes or Dalgliesh or even one of the Famous Five but I am so much more. I am ME. The one whose friends planned a surprise for her 20 days before the exams, whose friends remembered  that what she loves more than books is buying them whimsically, whose friends were (or pretended to be) not embarrassed when she did Hawaian dance in the middle of a restaurant and who only remembers hearing someone scream "Take a pic, Take a pic" while she stared open mouthed at a voucher for Landmark.

International spies may have a lot of cool gadgets but they they won't have friends like Ariel who get lost trying to reach the party venue and still come. Definitely not memories of telling Nemo that she needs a wildlife photographer to take a flattering snap of a jittery one like her. No one makes them humongous cards telling them 21 reasons for loving them and tries to make it smell like lavender even if all they get get for their trouble be "I smell only glue."

So I say "Mr. detective, up yours!!"

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

This post was written on 4th March after a long chat with spectacularly sad friends with an acute desire to be anywhere near them. 

Okay, so life sucks, and everyone you are related to by the virtue of that very qualification is utterly useless when you need real support or intelligent conversation. The saving grace of this insufferably flawed system- friends (some would argue for the utility of siblings but for lack of experience in that area I shall not consider those objections.)

I know, I know, If I were smart I would make full use of this observation by making a huge number of friends. But there lies the catch- it takes work, a LOT of work. As if life didn't have enough conundrums, you are talking about trying for an understanding of another person so complete that you just know it when he/she is down and also the right thing to say or do. Then there is the whole in-it-once-and-for-all funda, you just can't live happily when if your friend id in trouble. I mean, who would be masochistic enough to spend perfectly nice nights tossing and turning by their own volition? The real sucker is once you sign up for it you actually take it, want it, with all the baggage, willingly. Sachchi. It also gives you all sorts of new personality traits. I am a pacifist by nature, pakka promise, but dare you mess with my friend in front of me.

Now you would say smarter thing to do would be to not put in all that effort and just find someone really selfless (Surprising as it sounds, it is possible.) Well it is stupid of you to think that I haven't thought about the lazy way out, the truth is it doesn't work that way. You can have access to the best friend material in the world and it still wouldn't be of any use if you are not willing to care. It just feels too criminally selfish to open up to them and add them to your little list of friends.

So naturally my own list of friends is pitiably short compared to the huge list of people I talk and am nice to. But hey, despite all barriers to entry and my attempts at keeping people out, it exists! And damn it, the ones I am really grateful to to the universe for manage to get in one way or the other.

And then whenever life does suck, it doesn't seem to matter that much because someone knows all about it and still takes your side. It is the perfect antidote to being nothing more than the happy, chirpy entertainer for the rest of the world.