My tryst with people from the Southern part of the country has been indelible. During my MBA days I grew in friendship with Srinivas Reddy Kandala, an intelligent guy from Hyderabad. However I do not want to set any ground rules that I easily develop friendship with people from South. My propinquity to Srini (He was referred to as “Srini” by all and sundry) was due to the fact that we both were introverts and we shared something similar to “Greater common good”. His looks portrayed a typical demeanor of a studious individual. His conduct made him behave like an IITan. But out in a group that was far from being serious about studies, Srini might have felt a tinge of estrangement of which I was also a victim. For sure I was not too serious a candidate of Srini’s echelon, but I was never an advocate of wasting time in matters that did not add value. Srini was even prepared to live a life in a cocoon, rather than surrounded by compatriots who would influence him in a negative way. This is however in no way to connote that all other students had passed time just like that. Perhaps Srini was destined to stand tall among others that he drifted his ways apart. At present he is in Seattle, at KPMG. I do not regret much now about not making as big as Srini did, but I do take an earnest consolation that I at a point in time shared a good rapport with Srini. However we have not been able to keep in close stroke with each other now.
During July last year, I had come to terms with Shyam Bharath Murugan from Chennai when we both joined our alma mater Genpact India. The team in which we both landed our luck was a team ready for a process consolidation. In a Team of 20, I was the fourth one to join. Bharath (Perhaps I found an incredible connection of his with the character of Ramayana) joined later than me. It has almost been a year now since we have met and my eyes shimmer in delight thinking that I have lived many radiant moments of life with him. The difference between my proximity to Srini and Bharath is that Srini is yet to know the secrets of my life and Bharath has discovered almost whole of those.
“Let’s put up together”, Bharath asked me if we both could share the hotel space in Philadelphia. As a part of Process Transition, we were supposed to go to the client location for Training. We had to stay in Hotel for 8 weeks. So that was time for us to choose roomies. I was contemplating my options when Bharath gave the unexpected call. It was unexpected as the person in Bharath I presumed at that time was a little out of bounds, at least for me. I had almost made my mind up to hang around with Rohan, the Rajdeep Sardesai of our Team (I still find it difficult to digest why Rohan didn’t opt for a career in Media). But I was yet to let Rohan know about it. However I decided to nod my head for Bharath’s call. My decisions are often based on gut feeling (A very obvious quality of an Aquarian) than on established logicsJ.
That was the moment when I never realized that I found a new friend. Someone whose absence creates a space which I have never enjoyed. After my school days friend Arjun (Well Arjun and I are still Great friends, there have not been a single day that we have not talked on phone after I left Assam), Bharath is someone with whom I have never shared a colleague-counterpart affair. We are good friends and I love to believe that he is the best thing that happened in the recent past in my life. (Well Nikhil, please don’t mind; I will write about you tooL)
It would be a Herculean assignment to travel on the history of Subha-Shyam (Bharath and I have differences of opinion on most of the things just like a day would have differed with the night, that’s why the term) relationship. But there are certain things that I never forget to remember.
During our stay in Philadelphia, there had not been a single day Bharath would not have woke me up. I slept a lot. All alarms and reminders were futile attempts that I made. After that he would wait until I get ready for office. Then only he would take his turn. I of course prepared some stuff for lunch in office. Well those can hardly be called food; according Chitra the food that I prepared were punishments. Bharath however never complained about those. When the stuff we purchased were lying at sixes and sevens in room no 331, he would always apply 5S on them. I remember on a weekend I went to New Jersey to meet my friend Jeeta, I forgot to wash my clothes. When I came back to hotel on the Sunday night, I found those clothes washed and well ironed. How much would you expect from your roomy?
One evening we were buying some vegetables from Giant. I got those on a bucket and came to the billing counter and asked for the billing. Bharath was standing on a queue. He suddenly snatched the bucket from me and went back to the vegetables section. After 4-5 minutes, he came back with the same vegetables. But didn’t bring those in the bucket, he packed those on small polybags that were there for packing the vegetables individually so that those could be weight separately. I knew his effort was not mandatory but relearned the maxim “While in Rome, do as Romans do”.
There have been many such instances which knock the door of memory. Be it the swimming in the pool (We never learnt how to swim; but learnt how to unwind a day long fatigue); the Hotdog saga at the Chicago Airport (A banana worth $ 2 was much tastier); the exploration of Philadelphia (We can proudly say that Bharath and I along with Visual had discovered South Street and felt the same contentment after that as Columbus would have felt after discovering America); The Malibu moments ( Well, we often discussed about the way ahead with a glass of Rum after dinner); The fight over going to New York at the cost of booking the $ 247 Hotel Riverside studio at Manhattan (The only time I seriously had a antagonistic debate with Bharath). I am sure Bharath would have treasured those too (Good news, he will be writing down the New York trip).
Back in India also, we share the same rigor. Be it planning our lunch-dinner, or going out on a vacation (Well, it’s still a plan), we again “Greater Common Good. But I regret he didn’t attend my Birthday party at CR Park. He went to Vaishnodevi trip during January.
Bharath and I are not typical friends who would talk like anything. In fact we hardly speak during our conversations. Our non-verbal cues are enough to indicate million approvals and zillion denials.
The road ahead…Lets wait and watch….
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