26

26. 26. 26.

Yup, that’s how old I am. I have been flooded with warm wishes from all around me. People like the Devil went to the extent of “hacking” to post his birthday wishes. Fine, hacking is too harsh a word, especially when I am the one who shares his login and password with the Gang. But it was quite a shock!

But it also made me very proud of myself. I was gloating the entire 21st. Now that is a definite contradiction to what Akshai had posted on his blog. And its true, i.e. the contradiction. I am proud of a lot of things in my life, and never miss an opportunity to show off. But both the Devil and Akshai, and for that matter Chakku couldn’t stop themselves from being overly nice, and thus sprinkled quite a liberal amount of lies in their wishes.

Let me set the record straight here and clarify some of the purported “facts”:
I was and never will be a topper in academics.
I AM NOT A CASANOVA!!!

Any person needs a hook in his life. Similarly any Gang needs to conjure a hook in each member of the group. Life is after all one long walk, and it needs to be packed with fun. So, when someone runs out of jokes, he just pulls up the old hook and evokes laughter. But that’s all it is – laughing matter! And I do not complain.

Coming to some of the things that I am proud of. There are in general 2 categories where pride can reside: 1) feeling proud of one’s own achievement 2) feeling proud of somebody else’s achievement. That’s it. Any sense of pride will always fall into either of the groups.

Frankly, the majority of my pride is in the second category. Rahman, Dravid, SK, Pistons, the list is endless. Chakku’s blog covers most of these aspects.

But my pride at my self would have been almost hollow if not for one redeeming feature. And that is the greatest achievement of my life. No two ways about it.

My Friends.

I can’t imagine a life without these guys. I’ve known most of them since 1995, and given the chance to relive the last 10 years, I wouldn’t choose any other way. Even a phrase such as “they complete my life” is shallow. Heck…they are my life!

In some ways a part of the credit for this should go to an old ally of mine – Luck. For most of the time, she has been very kind to me. And every time I begin to rue about certain places where my luck has never worked, I am reminded of these guys – they more than make up for the odd troughs. I just…forget it…I wouldn’t be able to complete this sentence without sparking a few tears in my eyes. So let it be.

And it is with these guys (barring the ones overseas) that I spent the evening of 21st. I loved every second of it…hmm…including the time Inder smeared the goddamn cake on my face, and left me breathing through one nostril for 10 minutes. :))

The present was something that should increase in importance after tomorrow’s NBA Finals. It was a Ben Wallace jersey. Lets hope he completes the rewriting of history. Hope!

As much as I hate it when my friends thank me for anything I do, I have to say this one more time.

Thank You Guys!

*well, thankfully I needed to wipe out just one tear drop*

:)