saying goodbye...

27th january 2005...

nafiz's last day on this island...after almost 2 years of complaining nafiz finally left mauritius. a good thing, for him at least, cause whenever one feels stuck up in life, one has to move on. life is too important to be wasted like we all somehow splendidly manage to do on this island. i am sure nafiz that you would agree with this. but apart from this 'being practical' and 'moving on in life' bullshit, nafiz, you have managed to leave behind a terrible sense of loss along with all your stuff (the stuff including the condoms that you have left behind, which were in fact the ones that dan left behind)..the stuff part is sure to be gotten rid off a.s.a.p by heather...but getting used to not having fiz around is gonna be the hard part.

whoever said that saying goodbye was easy was damn right...except that it would
help if only we could not be so human and miss the people we say goodbye to.

anyways, the last few hours that we all spent back at 'da crib' and at the airport shall be certainly be one of the more somber moments that we all have shared, though we did manage to blend in some crazy stupid things like always...the crazy part being when hubert pushed the luggage cart with fiz's bags and myself all around the airport while i held on for dear life and tried to warn people out of our way and save themselves (this was a return ride for the one i gave hubsi in the shopping cart in Jumbo)...and the part where we played the grief stricken family members waving to fiz every time he turned back and looked at us as he prepared to check in...was kindda stupid, the things we did, but then we are always like that!!

like i said, nafiz has left behind a space that is going to be impossible to fill. now we have no one to say "fuck her" every time we watch a movie, no one to call the hubsi n timo "sick german freaks", and definitely no one to join in chorus with joel on a discussion on "boobs". a tough spot to fill...all this...and there are no entries qualified enough.

i suppose that it is going to be even the more do difficult for joel and myself...after all joel lost his boonga-boonga buddy, and i have had to say goodbye to my first pal in mauritius and my brother...

and when i say, "in life shit happens", i really mean it...if fizz's leaving wasn't bad enough, hubsi and timo are leaving come monday. i have no idea how i am going to deal with that...more so much since i am always going to regret not having spent enough time with them like i do with rasty and mitty...blame classes that must be attended and family responsibility that must be shouldered...but still i am thankful for all the great times i have had with everyone...the last six months on this island have entirely justified my decision to come to mauritius for my graduation instead of doing law in pune or economics in chandigadh...though at this point i have no idea as to how i'm gonna survive one more year after everyone leaves...heather's gone in may....and joel finishes his course at the university this semester. the very thought of this near future fills me with dread, but then i suppose it shall pass and new friendships will be formed....still....my life has been changed.

friends for me create a vacuum when they leave...a space that cannot be
filled...but a space that is not exactly a space in proper terms...a vacuum.

apart from this i still am very much optimistic in the terms that i really believe that i shall be seeing most of these wonderful people some time sooner or later...especially nafiz...after all how far is bangladesh from india? not much, i'd say...so fiz, inshallah...see you soon. as for the others, this world is a very confusing but small place...we are bound to run into each other again...or maybe i shall just have to take some time out of my life to make sure that i do run into you folks and then act quite surprised on seeing you again...

the times we have had on this island shall never come back...let's face
this fact...but they shall forever be etched into our memories like words
into stone...

in the words of the buddha..."the roads of life are meant for journeys, and not destinations"...

and with everyone on board it has been one such wonderful journey this time around.

summertime blues...part 1

ahh!! the nostalgia of summer break sure leaves one with mixed emotions...the simple and lazy life with a dash of boredom..i sure wished for my share of those good ol' days...but then i managed to have quite a hectic time as i discovered to my joy and dismay both. joy because i got to spend a hell lot of time with my friends, and dismay because most of those friends have by now gone back to their respective countries and some are leaving even as i speak of them...

"how i wish that none of us had to ever leave and that the great times that
we've been having had continued"

(wishful thinking..i know..but then we are all entitled to some)
hanging out at Flic n Flac will never be the same again without the crazy germans. rasty's songs and mitty's serious fun, anne's hot ass and ena's ramblings, silvia's clubbin spirit and harry's...(hmm, harry's idea of fun, lets stick to that, shall we)..and my weed-smoking bro dan, you all are most sorely missed. apart from all the goodbyes that we friends have had to say, we still managed to have some really decent times together...especially those cool roof parties and BBQ's...then someone came up with the idea to invade the nightclubs on this island and so it began, the great german invasion along with their indian, bangladeshi and american allies...i guess we managed to hit all the nightclubs on this island.
and now, woe befallen, the only one's left are harry, bettina, hubsi, timo, heather, fiz, joel, stephanie and myself on the island...(though latest statistics would indicate that harry and bettina are on the missing list as well)...hubsi and timo are leaving as soon as the end of this month and fiz has already bought his ticket to bangladesh for the 25th of this month...fuck!! life is sure gonna change a lot...

well christmas this year, like all the other years, was a family affair since it's noella's birthday, and for that one day i am at her service 24 hrs...dad had planned to have a little party for noella's friends and a few indian doctors where he palyed the supreme cook and god of all(no better opportunity exists to invite people over for dinner and enhance one's social circle than a birthday party)...and guess what?? i actually realised that i was the unknown one at my own party...surprised? yes, that was the general reaction of most of the people who showed up...they all were of the opinion that my dad had only one child, my sister. this error was attributed to the fact that i have been quite noticably absent from the local indian social circle due to the long hours that i manage to spend away from home beacause of the university and my incessent partying campaigns with my international friends. (though i still maintain that most of them said this simply to piss me off and laugh at my explainations as i tried to explain that i too was part of the das family...noella, for one, had a great time at my apparent dismay). anyway, i still manage to have a good time untill dad decides that it is time for me to taste the fruit custard that he had made...and to this noble cause he shoves a serving spoon full of custard into my mouth. now usually i have no qualms about my dessert, but (wannabe cooks take note) when pineapples are added to custard 4 hours prior to serving, they tend to make the whole dish a bitter experience, and that's exactly what happened. and that was the end of the story. no custard. no desert. but still a very good party and good food. overall, 9 out of 10. now only last thing remained..the cleaning up...that being voted untill the next day, it was time for bed.
the rest of the summer was equally eventful, but for that you shall have to wait untill my next post... today's tale ends here...the folks are asleep. so don't make any noise as you log out.
goodnite.
;)

back to school!! the feeling's never the same...

the first day back in the univesity after the december break....and man it was so special !!

let's just say that after a month of getting bored at home, it was time to get up early in the morning, shower and get ready and catch two buses on the 2 hour journey to the university...all just to attend a half n hour lecture on nothing (i would have never understood even if it was something since creole is still latin to me)...the only high point of my day was meeting most of my Mauritian pals, who would only talk about last weeks football match between Chelsea and Man Utd...so captivating...that's the kind of talk we economic geniuses indulge in !! (don't miss the scarcasm)..

well i tried meeting a few lecturers, but all i could get out of them was the usual "see me during the office hours for the relevant details." and when asked about the office hours...the same old reply, "it will be posted on the door, soon." ...UoM red-tapism...and who was the person who complained about the indian bureaucacy??

but every dark cloud has a silver lining...and the silver lining to my cloud was the cool airconditioning in the computer labs which provided much needed escape from the summer heat...by the way did i ever mention that i could not go home before 4'o clock cause i have managed to loose my house keys (it happened almost 17 days back and is a different story altogether) and i still don't have a replacement, and now i must wait untill dad or noella gets home and opens the door or untill dad decides that i am responsible enough to get a second pair of keys... :)

well, there's this great south indian movie on TV and i don't wanna miss it...so i better get going...the remainder of my day wasn't too great either and i still don't feel as if my semesters have begun and that i really want to make the effort of hauling my arse out of bed everyday morning and make the journey to the university...well, i guess the feeling will sink in within a few days...till then i guess it's happy hour for me....

cheers... ;)

here goes nothing!!

hmm...i never quite figured out how some people manage to write emails regularly with such devotional fervor.although i have always have been the sort of person who loves making friends, i am also extremly lazy when it comes to sitting my arse down and writing mails to all the people i know and meet(having to write letters would kill me)...this bad habit of mine extends to my family in particular who are always so intrested (as they should be) in knowing everything about

"what i do with my life"

(the exact words of one of my cousins)...most people i've met and have not been in touch with think that i am a category A arsehole...for more profane references to my CV i am indebted to my dear friend Tejas(though his record is definately worse than mine)...
well, i have finally decided that it is about time that i changed this image...hence this is my effort towards satisfying those curious souls who are so very captivated by my doings..this is how i spend my time on this planet..times for which i am eternally grateful and times that i'd like to forget as soon as possible...this is a little thing i call my life!
so go ahead and read it...