An Unexpected Friendship

"Guys, let's start...C'mon, squeeze your brain cells, we are supposed to submit the model tomorrow evening", I exclaimed as I heard a knock at the door. " You're just five here right ?, one more guy can accompany you and that'll make it six " said the volunteer of Kriya 08. ( Kriya ?? Yeah..we were at PSG Tech Coimbatore to attend their National Tech Fest ' Kriya ' in February 08 ). " Fuck !!! Why do these people push in unknown commodities into our room and invade our privacy ?? ", I murmured with disgust. Though I knew it's not right to exercise my control over the room allocations, I was frustrated with the addition of one more guy.

" Hello Guys, I'm Chandrasekhar doing Mechanical Engineering at SASTRA, Tanjore ", the unknown commodity started. One look at his face, he looked a thayir saadham ( meaning curd rice...the term is generally referred to people who look antiquated with a tinge of innocence written all over their face. I'm always very frank in my views when it comes to blogging and so...sorry Chandru if it was offending you ) and I introduced myself " I'm Rajesh doing Mechanical Engineering at SRM ". " Oh!! SRM ah? ", he was quick to reply. The conversation proceeded and as it went on and on, we completely forgot about the windmill model we were supposed to do and I was so much involved in my conversation unlike my friends who were just listening to ours as though a tete-a-tete was going on between us. He started talking about his college, blah blah, life at his home town Trichy , the reason as to why the train arrived late that evening, and after some time, as he continued, the intensity of my conversation changed drastically from
' not-so-bothered ' to ' very-much- bothered '.

The first one which made me raise my brows was his mammoth GRE score and he followed it up explaining about his internships at Saint-Gobain and IIT Bombay. This was where my friends got into the conversation and it was as though we were having a free career counseling session. What I admired in him was his confidence, mature talk and eye contact when he started to interact with us. It's always tough for anyone to adjust and share a room with five unknown faces at least in those initial moments. I was totally stumped and was in awe of his attitude. He seemed ready for his MS explaining his future plans and was conversing at ease and never really felt like a stranger stranded in a room. His confidence and mature talk, this is something I should learn from him. He offered us a few slices of bread not knowing the fact that we had just finished a sumptuous dinner and after compulsion, we heed to his offer. Finally it was time to sleep and we dozed off.

Next morning as I was rubbing my eyes still wondering if that was the right time to get up, he was ready in formals, working on his laptop and looked all charged to present his project at the fest. We went together to have our breakfast just in time before they could pull down the shutters of the mess hall. Post-breakfast, we parted ways and we got busy with the project and he went straight to his workplace. Although we had planned for a movie that evening, things just did n't seem to materialize as we were held up with our project and things finished late that evening. We had dinner together after some serious search for a decent vegetarian restaurant nearby. After dinner, we exchanged views about each others college professors, current affairs, our notorious acts in college and it was laughter that filled the air around as we strolled our way back to the hostel. Though we started playing rummy, the diplomat he is, did n't join us and slept very early.

Next day evening, it was time to say goodbye - he was ready to leave for Trichy and we were all set to get back to Chennai after winning the third place in the windmill design competition. I was stranded in the college campus meeting my school friends and couldn't catch up with him at the hostel. He called on my mobile, asked me to come out.... waved his hand from the other end and then crossed the road. We exchanged pleasantries " Bye da...take care...all the best for your MS...keep in touch ", I said. With so much affection, he wished me best of luck for my future and one comment of his made me very emotional. He cuddled me saying " I really made a very good friend in you and I'll surely miss you da...do stay in touch " . I've always considered
' the hug ' to be the best form of expressing one's affection and hence it was very touching. He was very kind enough to text me the next morning ' reached home safely da...bye....take care.. keep in touch '.
' Wow!!! a person with such a golden heart ' I wondered after reading that sms..

Looking forward to more of such unexpected nights but it's tough to meet someone like him....really learned a lot from you da...keep impressing people with your confidence and mesmerizing attitude.

P.S : This is a small tribute to my friend Chandrashekar who's leaving for US next month to pursue his MS.. All the very best.. Bon Voyage... Dude !!!, don't forget to call me before you depart.. : )