I have been meaning to get back to work. But personally I need to write this blog about a group of friends I have. Especially since one of them integral members is leaving the country to go in search of greener pastures. (OK, one idiom done for the blog post, I promise no more cliches here) I underwent four years of .. um.. I don't know I can put this in a way so that I don't offend anyone, but let me try, underwent four years of mild torture to get my Bachelors in Engineering. It was tough for me. I was underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the same time, which if you are wondering, feels really bad. There was euphoria one moment and then abject failure the other. It was like a bungling sequence of REALLY bad movies, one after the other.
In those four years of Raskolnikovian (he of 'Crime and Punishment' fame) life the only considerably good thing I did was become friends with the 'group of friends' I am going to talk about in this post.
Now before I go on I need to tell you something about myself in those four years. In the best of times I have a cheery view of life, laced with a touch of cynicism, but my oh my at bad times everything looks bleak to me. I am the eternal pessimist, and along with that sometimes I get paranoid. I also have bi-polar tendencies, where I have childish enthusiasm for something and the next moment it's gone replaced with absolute derision for the same thing. Yes, I know I am making myself look a very difficult person to get along with, in truth I am a little bit like that.
So, the second year of my four years, I became friends with these human beings. Three of them were in the same department as me so all the study sessions were goofy, fun and agony at the same time. Then I met their mutual friends in other two separate departments, two 'nerdy' (so guys, you know who you are) who also accepted me into the 'clique'. Along the mad scramble to earn 'credits' and pass exams, I still managed to have fun, thanks to them. Whenever I took myself seriously (which I do ALL the time) they were there to remind me to take a proverbial "chill pill". They have visited my home, met my parents and sibling, eaten 'home food'. One guy's mother's food is the next best in Colombo, almost in par with my Mum's. We shared lunch packets, harangued each other for birthday treats, and all other treats (:D). We have gone to the beach together, KFC and Queens weren't spared of our presence and all through this they put up with grumbling, chronic bad moods and the mood swings, kudos to them.
Then the pinnacle of it all came to be in the year 2009. Some 'bright' (I think it's you M, you know who you are, own up now!) person decided that we need to go on a trip and that trip needed to be to the second highest mountain peak in Sri Lanka, Sivanolipaatha Malai or Sri Pada. At the beginning I personally thought that this was not going to be... Come on, me pulling myself through seven hours of climbing up and then another gruelling seven hours getting down. ROFL.
Come one fine Saturday I was finding myself in the Galle to Fort mini-bus going towards the Fort Railway station to catch the train to go to Hatton. Yes, we were going on the trip to climb that mountain. By the way, one small anecdote, if I may be permitted. I was not supposed to be travelling alone in the mini-bus. I was actually supposed to wait for someone in a bus halt closer to my home, get into the same bus as he was travelling, but I being I, decided that the bus that I chose to get into was the one my friend was travelling in. (Sorry A!) So yeah anyway, I got to the railway station without any untoward incident, and then I actually enjoyed the train ride as it was filled with card-playing, isso vadai eating camaraderie. Then, the friend who is leaving to greener pastures, let's call him S, told me during a quiet moment, "Sujo, we have to climb up, all of us have to climb up, there will be no leaving anyone behind". I replied "Um. yeah. Supposing I can't make it, you are welcome to leave me behind and go". For that S, "No, everyone has to get to the top".
The same night, we left the house we were staying in (it was my father's friend's place) and left to undertake the most physically challenging thing I have done in my entire life to date. We had come prepared in terms of all the stuff we will needed. There were three girls and four guys in the travelling party, so all the guys shared the loads amongst them. Some times the girls too shared the loads, but the only person who did not do any sharing of the load was me. I was grumbling, panting and making all sorts of complaints along the way. Now looking back, I do not know how they put up with me. If I had been me, I would have left myself somewhere along the wayside and gone along. But yet my friends did not utter a simgle word of reproach or regret at me having accompanied them. The only time I stopped complaining was when I had a shot of coffee. Then for the next ten minutes life was rosy and all, and then again I would start. Seriously guys and girls, thank you very much for putting up with me.
This post is not just for that time, for all the times my friends had put up with me. I know it must have been difficult. Thank you. It is much appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment