Karan

I met Karan last evening after nearly one year. One hopes that when one meets a dear friend, his first words would be, “Hey Sayan! So good to see you!” or that you would be enveloped in a giant, bear hug and given the nicest smile ever.
Instead what did my friend say?
“DUMB BITCH! What have you done to your hair?”
“Err...as you can clearly see, tied it.”
“WHY?’
“Because it’s so bloody hot!”
Lapse of five seconds, and then...
“Tell me Sayan, why are you so dumb?”
“Huh?”
“Why did it take you forever to figure out where I was parked?”
“Maybe because you were supposed to wait outside PowerGrid Apartments, which is where I live, and not outside Mahalaxmi Apartments, which is where I have never been?”

After two hours of Karan-versation I returned home, happy to have met him, and motivated enough to dedicate a post to him.

Karan joined Quark, Chandigarh, nearly six months after me. Within his first few days in our 70-member department, he was so well settled, that I literally checked with a couple of colleagues whether he was really a new joinee or a transfer from another department. Turns out he really was new...to the city, to the office, to the people. You wouldn’t think so, because everywhere you went, you heard only him. Holding forth, and that too knowledgeably, on a multitude of subjects --- what all to do in Goa or India’s military history or the newest weird computer game or Britney Spears. I love people who ooze confidence, but in Karan’s case, he doesn’t merely ooze it. His confidence crashes all around him in gigantic, swirling waves. Within a week of his joining we were friends, and within a month nearly inseparable. I just knew when to look at my monitor to get his 72-font sized, red-colored, single-worded, all-capital email that asked, “COFFEE?”

In our nearly two years of association now, the ten things I have learnt from Karan are:
1. When you want to sing a song, and you don’t know its lyrics or tune, fear not. Imagination and vocal chords are your solution to everything.
2. Everything can double as food.
3. It is possible to make a Maruti 800 fly and reach Chandigarh from Gurgaon in three hours.
4. One is never too full for icecream.
5. It is perfectly sane to want to drive to the hills with thick fog all around you and zero visibility.
6. There is nothing funny about two 25-year olds renting several animation movies and watching them back to back with Bloody Mary for company, then getting a massive craving for McDonald’s McChicken burger at 10.30 pm, yet not driving to the nearest McDonald’s which is half an hour away and instead driving for two and a half hours to Karnal only to find the McDonald’s there closed and therefore making dinner out of paranthas.
7. Just as it is perfectly normal for two people to finish six bottles of wine in a spate of an hour and a half.
8. All travel plans should be made ten minutes before starting for the destination. If you have to travel, you just have to. No cash, no ATMs, no petrol in the car...none of these can or should be a deterrent.
9. You never ever hold a grudge against a friend.
10. Spending money on the people and things you love is the only real way to live.

Photo credit: Neha (Karan’s gorgeous girlfriend)