My Friends...My People..

Well the other day one of my aquaintance quipped..."why the hell on earth do u come up with something which disturbs ur mind even after shutting down the url...don't u have some interesting stuff to share...?" Well that was a valid question indeed....so i started thinking what exactly can I produce, which would be interesting as well as soul searching... Thanks Aniket for helping me to get my answers... and here I go .. describing my journey in life so far in the most wonderful company of some really interesting people whom I call ..... "MY FRIENDS...MY PEOPLE" ..... To be fair I never classify my friends as just friends...close friends...n best friends... I just have Friends wo are THE BEST....and hence automatically they can be termed as My Best ones... I mentioned this coz many people tend to give preference to the order of mention...and most of the time The first being the Best.... To negate the existance of this notion...I start with the order in which I met each of them.... I reiterate...all those mentioned below are equally close to me... its just that i mentioning them in the order of my meeting with them...

1) Chinnu.... the chimp
(Saalaa hamesha Bandar ke harkate kartaa rehtaa tha ...!!!!!!!!)







They say that u cannot choose ur relatives...but u can choose ur friends... I followed this quote aptly...I was always choosy about my friends... and the very first to enter this bracket was Mr. M. Shyamakrishna...or "CHINNU" for me.. (Chinnu in Telugu is an affectionate word which means the younger one).I first met him somewhere around 1986.. Chinnu and me were of the same age group...he was just 19 days older to me (a fact which he continues to brag about claiming his seniority ha ha ) Our parents were family friends and so naturally when Dad was transferred from Patna to Nagpur, their's was the family who helped us in the initial days.. We were in different schools but stayed in the same neighbourhood.. He was a born rebel.... I used to find it interesting when he used to fight with everyone under the sun whenever he thought he was being wronged... this included his parents too.... Was a very sharp student..but unfortunately these never got converted into the progress reports (Hell...I hated that death word...and the feeling continues....though its called Apprisals now... ) Fearless to the core... his most used phrase.. "phodne ka hai"...which means lets blast it out still remains my war cry whenever I feel I am being cornered...

Things became worse as he grew up...he family was down with severe financial and physcological crisis... his performance in junior college was pathetic just managing to scrap thru the subjects...and for most of the world.. he was someone who had a spark..but who couldn't ignite anything....or so they felt untill....
Chinnu now has two Masters (MCA and MSc ) besides his name and is currently doing his third Masters in Computers in Sweden....his family bravely fought their way out of the struggles and the story continues happily...
I admire Chinnu for his fighting spirit... really...Others were others...he was he... for me he was the apt example for Heroism...which they say is the endurance to last a moment more.Thanks Chinnu for imbibing these in me...

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2) Sam...the Saint

(Saalaa hamesh Life ke baare mei.. philosophy jhaadtaa rehtaa tha)

Its said that a man is known by the company he keeps....How true !! partucularly during teenages when you easily get swayed away by things which you are supposed to be away from. Cometh the moment..cometh the man. In 1995, our family moved to Nanded, and stayed for nearly 4 years before moving back to Nagpur. I got admission in a school called GMVV (Gyan Mata Vidya Vihar...a missionary school). I owe a lot to this school for my current personality...and for the lifelong guide it gifted me by name Mr. Samar Kharwadkar or "SAM" for me...

In school I first heard of Sam when I as a newcomer in the school was cautioned by my classmates to stay away from one "Samar"...its but natural that you always tend to do things which you are advised against...particularly when the advices come from people of ur own age group. We got a house in the same colony in which Sam stayed, so it was natural for us to meet at the bus stop enroute to school... believe me...I was attracted towards this right from day one...and I can proudly say that I am Sam's Best buddy. I cant completely describe abt Sam's personal life...as I feel it would be wrong..but one thing...anyone else in his position would have ceased to exist. He survived for a simple reason that he was SAMAR. Having lost both his parents at an early age, he was left to fend for himself surrounded by relatives for whom I have no good words.. ..Here's one interesting anecdote.... Its customary in Maharashtra to offer Saunf and betelnuts whn a guest leaves....my mom once offered the same to Sam and his reply..."Saunf se supari...supari se Cigerette..cigerette se Daaru...aur daaru se ladki...." He was but 14 yrs at that time... These words were itched in my mind... and till date..I am neither a smoker nor do I drink.

This dude of mine is perfect at every art known to me .....sirf us se ladkiyaan nahi pati aaj tak... No probs Sam...hum kis din kaam aayenge...will ensure that u learn this from me !!!!

Thanks Sam for everything you taught me... and for everything I am going to learn from you in days to come...

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3) JK....The Juggler
(Saalaa hameshaa kisi na kisi maamle me jhugaad kartaa rehtaa hai)

Now its the turn of the most wierd creature which exists on Planet Earth... "JK" or Mr. Jaideep Kshirsagar for you...
I first met JK during my junior college...we were neighbours and I was totally unaware of the fact that this guy was of the same age group as I was...infact we were i the same class albiet different colleges. My ignorance was partly coz of his hefty personality and constant cricket (12 std students were expected to be bookworms in Maharashtra...I was like that ).. I remember JK and his group giving me awakward snares while I interrupted thier game of gully Cricket while walking towards my home....and the first time I ever spoke to him was during my engineering councelling when I found him sitting besided me..I casually greeted him mentioning that I was his neighbour...(I was for the past 1 year)...and asked him for whose admission he had come.... It was than that the fact that he was my compatriot (!!!!!!!)... we had the same group percentage and hence landed up in the same college (Priyadarshini college of Engineering & Arch, Nagpur) along with one more Stud by name PARYAA..(iskaa introduction bhi hone waalaa hai)...may that was the last time I was happy... coz.... the comming 4 years I spent with him... I was... hmmm... yeah... I WAS THE HAPPIEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! copying Bryan Adams ...all I can say is those were the best days of my life....
My benchmate all 4 yrs...we rockked everywhere.....I am going 2 dedicate a seperate post for this guy. His mere presence was enough to trickle tears of laughter.... but as days passed I also learnt how hard it was being JK. I could very well compare this fellow with a swan....naah he wasn't that fair...I call him so coz he looked so calm and composed but underneath he was always working hard to put up great totals....a great fighter. Made his fortune from scratch...A man of his word...
Now happily engaged to his sweetheart...I am eagerly awaiting his marriage this April...
Dude....thanks for everything...life wouldn't have been the same had I not met u...

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4) Gondu...the Ginger

(Saalaa ye ginger kahaan se aagayaa bhai ?????)

Hey...Chinnu the chimp was ok....Sam the saint was understandable....but whats this Gondu the Ginger... it isnt fair to murder english just coz u wanted a word to start from "G" ....calm down calm down... I have my reasons to use the word Ginger... Whats Ginger...its a spice... whats a cup of tea without the presence of this spice.... The guy I am going to describe now is just the same... If I can equate my life to a cup of tea (I will get back with reasons abt why I say say so... anyways Tea also happens to by fav drink...) He was that piece of ginger in it...he added spice to my life...

Circa 2000...Phaneendra joins an Engineering College.. (I wont mention anything abt my college or the activities here as I already have an idea of a mighty..lengthy...and flithy (truly..!!!) blog in my mind which I am going to come up with shortly...

Now getting back to the point... its here that I came across probably the most wonderful person I ever met...(I bet...I may not come across such a person not only in this life but also the coming 6lives too).. meet Mr. P. Govindu Reddy.....or just "GONDU" for all of his friends ..me included.. (its another thing that we ocassionally replaced the "o" with an "a"....no foul language intended...but that's the fact ha ha )

I met Govind toward the end of my Ist year during a College annual function. You can say it was a friendship at first sight. He was a Telugu just like me...but a different one.. expert dancer..comedian..and a great human being...I still regret that I took such a long time to meet him (partly coz we were in different branches...me in Industrial Electronics, he was in Electrical)...

I can go on and on and on speaking about this chap...but I have decided to dedicate a complete post for him. So to just summerize things... I learnt the art of laughing off failures and obstacles from him. Had it not been for him....I would have been a loser..probably lying in some dark corner shying away from everyone... trying to hide myself from this world. You are wrong bro wen u say that I am ur Guru...infact its the other way round..

Thanks a lot for teaching me a sentence called... "Jo hoga dekha jayega...apun ko jo karnaa hai wo karne kaa hai bas" and lo...here I am...a person who fears no fear...and all the credit to u my friend.

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5) KK...the King

(Saalaa ye to hum sab ke dilon kaa Raajaa tha..hai..aur rahegaa..)

If my school gifted me Sam...my college gave me "KK"......meet Mr. Krishna Kumar Sure..... If I admire any person the most...even more than myself ..its him...(i confess here that i am suffering from accute narcissism...its another thing that I enjoy it).I wish if I had even a tenth of the qualities which KK personifies. He is my friend philosopher and guide... level headed...the most striking feature is his beautiful heart which can hurt no one... He has everything he wants under the sun... except for a term called "Enemy".
Troubled times...and I have KK to bail me out...I call him KK the Great.

I have had the previlage to be his friend..i enjoy the hospitality of his family whenever I am in Nagpur......the biriyani at ur home rockks dude... People like him are rare and I thank God for providing me an oppurtunity to rub shoulders with him...

If there is one person who i want to be like its him....ideal son..brother...student...friend..and above all an ideal human being.

KK... hats off to u dude... I count on u ...

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hey dont go away....comming up shortly Axy..Paryaa...Nago..Anna..Ani..Maulik..Sreekaa, Vicky and last but not the least Coolbeer... stay tuned... till then enjoy few pics below....

me n JK....no no no we aren't drunk....just trying to enact like one.. ha ha ..

Gondu, KK & Me...

One of those rare occasions when all three were together after engineering days....miss u guys :(





From L-R....Me ..Anna ...Gondu and Vabby
This was our regular hangout place in our college...the pic was taken when we visited our alma mater on the occasion of NAGO's marriage....