Today's Tamil word Series - 30th April 2020 - நல்லூழ்

Starting with this blogpost, I am compiling my Facebook series of posts titled "Today's Tamil word: இன்று ஒரு தமிழ்ச் சொல்" for easy later reference.

Today's Tamil word - April 30th 2020

Over the years we have had many words come into the common vocabulary of Tamil from other languages. It would be interesting to learn the original Tamil words for those usages and perhaps start using them in our everyday lives: here is one to get started
Good Luck - அதிர்ஷ்டம்/ யோகம் (both from Sanskrit)
Correct Tamil word for Good luck is நல்லூழ் (நல்ல + ஊழ்)
ஊழ் means uncontrollable things, which is mis-translated as FATE (விதி) in many Thirukkural Guides. ஊழ் is one of the 133 Chapters in Thirukkural.
அண. நாகப்பன் 

10 Years of IPL

The year was 2007. India had made an early exit from the 50 over world cup. The angst had given birth to a rebel league called the Indian Cricket League (ICL) led by Kapil Dev and a few others, after a quarrel with the BCCI for its totalitarian methods of running cricket in India. Cricket in India was in the middle of a crisis. The members of the ICL were expelled from being part of any official cricketing activities conducted by the BCCI. BCCI wouldn't in any way give room for a parallel power centre in the sport. BCCI hadn't permitted them to use any of its grounds, had barred the players participating in the league to play any competitive cricket in India's cricketing circuit. The ICL had to contend with a few senior players who were on the cusp of retirement who wanted to make some quick money. The ICL was always a sinking ship. But the ICL was the first sign of frustration from an anti-establishment's perspective about the lack of results from its national team. 

BCCI had to come up with something to keep the fans interested and stay invested in cricket. 2007 was also the year, when the T20 format was first being tried and tested in an international tournament. India hadn't seen the merit of the format yet. They hardly believed it would be successful and popular, so much so that the BCCI held back its senior players for the tournament after a long tour to England. BCCI wasn't going to spend its most popular and senior resources for a start-up tournament which had hardly gathered the public's eye. 

BCCI  had selected and sent a national side whose average age was in the mid 20s for the inaugural world cup in South Africa. A rookie captain had the responsibility to help make the Indian public forget the nightmare that the 50 over world cup was a few months ago. The Indian team, as a reflection of their age and experience, played carefree cricket, which as a blessing in disguise happened to be what the format needed. They ended up landing a trophy in their hands for their exuberance at the end of it all. Another team which was knocked out of the 50 over world cup in the first round, had come within just a hit away from the trophy. These two countries happened to contribute to over 50% of the cricketing fan base of the world. The popularity of T20 rocketed with the success of the two of biggest countries playing the sport. T20 cricket wasn't going anywhere for a while. It was here to stay; even at times coming close to eliminating one of the other two formats.       

T20 was quick; a 3-4 hour game-time format which had all the emotions, the highs, the lows happening in a rush; a perfect recipe for this impatient generation. With T20 format, the cricket administrators had an equivalent and alternate product to offer to woo back the younger audience from the fast paced football/soccer games.  The stage was set to commercialise and juice out this money-spinning format. 

The BCCI, after the ICL debacle, couldn't stay blind-folded to this format anymore. It just had to use the ICL idea and do a better packaging of what the ICL had done. The time was right;  Getting richer, using the gaining popularity of the format and the recent success its players had with it, was a no-brainer.

The IPL was born. BCCI had the money with the investors and the fan base to go big. 8 teams were auctioned out for a few billion dollars each for a period of 10 years. The franchises had to comply with the IPL governing council and its rules. The franchises had to pay a franchise fee, auction for players with a purse cap. 14 games each for a team in a season with 7 home and 7 away games. They would keep 50% of the revenues from the tickets sales in the home ground, use their recruited players to make big sponsorship deals and also get a huge prize money even by making it just to the play offs. Even with all this, an average franchise team had to wait for a good five to six seasons to break even and then go on to become profitable; such was the high bid they had to make to get an IPL team. Popular film and business personalities would buy teams and add to the star value of the league. Teams brought in the who's-who of the movie industry to grab eye-balls during each match. Cricket had never been more commercialised before. IPL had created the perfect match between two of India's most popular industries - Cricket and Bollywood.

The players were a happy bunch. What somebody would have got by playing a test match for 5 days together was made to seem like peanuts as compared to their paycheques in the IPL. Statistics say that the salary for a few high priced players ended up working to be a few crores for each run they scores or each wicket they took. Add to these remunerative perks, the players were given an environment to hob-nob with the best players for the foreign countries, learning and practising with them. The learning the newcomers got out of the playing experience in front of packed houses was immense. 

Indian Cricket, with IPL, was talking numbers and salaries in terms of millions already. An odd word or two spread in the air comparing the league's salaries to the lucrative leagues in America with Baseball and England with Football. It soon became among the top 10 followed sporting events in a calendar year in the world.

Every minute of the league was turned into bucks. Into the second season, two strategic timeouts of two and half minutes each was introduced during each innings more to squeeze in advertising revenue more than for the teams to discuss strategy. The advertising space was hot-selling; as early as the 4th season, every 10 seconds of ad-time in TV was sold for four hundred thousand Indian Rupees. The TV rights of the matches were tendered out to media houses for huge sums of money across satellite all across the world and internet. IPL made cricket, first a business and then a sport.

A player would play for his nation team the previous night and fly out the same day, travel 24 hours from the caribbean to India to reach in time for his IPL team's match the following day. The IPL team owner could afford all this cost of transporting a player up and down just for the player to play that crucial IPL match for his team and still make up for it in terms of revenue.  IPL had definitely by then changed cricket forever. IPL made India and cricket to dream bigger and bigger. 

By the time IPL entered into its 5th season, almost all the other test-cricket playing nations had a IPL-like T20 league tournament of their own. There was a need to not be left behind in this rapid metamorphosis of cricket. This has now made it possible for players to make more than just a living by playing for different clubs from different nations across the calendar year and be fully engaged, thus, bringing up the country versus club debate. 

From a purely sporting point of view, these leagues have nevertheless contributed to the advancements in the quality of cricket played and the skill-level of the players. 

With increased popularity and money every year, there grew the possibility of corruption and money laundering in the league. IPL has seen it all in this spectrum too. From betting, to spot-fixing, to arrests to conflict of interests, there has been a dampener every now and then. Where there is money and fame to be had, there sure is trouble as well. The average cricket fan who loves the sport has to be promised more transparency and accountability than there is now in the IPL to keep him interested in the brand. That is the only way that the brand image can continue to prosper and not go down-hill.

As we come to end of the 10 seasons of IPL, not all team owners have made money and prospered, yet I reckon they have all achieved their purpose. A few owners have sold out with good valuations to new-owners; some others understand the long gestation time it takes for the invested money to reap its benefits and continue to run on losses. However, all are happy to promote their corporate company/group's brand and leverage it in their company/group's sales/services while at it. The BCCI, is the one, who is just milking the money; making them the most powerful sport body in the cricketing world. Cricket only wishes BCCI shouldn't use its might to bully but to grow the sport. 

All things said and done,  fan's perspective/outlook to the IPL is the most important of all. The team owners drive a sense of pride about the team to that city's citizens. They do it through their star players with team anthems, flags and merchandise products. Some other fans, don't necessarily fall for city loyalties; they choose their favourite player's team to follow. As a fan myself, I cherish IPL and the other leagues for one primary reason: Cricket, unlike football, is not a global sport; it is hardly played by 10 teams on the international scene on a regular competitive basis. There seems to be a huge gap in competitiveness between the top 8 teams and the world that follows them. As a fan, it is inevitable to get used to only 8 teams playing against each other all the time and start feeling the want of a different culture to the game; a spell of fresh air amongst the style of cricket that is on offer. Cricket still has China and France only as Chinaman and French-cuts in the game.  With IPL, we get new teams with a mixed culture of players coming up with different intrinsic spirit and attitude to the way the game is played which is scintillating.  

The IPL will be popular for a long time, if it can manage to keep its issues out of the playing arena and be transparent at it. All that the cricket lover wants is a sport which he/she can trust is being played in the right spirit. Having ensured that, if the players can take the field to showcase their best effort, the millions of cricket fans are waiting for a 100 more years of the IPL. 

 Vignesh Nagappan Annamalai

(A write-up for the cricket website - www.cricingif.com)

When a girl takes over your life!

                 
       It is quite different ever since you get married.  It really is.

Every morning you wake up to someone who puts her arm around you and asks you to go brush before you kiss.

That someone would want her cheesy line for the day, before she gives you your compliment.

She would pick your clothes for the day; while all you need to do is just carry it well on you.

Your breakfast table will have the food you like, the way you like it or will it?

She would look for you in a gathering, just to make sure your dress and hair are perfectly the way they should be.

You know she would be the first person to like what you post on Facebook, and so you should be.

She would ask, "How do I look?" a hundred times every day; You know what the answer is and should be; you just have to make sure you sound convincing enough.  

She'd play poker and count on the chips you have if she loses.

You better let her choose the restaurant we should go to, because she definitely knows more on this than you ever would.

Make sure she calls for your order, or you would end up eating the usual Veg Soft Noodles with Cauliflower Manchurian.

She would be the one to make you Pasta, because that is the only thing she knows to.

Always remember her coffee making skills are getting better slowly but surely.

Take her to the movie she wants, or she would go anyways.

You would start liking to shop, because shopping is fun with her around and at least, you wouldn't look like a 80's-movie hero with bell-bottom pants and long-collared shirts anymore.

You shouldn't pack your bag if you plan to travel, or she would repack it with all that you missed.

You would wait for her to hug you to finish a fight, but hey that hug isn't coming anytime soon.

You should remember she likes you flirting with her, even when she is 80.

And boy, tough luck if you choose to gossip without her, because she loves gossiping with you.

She'd be the first to see a problem that surfaces; and talk you to go about cracking it.

She'd argue her lungs out that she is right; you just need to see it that she indeed is.

Of course, you would have your way; unless she melts you down with her eyes.

        Always remember being a husband is always easy, because she always loves you. 

At the end of the day, you know you are in a happy marriage, when you long to finish work and get home; and when you are motivated to work harder the next morning! 

To Alamu,

I thought this would be nice way to bottle up the memories of the honeymoon phase in our marriage. 

Cheers,

Viggy!   

Meena finds me!!!

July 2015:

We have all gathered for a community conference of 600 delegates to talk about the current business scenario among our nagarathar people. Hardly did I know I would find my Meena there, after all these years of wandering. After all, everybody who wanders in the dark isn’t lost; some get lucky like I did that day...and there she was!

Little did I know then, someone who I noticed randomly in the middle of a crowd would end up being Meena.

August 2015:

The proposal comes; we start enquiring here, there, everywhere, trying to know about them as much as we could. I surf the internet; try to find out every little detail there is to know about Meena. A mental image of Meena slowly takes shape. I am convinced she is more beautiful than the Meena I had imagined for so many years. I say yes...I say “a 100 times yes”.

An uneasy week to ten days goes by being made to wait for our horoscopes to match. I knew, as per our family process, that is the final step; if that is through, Meena would be mine. So the anxiety for THE call to arrive builds on, on and on. 

September 2015

September, the 11^th: 5 pm

My sister makes appa and me coffee. The aroma of the coffee fills the room. They both had started to get anxious about the call too by then. We sit chatting wondering when the call would come...

5.30 pm:

Appa’s phone rang and I was beaming like never before. The news came and the wait, not just for the call but for my perfect girl, was finally over.  Meena had well and truly arrived, into our lives to change it once and forever.

September, the 17^th: 3 pm

For those unfamiliar with Tamil culture – this is called ‘the ponnu paakura event’ (meeting the bride event). I am supposed to meet her and her extended family with mine and get introduced to each other formally.

Of course for me though that day was all about meeting her. It was scheduled for 4.30 pm at a temple near Karaikudi called Koviloor! Oh yes, that day was Ganesh Chathurthi day too...

I finish lunch, dress up to the best possible and am all ready by 3.30 pm. It takes one hour from my native village of pudupatti to there. I sit in the car all anxious, a little nervous and very restless.

Pon.Pudupatti – Nerkuppai – Thirupattur – Pillayarpatti – Kunnakudi – and huh...finally Koviloor comes...those 40 kms and 55 mins were the hardest ever.

4.30 pm:

We are greeted by my in-laws to-be into the temple. They all seem to be simple and nice people on first impression. They give us juice and her younger brother and cousin get talking to me. Sorry, I don’t remember what I was talking to them about...it is all a blur now.

So somewhere in the middle of my conversation with them, I catch Meena, in the corner of my eye, coming in from nowhere to talk to my sister sitting opposite to us by about 40 feet.

I ended up being too shy to see and take note of her then. Too many people around, doesn’t help. And that is when her mama comes and takes me to have a word with her...I am not sure if I managed to hide a blush in that moment. Maybe I didn’t.

So Meena and I are taken by mama to a corner in the temple. Hmm, true...slowly after showing “eeee” for a bit, yes, we get chatting...with a lot of pauses and silences in between...all adding to the beauty of the moment and her.

We are made to finish our conversation even just as we started it...only to leave us wanting for more and more...these elders know how to play the love game well, don’t they?

So everything is good and we who came as two families go as one to offer prayers and archanas. Boy, don’t I love these kutti kutti procedures which add so much meaning and value to the beauty of the whole scene.

We finish and we move to the madapam outside the temple. We exchange pleasantries, coffee and much more.

Suddenly as I began to eat the snack offered to me, my mami signalled me not to start yet, sitting right across in the ladies side. The gesture meant I had to put on the bracelet on Meena that we got for her!

I knew this was on the agenda...but was thrilled that it was finally time for that! Amma brought Meena and the bracelet to me. We were standing in the centre with 40 odd people around watching us with glee! I had never felt more embarrassed before...haha!

So I did then put on the bracelet on Meena’s right hand...I whispered, “amma and appa got this for you; hope you like it”, as I wore it.  I hope she heard that because I was too shy and feeble understandably. That moment could never be described well enough.  So I'll quietly pass on to the next...

Both families, my new and native, were then discussing on a suitable marriage date and I had to be content with talking to her mamas, periappa, brother and cousins. We finished and it was 6 o cl. We had to take the discussions to another time and bid bye to their family and started home.

Back in the car on the road back, I was more relaxed, felt the need to be more responsible and blah and blah...Soon we reached back home and went for a treat at my grandmother’s. There, they wouldn’t stop telling me how lucky I am. The day couldn’t have ended anymore perfectly than to know everybody in my family liked Meena and her people.

September, the 19^th:

I was back in Chennai by that morning. Even in the morning, I got edgy and wanted to start texting her. I feebly sent her a ‘Hi’ on FB. And from then on, I can’t tell you people much. Sorry!

To dear Alamu with

lots of love,

Viggy!

Post Script:

This blog is something I wanted to write to help us treasure this amazingly beautiful feeling and not let time erode it. I hope I have said enough to serve that purpose!  I wish you all for such beautiful moments with your girl/man. Believe me, love is a very fine feeling and it is only going to be a matter of time before all this happens to you (even if it already hasn’t); and the wait, I promise, will truly be worth it!!!

From "last seen" to "online" to "typing"!!!

At 6 o clock in the evening, you are in the middle of a work file; your last one for the day. You are desperate to get done for the day. The clock ticks, the file's last few pages come up; your routinely boring average day of work finally gets over. You no more would need to be in the company of people you hardly want to spend time with, atleast for the rest of the day.

You shut your computer down. You put your files in the shelf. You are ready to leave; You momentarily pick up your phone from your pocket.

There comes a wholehearted smile, out of the blue, perhaps for the first time in your day. Your friend, from another continent, has just typed two letters 'Hi' and sent it across to you. That's all it takes. Your indifferent mood through the day changes for good. 

That's all you need, a nice conversation with a dear friend about something you like chatting about. To me, life is nothing more than a bunch of beautiful conversations. 

Conversation is an art that only a few master. If you have friends who, while they can talk about anything under the sun, make a lot of arguments and end a conversation with a laugh, I would say your life is beautiful. 

Talk about the power of internet these days; talk about the world of social chatting apps and websites - the whatsapps and the facebook chats of today. Isn't that a newer version of the letters we used to write a couple of decades back. 

I remember the days when I used to write letters to my parents while living in a hostel during the 90s. I would have written in childishly adorable handwriting, "I want to come home; miss you mom and dad", as an 8 year old kid. I still cherish the feeling I would have when I am about to open the reply letter from them. I would have read their 5 lines on the letter 50 times and would still save it to read it for later. How different is seeing the same message as a text received over a phone at the end of a tiring day?

That's how much I cherish seeing my phone every time to check if a particular friend has sent me a 'Hi'.

And the conversation through texts goes on,

you forget the usual world around you, 

you breathe a sense of fresh air,

you talk non-sense,

you laugh,

you argue,

you make-up,

you tease, 

you celebrate.

The sound your phone makes when it receives a text, oh gosh! That's life!

Sometimes, you would be done seeing all the movies on your to-see list; you would not have a good book in hand to read; I am often bored with the music collection I have, you might have been too. Often you go without a friend to hang-out with in your city; this world is a busy-place these days. But your phone always pings; there is a friend whom you can always reach for a lazy chat.

You would remember the many times you would have ended up having a sweet little conversation, unheralded late in the night. I have fought my sleepy eyes to enjoy such chats before. I am sure you have loved doing that too.

I would wait for my message to be seen, eagerly follow the typing sign on the text box, then give a quick repartee to it and smile thinking I have got one up on the other person. The cycle would continue. The moments from "last seen, to online and then to typing", I tell you, are a different experience of fun altogether. 

So go on, enjoy the experience of texting and conversing as and when possible. Make the most of interesting people!!!

Okay finally quickly now, here goes my dedication of this blog. I had my reasons to write on this; One of them is, I have been spending a lot of time texting, off late especially after my university friends moved in different directions. There are two or three of my friends with whom I hardly go a day without texting and having a chat with. I guess they would know who they are while they read this; to them I particularly dedicate this blog to for all the good moments they have given me from the other side of the screen. May them and all you guys continue sending me those texts, because those conversations are something I absolutely treasure.    

gtg,

Viggy

Title credits: "Ajit Johnson"

         

A letter to KB...

I sit down to write about my adulation for a man who has inspired me in a big way. While he was at his creative best, I either wasn't born or was very young to understand him. That would make me sometimes think I was born a generation too late to admire him as and when his works were released back in those days. But he having been the timeless creator that he is, his works haven't still lost even a bit of sheen for me to catch up on them 20 years later. When I matured enough to understand truly his emotions, I endeavored to collect all his works, see and experience them. It was kind of easy in this technologically advanced world. This blog is an out-pour of my amusement for him after doing so. While my fascination for him can never cease, my words could desert his true genius from you.

Yet, I thought I shall try my best. What better way there is to show my fascination for him than writing a letter to him...

Dear KB,

            I was 12 when my parents took me to the theatre to see 'Parthaley Paravasam' for a family outing on a Sunday evening. Like any twelve year would, I was expecting a pacy movie with fights, thrills and fun. Two and a half hours went by; the movie was a yawn for the kiddish me. I didn't understand what was going on. All I got was that the hero and heroine married, departed and remarried. But not the logic behind that. Why would a guy re-marry the same girl he got a divorce with? Is he nuts? 

After a couple of years, I saw 'Punnagai Mannan' on TV. It was a strange case too; the hero commits suicide with his lover, escapes death, falls in love again, marries and dies in an accident. Seriously, why does fate have to be so cruel in your stories? Being at the wrong age to understand these things, I hated your movies. That was also when some of your tele-serials were aired on channels. One called 'Sahana' was one that my entire family couldn't afford to miss at 9 pm everyday. I didn't get to control the TV remote back then and had to see 'Sahana' while having dinner daily. It didn't make much sense to me either; why would someone give her child for adoption when she herself doesn't have a child to fall back to? I dug deep and saw the prelude of this epic, 'Sindhu Bhairavi'; I was 15; a man falling in love with another women while having a lovable wife? No way, I thought I've had enough of you and was contented with the fascination that cricket had to offer. 

At 18, I accidentally bumped into 'Thillu Mullu', and rolled on the floor laughing. By then my age also helped me answer a few questions that your movies had thrown at me. I no more liked mere kicking and dancing in movies. Entertainment, I understood, was a play with one's emotional senses. I still couldn't however acknowledge things like a divorcee re-marrying, falling in love with someone else after marriage, living together before marriage? At this age, I at least grew curious to know your justifications for all this. At 21, I finished my engineering and had some time off before I joined a company. I finally had the time and mind to follow up on your works.

To my pleasant surprise, those movies which my childhood shrugged off  seemed perfectly acceptable now. Those movies showed how much our society has influenced us into believing wrong notions and myths. By then, 'Parthaley Paravasam' had become an all-time favourite of mine; A dialogue from 'Sahana' had stayed with me through all these years. It was about how one should die a thousand times,each time after every bitter experience, to help forget and start afresh with a new life of hope, "This is my 423th birth", I still vividly remember was the exact line the character uses to emphasize the importance of moving on in life. For someone just into the twenties, movies like 'Apoorva Ragangal, Kalki, Moondru mudichu, Avargal, Aval oru thodarkathai, Iru kodugal and Arangetram' taught me why the society must be kept at a distance to lead our lives in peace. Marriage, after all, is a society driven ceremony. If we look beyond the surface about the concept of marriage, it is just all about the two people involved and has nothing to do with the society. Divorce and intricacies in relationship needn't, rather shouldn't, be judged from a society's eye. Nothing is right or wrong. Everything is subjective and personal. I now see no difference in living together or having sex before and after marriage. It is all in the mind. I should say all these thoughts coming out of your movies, chiseled my broad-mindedness. 

Isn't the way your female lead characters portrayed in 'Aval oru thodarkathai' and 'Premi', the way how a women should be? I atleast dream that is how my girl should be. The honesty and integrity in characterizations, the dignity in dialogues got me to respect you very highly. As I began to understand what life really was, I liked your movies so much more. I learned what decency is; even started recognizing how should one go about living life: simple, ambitious, courageous and ultra-positive from each of your characters, both good and evil. I began paying attention to every detail. 

I have always been awestruck by the way you highlight certain mannerisms for each character and use symbolic references for specific emotions. There has been times I have literally shed a tear; 'Kai alavu Manasu, Premi, Unnal Mudiyum Thambi, Achamillai Achamillai' come to my mind right away. Movies like 'Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu, Thaneer Thaneer' were epic depictions of a poor society, stressing the need to work for its betterment in a hard fair way. Films like 'Azhagan, Ek duje Ke liye' made all of us a lover boy/girl. Besides, most importantly, you deserve heaps of credit for breaking the society's cliches on women. You carried a torch for women's rights and voiced their concerns through most, if not all, of your works daring the society to correct its outlook. Women have to agree that men can sometimes be more of a feminist than their fellow females on seeing you. Its you who made me a feminist as well. 

To put it simply, you never cease to amaze me, Hence it makes it hard for me to end writing this letter. I shall keep singing your praise, forever, to everybody I know whom I think would have the class to acknowledge and admire your works. I sign off thanking you for what you have been and given to me.

                                               Yours lovingly,

                                                    Vignesh

Now, if you are wondering why does this have to be a blog-post, its for people who like K Balachander to celebrate him; its more for the people who don't know about him to help follow his creations, enjoy, appreciate and treasure his take on life and the person he is. I wish to take pleasure in making you feel good about seeing some of the best movies and serials there has ever been created. 

Regards,

Viggy!  

    

Sweet Nothings...

Its that time of the week when you run out of ideas to have fun - a Saturday night. It was 10 pm. I was about to board my bus from Manchester back to Coventry via Birmingham. After two days of spending time with a bunch of cool friends, I was preparing to get back to University routine. Being bored at waiting for my bus, and tired of the music on my phone, decided to ring my friend for a 'chumma' talk.

"Hi Maya", I said sounding very excited.
"Hello, whats'up", she said.

Apparently there was another friend of ours she was talking to when I had called her. She brought him in through a conference call. I didn't complain. I had a little over 2 hours of travel in the bus, I could chat all the way long. After all, calls were free between the three of us and the UK phone networks are good through the route between the two big cities, Manchester and Birmingham.

"Hi people, what are we chatting about now?", Nikhil jumped in after the usual procedure of asking each other how we were doing and the like.

When there was nothing there to talk about and nothing else to do for the three of us being at three different places, the best thing to do was to talk random things and give each other company. We did just that.

"I am gonna miss the long serene drives, the lawns and the weather in the UK once I get back to India", I said looking out of the window when the sun was just about setting into the red sky at 10 pm.

"I miss having a boyfriend now", Maya replied to second me on the romantic ambience that the UK had on offer.

"Warwick is a perfect place for romance; the lakes in the campus, the chill evening winds, the greenery all around; Gosh! how much I am gonna miss it as well", Nikhil added.

All of us were talking this way given it was within 2 months to leave the campus and enter the real world. The care-free first 9 months of being together in the university made us so close as a group of friends; we shared every bit we had in us to each other.

"So go get a boyfriend, Maya", I rubbed it in to get her talking...

"I can't go fishing for one; it has to happen", Maya is more mature than her age,22, suggests.

"Hmm...see, it just happens like it did for me", Nikhil was showing off that he had a girlfriend.

"But I don't have her here now", Nikhil started lamenting like he has been doing for almost a month now as his girlfriend (another mutual friend of ours') was away, back home to India, on a vacation from her studies in Warwick.

"Atleast you have one", Maya sighed in regret.

"ah!, I just feel like enjoying all this being single. My arranged marriage will find me a girl soon". I said expecting a big debate on the cards.

"Please, don't get us started now...you and your arranged marriage concept; keep it to yourself", Maya crushed the topic.

"She has been on my mind all the time; 30 days is like 3 years", Nikhil went on like every lover boy would with his cliches.

"That's another thing..long-distance relationships, it is just so difficult", Maya took Nikhil's side.

"Distance in a relationship doesn't make any difference to it." I did my bit to differ as always.

All three of us were different in who we were, like normally the case between friends. That served well for us to have interesting fun debates all the time, yet not necessarily conclusive though.

"You need the girl nearby to keep it going; you never have been in a relationship; you could never know", Nikhil shot back.

"It means a lot when someone holds your hand and is by your side all the time", Maya backed Nikhil up. Maya had been through a relationship before. She spoke of experience too.

"Its a feeling; even if the person is not around, you could feel that way", I sounded like Aristotle.

"That's fine, but how long will the feeling sustain without the person really around?", Maya asked. Maya was a girl's perspective which all of us respected. She perhaps had a point.

"I just want her now; just don't care on what you guys are going on and on about", Nikhil went back to his usual self.

As the conversation kept going forward, the bus reached closer to Birmingham. I loved the murmuring I was doing, with everyone near me in the bus sleeping; one even snoring.  The ambience was so different from the usual conversations we used to be having. To talk your self out to two close friends, without the feeling of being judged, in such a lonely long 2 hour drive all by whispering, gazing out at the window every now and then, was something I started to cherish even while I was doing it.

"Do you like your partner to be possessive?", Maya thought of something to take the conversation forward.

"I want my girl to be possessive; she should own me; she needs to feel she has the right to tell me what to do and what not to", I sounded like I badly needed a girl.

"That's love at its best", I carried on.

"Whatever..., I just don't want such men; Being over-possessive kills love", Maya gave us the girl's angle again.

"I wouldn't feel good to be asked where I go and who I see? That doesn't show love, does it? It only shows lack of trust...", Maya went on. She was right as usual, I felt.

"But I am talking about the partner showing that she cares for me all the time; that doesn't have to mean a lack of trust in me necessarily. She could have a world of trust in me, while she still has to question me if she sees me talking to or looking at another girl; How cute would that be; to show she owns me, to prove I mean so much to her.", I thought I made a strong argument for my case.

And what was Nikhil doing while all this..,

"who cares, I just want my girl back...", Nikhil said to remind the two of us that he was still around in the conference call.

The bus neared Birmingham Airport and the clocked ticked 11.30 pm; I would reach my university in Coventry in a bit by 12.10 am.

"I thought our conversation will help me not think of her; but you guys are just making it worse", Nikhil said.
'Oh boy, it must be tough to be in love' , I told myself.

"Anyways, I need to go to Church; its Sunday tomorrow; I better go sleep now", Nikhil said so, more to skype with his girlfriend tomorrow early in the morning rather than worry about going to the Church.

"Seri da...I know why you have to go to bed now; You better sleep and get up on time tomorrow morning; or else you 've had it from her". I giggled.

"Alright, lets plan dinner for tomorrow together", Maya said.

"Yeah, we could do that. The football world cup final is happening tomorrow; we could all see it over the dinner. I ll batter chicken and grill it. We ll have it with chappattis at my place", Nikhil said.

"yeah, gr8. I am sure we'll all have a nice evening then!", I said.

Nikhil would argue he is the best cook amongst the group of us, but again I have agreed to disagree with him as always.

"Alright, see u both tomorrow then...Good night guys", Nikhil said and waited our replies before he could hang up.

"Sure...Good night", Maya and I said and all of us ended the 1 hour and 30 minute conference call.

All of us must have had such phone/texting conversations; nothing potentially great about them; not the most happening discussions in the planet; sometimes not the most interesting ones either; perhaps the world wouldn't have changed one bit if they didn't happen. Yet, they are among the most sweetest of events in life. We wouldn't even take a moment out to appreciate how much we enjoyed such cute conversations with friends, family and other dear ones. They may gradually fade with time, as life eventually does. I thought this read would help all of us savour such beautiful conversations that may not be be relevant down the many years to come.

At this point while you are reading if you are reminded of such a conversation you had once had, it would have made my day and time purposeful.

To the two of my friends mentioned in this blog conversation (they would know for themselves, though I 've not used their original names here) and a whole group of other friends in Warwick and elsewhere with whom I have had many such conversations over the years, I dedicate this blog to.

P.S. the grill chicken was absolutely delicious the next day. I give it to you...you have to be the best cook amongst us. Half the credit goes to your flatmate, who hosted the dinner with you that day.

With this I'm ending the phone call now,
Viggy!!!