The crooked twist in the tale…

When I started putting down my thoughts and experiences, I never anticipated getting directions with topics to write. I get requests to write on various topics and if I can mix the reality with appropriate mix of fiction and have enough details, I usually write about it. Recently, one of my friends wrote to me, “Write about our ponmudi trip, if you remember that“. A request/challenge from my closest friend circle.

The trip to Ponmudi happened around 10-15 years back, around Christmas time, when me and my neighborhood friends, who were in early twenties, all willing to ride wild horses, took a motor bike ride to a small hill station around 60 km (1 km = 0.6 miles) from our place. Only thing, I remember very clearly is the anticlimax of the trip. I remember vaguely the serpentine route, choked bikes, chilly, breezy and drizzling climate, the water fall on the way, the hill surrounded by clouds all around at the pinnacle, greenery everywhere and we having a blast there with a very little memory on details.

Situated en route to the Ponmudi is a small village named Kallar which got its name from the river Kallar, which flows through the region. Kallu means ‘stone’ and Aru means ‘river’ and the river literally represents its name in this area, the frothing water flows in between abundance of attractive, round-shaped boulders and pebbles. We were 6 people in 3 bikes and on the way back to our place from Ponmudi, we decided to have a halt at Kallar and have a dip in the crystal clear waters of Kallar river to cool off. We found a place dotted with some rapids and a small pool of “flowing” water for our fun activity. It was little off from road, but clean and looked like a bathing place only.

Two of our friends opted out entering the water as they have some other appointment early next day and had to be at home early that night. They spend some time at shore splashing water and then left. We four, were in water, splashing, diving, swimming and were having fun with the beautiful and loquacious Kallar. All of a sudden, with a face expression of Kallar just proposed him, Anand yelled in full throttle,

“HOLY S*%T,  man…., my bike keys are with Narayanan…”

Long pause…., all faces frozen at Anand’s. He hit his head with his right palm

“I am not sure, he kept it along with our clothes, let me check…”

He jumped out of the water and searched the place where our clothes were kept, only to realize that his bike keys are with Narayanan, who had already left. The fun-filled faces suddenly switched to confusion and awe. Anand’s bike was unlocked, but to start the bike, we need keys. In those days, in India, mobile phones were just becoming popular. In the entire group, only two had phones and both of them are in the group that stayed back. It was decided, me and Sankar will wait and guard the unlocked bike while Kumar and Anand will follow Narayanan & Raja to get back the keys. They had to catch them as soon as possible. If Narayanan & Raja manage to reach their home, before Kumar & Anand can collect the keys, they will end up driving around 100 kms to and fro, just to get the keys back. Also we were hoping, Narayanan & Raja doesn’t change their plans in between but go directly to their respective homes.

I was relieved, that I don’t have to drive, but felt sorry for Anand & Kumar. They set off, myself and Sankar started rewinding the fun, we had that day, so as release the tension. As we were indulged in talks, darkness stated setting in. Now there is very little light in the area, where are in. The only source of light was the half-moon up the sky and flashing lights of vehicles passing by. The sound effects around us stated changing, the predominant sweet chatter of Kallar gave way to little frightening sound of  lady night and her friends. As time passed by, the cricket trilling, owls hooting,  chorus of Bullfrogs and Green Tree frogs intensified. Even sound of Kallar changed, she was little rough then, looked like it was raining, up there in the hills.  It sounded as if, the mother nature was asking us to leave the place. We looked at each other, Sankar took his cell phone out to check the status with Kumar and Anand but to realize it is out of charge.

“Let us go and find a phone booth (PCO) and make a call to them and come“, he told.

I reminded him about the bike, first we thought we will leave the bike and go, however since the bike’s handle was unlocked, I decided to stay back to guard the bike. I sat on the bike with center stand on, lighted a cigarette and started singing loud to drive away my fear induced by the environment and the realization of being alone. Time was ticking slower than ever, I threw my cigarette butt in the darkness. All of a sudden there was a flurry of abusive tantrum from behind. I looked back, I didn’t see anyone there but only “A” grade abuses from darkness, that will be bleeped out by any censor board. Then in the light that was flashed by a passing vehicle in the main road, I  saw a dark, bald, lean man with a big moustache, whose head looked little bigger for his body size, with a stick in his hand. He was struggling to stand in his legs, at times he uses the stick in his hand to gain his balance. That drunk guy’s appearance from darkness, the new abusive tutorial and the prevailing background score pushed me to new heights of angst. I looked eagerly to the darkness in the direction Sankar went. The drunkard was shouting something, I was not paying attention to him as I never knew that person and I never like taking to strangers, especially when they are not in their senses.

“Can’t you hear…? Are you deaf…?”

That was from close range, I turned back. He was showering me with more abusive words and waving the stick in the air. That sight, made me jump off the bike and move to a safer distance. However the act of waving the stick made him fall backwards. For a moment, I worried whether he was hurt, but just like a phoenix, he got up, with the help of stick in his hand. He moved towards me swaying, adjusted his lungi, spit out sputum with aversion and started interrogating me

“What the hell are you doing here…? you… M%^&# F&*(%$*“.

I shrugged, moved to a safer distance, out of reach for him and his stick and replied

“waiting for my friend...”

He moved forward raising his stick, but that action of him made him take two steps backward and unbalanced him again. He managed to gain his equilibrium with the help of the stick in his hand.

“So you are the one, who visits my wife, when I am not there…? ^&%$#… I have been waiting for months… %^*# It’s only now, I was able to catch you, red-handed.. You M%^&# F&*(%$*“.

I was stunned, looked at him in disbelief… “What… the F*&K?”.

He persisted, “Aren’t you…? I am going to kill you and her… you bloody &*^%“.

All of sudden, there was shouting, crying, yelling, cursing…. I don’t remember what and all, but everything added to my confusion and emerged two more people from darkness, both females. One a middle-aged, well-built woman and a girl in her teens.

The woman was cursing that man

“This man will bring shame to the family and will not allow to live in peace….

doesn’t even remember have a girl to get married….

keep your mouth shut and come inside the home…

Oh… God… how many people die in a day in so many ways… why you are leaving this guy out…?”

The girl was crying, the discomfort of embarrassment was evident in her face in the dim light available. “Come on, dad...” the girl held that guy’s hand pulled him back. He fell on the ground. He started abusing me, that girl and women. From his words, I understood, that lady is his wife and the girl, his kid. The women lifted that man with the same ease as the girl lifted that man’s stick.

I was little relieved to see the way situation has turned around, all of a sudden from no where help has arrived. The women looked at me and apologized, “Sorry, son… He is like this only… when drunk… he suspects, anyone who pass by as my lover and quarrels with them…“. I managed to bring a smile in my face and acknowledged her apology.

Beyond all this turmoil, she surprised me with an advice, “Son, don’t stay here in this dark, there are lots of crawling creatures in this area… “

“By the way, why are you standing here, doesn’t look like you are from this area“. She raised her eyebrows.

I explained her the story of bike without key. She didn’t look convinced but told me

“It is not safe to stay here at this time, go home… if needed, put your bike at our home and come back tomorrow and take it“.

“No thanks madam, the incident which happened minutes before will never ever make me do that even in the worst possible scenario also“, I said in my mind.

But smiled and declined that offer by saying, “It’s okay, my friends are on the way“.

They carried the resisting man to the darkness, however I could hear him shouting at that lady, which gradually fainted away.

I also didn’t want to stay there for long, it was pitch dark, the unexpected event and the advice of the lady intensified my fear. I decided to move to a place, where there is some light. I took the bike off the center stand and started pushing towards the main road to see Sankar returning. He informed, Kumar and Anand has to go all the way to Narayanan’s home to pick up the keys and they will be with us anytime. We both pushed the bike to the side of the main road where there was street light. As I was explaining my bad experience, Kumar and Anand joined us. Waiting no longer, we all started back, looking forward to the scolding that we would be getting at home for being this late without notice.

The ludicrous act

At college hostel, my room was the biggest among all the student inmates, only because it was assistant warden’s room, which was given to me. It had 3 closets, 2 beds, six windows and a door. Now you know how big the room was, if you have stayed in a college hostel. It had common walls only on one side and that too with the reading room. I loved my king size room and was proud of my room which had lots of air, natural light and friends visiting me. My circle of friendship included those who were very active in college social circles to the inactive, studious to frivolous, hostellers to day scholars, rich and poor, religious to atheist.  And most of them have enjoyed the warmth and fun of friendship offered by that room. It was in that room, I wrote my first article, which brought me to the social circles of my college campus. I unraveled the complexity of engineering, tickled my artistic, writing and acting skills and spend lots of fun time with my friends. It was in that room, we friends, used to pull each other’s legs, plan pranks, bunking classes, movies, booze, trips and you name it, we did it. I shared a special emotional bond with that room and when I vacated my room on completion of my course, I was crying loud like a child in my heart and mind.

In India, mechanical Engineering is one branch of study, where you don’t see much girls studying. The practical sessions of that branch demands some extra physical strength and most girls & their parents prefer not to opt that branch of study. Hence forth, generally in India, you will find very few lady mechanical engineers. While being in college, the machos of mechanical engineering branch used to consider them as an elite group and call them as “Royal Mech”. Most times, many of these royal people were treated just like anti-social elements, even though they were not.  (I am not generalizing, this is my assessment). One thing, what I have noticed with most of my royal mech friends is that, they themselves wear a mask of being rough, tough and hostile, even though 99% of them were not.

Among the numerous royals who were constant visitors to my room were Baiju and Rakesh (Both name changed). These guys shared great comradeship among themselves beyond having contrasting behavior skills and attitude. Baiju was one of the wittiest and wackiest friends of mine. Even though he was very studious, was infamous for his double meaning dialogs even with girls in college. Baiju was a typical royal mech. He is very much a fun loving, romantic guy with tons of energy, who projects himself as a rude, rustic and unrealistic guy. However when he enters my room, I always felt that he had left his mask outside the door and have walked in. We friends used to love his company, pranks & double meaning dialogs. Rakesh was a genuine guy; he didn’t align himself into the royal mech category which I explained above. He never had any masks. He was very studious, innocent, and straight forward. Sometimes whenever there are some double meaning talks flying in the air, he will be listening very seriously. However when we get into some other topic, we will hear him laughing… decoding the previous discussion. We used to call him “tube light” (In those days, florescent lamps used to flicker multiple times before it start emiting light steadily). He was very loyal in his friendship and used to share all his thoughts with whomever he thought is a friend.

During the college days, we live like Kings in the beginning of the month, when we get the monthly pocket money from our family and as the fund diminishes towards end of the month, we had to literally beg for funding our extra curricular activities. Start of every month, we celebrated with cigarettes and high end booze which lead us to beedi‘s and local booze during the month and no booze and stocked smoked cigarette butts, hooked on to our compass, towards the fag end of the month.

It was on a month end, Friday, myself, Baiju and few other friends were talking about how to spend that evening and how to mobilize some money for a booze. Rakesh walked into the room,

“Hey there is something strange happening over a week…”.

We all looked up with arched eyebrows. He continued sheepishly,

“One of my underwear which was put on the clothesline is not getting dried up, man… it was under the sun for last one week. In this scorching summer, it should have dried by same day….. All other clothes which were along with that including a bed sheet of mine have dried up that day itself.”

We all looked at each other and started laughing, except Baiju. Baiju was listening to Rakesh with pondering face. Rakesh was visibly pissed off, he shouted,

“Don’t laugh you jerks…, I didn’t tell you all this earlier, only because of this. I told this to Baiju, the next day evening itself. Just ask him… He also had a similar experience. Tell them, man…”

He looked at Baiju and prompted with his eyes.

“Bhoohaa…..”

We continued laughing at him…. This time Baiju also joined us… Feeling nettled from the constant teasing and peeved about being pushed against wall, Rakesh staged a walk out. I called him from behind.

“Come on Man… we will figure out the mystery… don’t go.. please….”

He didn’t stop…, but banged the door behind him and shouted while walking away… “F%^K YOU…ALL… ”

I was about to go behind him, Baiju held my hand and kept on laughing madly. I looked at him, and said,

“Come on, man.. he felt very bad, we should talk to him…”.

“W..A..I..T…” he struggled to breath in between laughter…

We all sensed a mischievous act; we all stopped laughing but Baiju.

“Spit it out…” I was eager to hear it…

As we all were curious to know the secret behind excitement of Baiju, he was not able to control his laughter and he was literally rolling in the floor, laughing to the point of tears as if he is having chronic laughing fits. When we were about to lose our patience, he managed to control his laughter and it fainted just like a switched off generator. He got up from the floor, catching breath, sat on my bed. After a mysterious lacuna, he smiled and explained

“Last Monday, I was coming back from restroom after shaving…. there was some water left in my mug, I just threw that water out and accidently/incidentally it fell on Rakesh’s underwear in the clothesline.  That day on the way to college, he told me about his wet underwear phenomena…. Possibility of a practical joke struck me…. I told him that, I also experienced the same phenomena for a week and all of sudden one day my underwear dried up. I exaggerated the same by telling him that, from seniors, I have heard that this happens to at least one person’s underwear in the hostel at a time without fail…. I even tried to play with his weakness by telling him, some people believe that, this in turn is done by the ghost of one of the inmates, who did suicide because his fellow mates used to bully him for passing urine in bed….. For the continuity of this game, I warned him also saying, we are not supposed to take the underwear off the clothesline till it is dried up”.

We all started smiling, sensing the effect of this emotional intuition on Rakesh, who was very afraid of darkness and walking alone, even during the day time in the road which takes us to college and back to hostel through a cashew grove… Of excitement, we all moved towards Baiju, eager to hear the rest of the story.

He continued, “From that day onward, I intentionally pour a mug of water on his same underwear every day… and kept watching him. Every day, he used to go to the underwear and check whether it is dried or not… Recently, I struggle very much not to laugh when he is in front of me. I wanted to tell you guys before I disclose the cause of wet underwear phenomena to him.… In fact, I was waiting for today…”

We all collapsed into gales of manic laughter, not realizing Rakesh is already in the room. He was at my door,  when Baiju started his story of wet underwear phenomena. On seeing abashed and totally humiliated face of Rakesh, we, including Baiju, could not control our excitement of a successful prank, we slipped into a hideous laughter…. Rakesh was having an embarrassing smile and was showering Baiju with all the abusive words, he knew but with his arms around Baiju’s shoulders in a friendly hug.

Nothing can really be compared to the excitement we feel whenever someone fell into our plot while we plan a prank and pull it out. However the ludicrous act of prank becomes enjoyable, when our victim is sportive enough to appreciate the prank and laugh along with us and enjoy.

“As we go on.. We remember… All the times, we had together… As our lives change…come whatever We will still be friends 4-Ever” 

The Dream Chaser…

I had many friends at school and no friends in my neighborhood, primarily because my mom never allowed us as kids to mingle with kids in our neighborhood. I, my brother and sister share the same story. However we all have built great friendships at our school, college & work. Once out of school, regardless of Mom’s tight guard, I made friends in our neighborhood and my closest friends till date is from my old neighborhood. 

I met Shankar, Anand & Kumar (all name changed) the day after I joined college. In those days, we had the privilege to go to college just after completion of 10^th standard. The two years of pre-degree (+2) studies were part of college than school, those days. Any Guess, how did I meet them? …. Hmm….Sorry, you all are wrong… It was only my mom who introduced me to Shankar. He was in the same college as mine and since his house was very close to mine and his father was a college lecturer and was known in social circles, my mom trusted him with me. :). She instructed me “You can go with him and come back with him” and requested Shankar “He don’t know the bus stops and have never travelled by himself in buses, so please guide him through and make sure he is always with you”. Being a teen, I felt embarrassed by that introduction, however still I thank my mom for introducing me to a wonderful friend circle. Anand, Kumar & Shankar were childhood friends and even though they have several other friends, no one was able to get into that closely knitted inner group. May be, they sensed, very quickly, that I share same wavelength of thought process and energy as them, I was welcomed quickly into the “gang of three” to make it “the gang of four”, to so many people’s surprise including their parents. As we grew up, we all travelled in different directions to build our careers and are successful in our own lives in our own way and still remains best friends.

We all belonged to different family back ground. Kumar and Shankar belonged to upper middle class, me to middle class and Anand to lower middle class. 🙂 Funniest thing was it very much aligned to number of siblings we have. Kumar has a brother and Shankar has a sister. I have a brother and sister and Anand has 2 brothers and 2 sisters. :). As you all know, financial condition of a family is the reflection of the income head of the family brings home and how it is consumed. Kumar’s father was a Central Government employee, Shankar’s father was a college lecturer, my father was a State Government employee and Anand’s father was a priest. We had different customs, food tastes, skills, financial conditions, the way we express our emotions however we all shared a good synchronized wave length in the way we think and react to various situations and energy levels, we possessed. We showcase unity in diversity through our friendship.

Now when we all got busy with my own lives, long working hours, no more tuition classes & lectures, bunking classes, long walks to college, no second show movies, no cozy discussions at Shankar’s place, no bullying and pulling each other’s legs, no long bike rides, no talks about girls, no eating out at our favorite fast food place, no game of cricket…., in fact, at times, we won’t have time for ourselves. Sometimes in a relaxed evening, the good old memories flash by and I get a smile with a tear in my eyes and I wish I could go back…

In most middle class family in India, basically kids won’t decide what they want to be.  During schooling, every middle class family will be having a plan A and Plan B for the kid. Plan A remained same across families, to be a doctor or Engineer. Plan B is usually kept open, planning on that happens only after the grades from schools are out. (In fact, kids, rebel by scoring less marks so that they get a choice ;)) Shankar was destined to be an Engineer by his family, he was studying first group mainly comprising of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Kumar’s family also wanted him to be an Engineer like his brother, and however his grades at school were not that great to pursue Engineering. His father’s plan B was to study Commerce. At my home, plan A itself was a bit shaky. My father wanted me to be a Doctor and my Mom wanted me to be an Engineer.  So to enable me to write both Engineering and Medical entrance exams (Entrance a competitive exam, whose grades will decide your admission to an Engineering/Medical college and which Engineering/Medical college, you are going to study) I had to study second group with additional mathematics, in which I have to study Physics, Chemistry and Biology and the additional mathematics. At Anand’s home, he told his decision to pursue Engineering; there the decisions are mostly done by his father and his elder brother. In fact they themselves have not discussed their plan A for him with each other. They looked at each other and his brother said, “You complete your pre-degree first, let us see… “.  He also took First group as Shankar.

Me, Shankar and Anand used to sit together and study at Shankar’s place as we have common things to study and we loved each other’s company. Our study sessions were nurtured by dosas, maladus, vadas and payasams by Shankar’s Mom.  Along with the magic touch and love of Shankar’s mom, it had the garnish of our friendship. We ate from the same plate, fed each other while we were unraveling the complexities of mathematics, physics and chemistry.

Anand had varied interests, he loved computers and given a chance, he will start talking about computers. You have to understand, he was a teen in early 1990’s in a small town in India.  He has amazing taste for music; he can drum in a desk with good rhythm besides having no formal training. All of us have an interest towards the game of cricket, however Anand is the only one who still plays the game, while all of us have retired to jogging & walking to keep us fit. During our studies, Anand used to surprise us every now and then by his approach towards a analyzing a problem and the way he solves it. He sometimes finds amazingly easier way to solve complex problems. I still remember, in one of the Physics class, he stunned our lecturer by solving a problem in an unconventional and easier way than what was taught in class and what textbook prescribes. For any complex problem solving, he was our guy. He spotted a geek look with his heavy concave glasses and shabby dressing. His lengthy oiled hair falls on his fore head, every time he puts his head down and writes. He just looked geeky, along with being our problem solver, he was one of the funniest guys, I have ever come across. He cracks jokes out of nowhere, sometimes it become so sarcastic, you will enjoy only if you are not at the receiving end.  I have been at the receiving end quite a few times. In fact, Shankar is one guy who was least at his sarcastic mayhem, probably because of the very childhood bonds they shared. Anand’s mom used to tell us, while he was a child; he came home only in the night to sleep, rest he was at Shankar’s place.

One day, we were having the study session together; he was not in his usual mood. He sat with his head on his arms and was looking out through the window. Before we asked anything, he stood up walked towards the window and announced, “I am not going to take the Engineering entrance exam”. We all looked at him, “Ahaaa..?”. Thinking, it is the takeoff of another joke/sarcasm from him. He turned towards us; we saw tears rolling down his thick glasses, we heard him sobbing…, It was Shankar, who recouped himself fast, walked towards Anand and held his hand. The childhood buddies went into each other’s arms. Anand murmured in a trembling voice, “There are some financial circumstances because of which I need to postpone pursuing Engineering”. I was awestruck and walked towards them; put my right hand in Anand’s left shoulder, “I can talk to my mom, for your exam fee”. The more thinking Shankar responded, “That’s not enough, what about the college fees and other expenses of study? Let me talk to my father”. (Shankar’s father was a very kind person, he was known for his kindness and social works he did in the locality.) However Anand was stern, “He said, no friends, I value your offer. I cannot afford to study for 4 to 5 years. I need to get a job as quick as possible to support my family. My father’s health is also deteriorating”. We were seeing another facet of Anand there. It was not our joyful, rib tickling, bullying Anand, It was a determined, highly mature and responsible individual on display. Both I and Shankar felt, we are lucky to have him as a friend.  Anand never regretted about that decision and he never talked about the lost opportunity again and we never brought that up as well. He went back to the old Anand, we all know, very fast. And we enjoyed our college to the fullest together.

Myself and Shankar gave Engineering entrance exam  and we both got into different engineering colleges in different disciples and began our journey towards being an engineering professional ( Even though I have given medical entrance exam as well, myself and my mom was able to convince my dad about Engineering). Meanwhile Kumar pursued degree in Commerce and Anand joined Diploma in Engineering. Before I and Shankar finished the college, both Kumar and Anand got into jobs. Even though Anand studied Diploma in Engineering, he took a job, which was nowhere related to engineering, it was more a clerical work at our home town. Kumar got into a central government organization and moved to New Delhi for his work. Passing out of the college both me and Shankar got into 2 different organizations in our home town. I, Shankar and Anand ensured, we meet most evenings at Shankar’s place. We had already moved to next level of friendship with all maturing to next level of adolescence. However when we meet in that room of Shankar, we all were those teens just out of school talking about everything under the world, pulling each other’s leg, planning for movies, travels, dirty talks etc.  Anand’s computer interest grew along with him and now he nurtures a dream of being a “System Administrator. I don’t know whether we can call it a dream, he lived it. He brought a desktop at home on loan and kept trying new things, he learned every day through books supplied by us and browsing at Shankar’s place. At that time, among us friends, only Shankar had an internet connection at home. Shankar, Kumar (He comes once in a month on leave) and me mostly used to check our personal emails while Anand used to spend most of his time there in learning about desktops, operating systems, servers, network etc. He had applied multiple times at his office for the post of “Assistant System Administrator” with his diploma degree in engineering and got rejected saying there are applicants with an Engineering degree already there in the queue.

It was on a Friday evening at Shankar’s place, when I reached, Anand was not there. Usually Anand will be the first person to reach, sometimes earlier than Shankar :). At Shankar’s, we three are welcome at any time of the day, we all share an unusual bond with his family. Me and Shankar were talking about new movie release and were planning for a second show. Anand walked in, he looked very happy and was beaming with joy. Even though, I have seldom seen him with a gloomy face,  it was very evident from his face that something good has happened. “At last, it is decided” he paused; we both looked at his face.  As naughty as ever, the famous story teller/bully was weaving suspense. I got impatient, “what is decided, are you going to get married?”. “Marriage, who want to get married, dude… I am free bird… never want my wings to be plucked and caged…” again the pause… Shankar asked… “Is there any positive progress in your system administrator application?”. Answer was just a smile… both me and Shankar looked at each other and started talking again about the movie. Anand jumped between us… “I am over joyed today… A door of opportunity is now opened for me to follow my dream of becoming a System Administrator. I am going to study engineering…” I and Shankar looked at each other and turned towards Anand and asked at the same time, “Are you planning to give the entrance exam?”. “Entrance exam!!”, Anand laughed… “See Entrance exams are for small kids like you guys….., for big guys like me, we go directly to Engineering College.” He paused and smiled, then continued “There is a department sponsored higher education program at office. When such a notification came, I just applied. I didn’t tell you guys that time as I was not expecting me to be considered due to my current job profile. Looks like there are not enough aspirants from the department and since I have high marks in Diploma, pre-degree and school, I got selected. The classes will be in the evening, so can work and study.” We could sense his mind jumping up and down with happiness. We were also very happy for him; we hugged him and we saw tears in his eyes after 13 long years but this time it was tear of joy. We celebrated it with a dinner out along with a second show.

He joined the college where my sister was studying as a junior to her. Five years later, he completed his engineering degree with flying colors as he does in every class and got promoted as System administrator in the organization where he is working. His determination & will power to conceive a vision and work with a conviction is something which rubs on to you. He inspires the power and energy to get it done from his dream itself. He was never afraid of the space between his dreams and reality. He believed in himself and walked the thought, if he can dream it; he can make it as well. When you dare to dream, makes up your mind to follow that dream and opens yourself to suffer through the pain, sacrifice, self-post mortems and face the opposition from the world then you will genuinely impress yourself. Self-esteem must be earned! Anand has earned his self-esteem through his determination, conviction and commitment. I salute you, my friend and I am proud to say, I am your friend. Sorry, we all are proud to say, “You are our friend”

PS: You are another living example of Perseverance…, dude!!