What makes me tick

People don't understand each other. Not that they don't try. They strive so hard to try and understand someone they consider close to their heart, but sometime or the other, learn that they haven't at all. Probably a price we paid when we evolved to become the complex beings we say we are. We humans are supposed to be sentient. Laughable concept. Each and every one of us is so caught up in his or her own life that we hardly care two bits about someone else. The world, they say, is a closer place. Laughable, again. With communication barriers breaking down, people have no time to spend with the persons sitting next to them because they have a conference call meeting with someone in Prague and a someone else in Melbourne. All this deliberate distancing of souls who don't know what they're missing out in life is getting my gut. Grabbing it and twisting it till it causes extreme discomfort. Led me to do a little soul-searching of my own. Found it buried deep down in a part of my body I wouldn't like to mention here. Thought I'd post some of the stuff I dredged up here. Just to let whoever wants to know. What makes me: Me. Friends. Such a lovely word. For me, personally, it means the world. My World. Its where I can be myself. Even let go of myself, 'cause there's always someone to get me back to me. My friends mean the world to me, as you might have guessed by now. I'd sell the world for a friend. I never really had true friends till I was in the 8th standard. That was when I met (I knew them before then. But only as names associated with faces) the 4 guys who became my friends. My first real friends. A true friend, simply put, is someone who would do anything for me, if it had to be done and there was no other way to help me. I know I would. A true pal is someone who's there. Always. Because he or she knows if the places had been reversed, nothing would have changed. Someone who won't be offended if you teased them a little too much (Admit it, you do get carried away when people laugh at your jokes). Someone who won't sulk because you forgot to say "Thank you!" for submitting your exam form before the deadline when you were out of town, because he knows you are grateful in your heart.Someone you don't really have to speak your thoughts out to (No "A penny for your thoughts.", they're free), they know it before you even say it (But that doesn't mean you take things for granted and expect your friend to know everything you're going through. Sometimes, its better to just talk things through.Especially if you happen to have a thick-skulled idiot like me for a friend). And...I think I said "simply put", so I'll stop here. I think, by now, you get the idea anyway. Since, 8th standard, my life changed. Drastically, as my parents will assert if you ask them (Now don't go and do that!). The five of us (the four guys I mentioned before. Read also my post on "Night-outs and Friends") set out to see the world and find out what friendship meant. It was a journey of epic proportions (No exaggeration. Who I was before then is nowhere close to who I am now) for me. A journey of self-realisation. I turned from a meek, yes-teacher-ing, homework completing, backboneless, cowardly, wearing-clothes-that-mommy-set-out-for-me boy to who I am today (A much better person I hope). I learnt that you can stand up to a bigger person if you have 4 other guys flanking you (Result was we bullied the older students who had made the previous two years of our individual lives miserable). I learnt that you can form your very own five-a-side football team. One of the guys taught the rest of us how to bunk class without getting caught (A terribly useful trick). We experimented on different forms of cheating in exam halls (I've been caught just once. The first time I tried my hand at it). I learnt to ride a bike 5 years prior to my coming of age (Result was I had to pretend really hard when my dad decided I was old enough to ride a bike on my 18th birthday. That was fun, pretending to fall off. Shifting gears really badly. Dad still thinks he taught me to ride a bike. I'm not telling him otherwise. Not now anyway). A host of other things I learnt then, that make me who I am now, will maybe form a part of some later post. I have always had a great affection for my friends. I care about them a lot. In fact, at times, I choose to put my friends over my family. Its not that I don't care about family. Its just the single, simple fact - I can choose my friends. This isn't something I can do with family. If only I could, there happen to be a lot of loud-mouthed uncles and great-uncles on my dad's side I'd happily disown. Friends are people who I let share my life. Family, on the other hand, consist of a lot of people who's company I'm forced to pretend to enjoy just because we have a few million genetic traits in common. Simply put, I'd die without friends. I wouldn't actually kill myself. I'm way too practical for that. It's just that, me, as I know myself would cease to exist. A scary possibilty. But very far-fetched. Considering I'm having the time of my life at present with a whole bunch of new friends I'd never even dreamed of ever having. As for the future, who knows? I really hope from the depths of my heart that I will always be able to count the people I share my life with today, among my friends. I pray and hope Freddy Mercury got it right when he sang "Friends will be friends, Right till the end". But for now, I lead a contented and happy life. I don't expect anything much from my friends. Except that they be happy. I try my best to help them along and hopefully, they like having me around. To my friends, because life wouldn't be the same without them. Heck, life wouldn't be a life without them.

Notice

Dear Whoever you may be,
This is to bring to your notice (If
you are remotely interested) that this blog will not be updated till
after December 2008. So you all can cry you hearts out or maybe even
slip into depression for a dearth of reading material.

-----------Rookie.

P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!