10 things that I miss the most....

I started blogging around 2 months back and one of the few people that I have developed an instant connect with is Kavita... I just happened to browse through one of her write-ups by chance and ever since I have been hooked to her writing... She writes very very sweetly and kinda inspires me to scribble most of da times... She's tagged me to mention a list of 10 things that I happen to miss a lot and so here goes.........

DISCLAIMER: the missed things would appear in no particular order and may change over a period of time...

1} My Aaji and Aajoba..

I grew up in Kalyan till i was 2 and was showered with so much love that even the baby knew that these are sum very special folks... My love story with that small town and big house kept growing every year as I passed vacation after vacation troubling them and they, in turn loving me more than i thought humans were capable of... Both of them are no more and evry now and then, a thought passes me by.......

2} Playing cricket in Amit Apts.....

I left Dahisar when I was almost 23 ....... And I miss nothing more than those crazy Sundays where we left our body, soul, blood and sweat on the cemented field ; playing cricket; to earn those darn 3 rupee samosas and a gulp of Pepsi.... The cuts and bruises from those mega wars is sumthing I am gonna display all my life (with a lot of pride, ofcourse).

3} Study leave Dhamaal.....

I swear I wouldnt have been an engineer had Ketan and Rupesh decided never to come to my house to do their revisions during those crazy study leave days... The whole process and the mindlessness of it is a memory etched forever...

4} Sumo wrestling.....

I sumhow always found wrestling on TV very invigorating... It was only natural that my school days were filled with these mock wrestling bouts where me and snehal and amit mounted on Salil... the sole purpose being beating the living hell out of our very own Yokosuna...

5} Cycling.....

My best school memories are all centered around running crazy; me and Rohit cycling through those up and down slopes from school to home gluttoning our way to glory at the VadaPav wala... Mary Immaculate Girls Convent was always a place of devotion and unknowingly the cycles used to turn super slow or stop completely near the entrance... Strange is the magic of God's creation...

6} Ruia and my Katta.....

I never had a huge frd circle at Ruia nor did I spend any significant time thr... But Mani's and the idli-vadas-free sambar; DPs and the fruit beer; 5 Gardens and the cricket matches; most of all sitting idle and carefree on the Katta totally oblivious of worlds measure of successes is sumthing I dearly wish I could go back to.

7} BE VCET MECH mavalis and what not.....

In the remotest of places was my college and till date I wonder if that was a right choice... but the memories it has given me is enuf for this lifetime. The tin hatched roofs, sweltering heat, zero chick classes, absurdly stupid profs, ill-timed xams, copied oodles of submissions, numerous rejections, even more joyous bunked classes, first ciggy, cockroach-infested noodles, brushes with profs and princi... most bitter sweet ride of my life. I like it, love it... even hate it but for nothing in the world am I gonna trade it...

8} Goa trip....

No parental supervision, 2 profs present for namesake... some godforesaken industry located in Goa or wherever and 40 mech guys... What u get is a rollercoaster ride full of drunken revelery...yours truly included... The amount of booze we consumed or the weirder than hell games we played... Its a lifetime of memories and its the only thing we friends discuss everytime we meet....

9} USA....

31st July 2003. The baby sparrow spread its wings for da first time. I am still learning, I may never soar as high as I wish but I love this ride and am gonna miss all da days of settling down in the US, those amzing seniors, the fight for grades, working at Smathers Library and getting to know Jo and Marvin, staying with Nilesh Dada and falling in love with Veyd and Varun( the most cutest nephews i have) and all the Jugaads i did for my job whilst at CA with solo... I miss those days a lot...

10} My past life....

Coming to think of it, its been quite a journey... All along I miss my parents and sumtimes my bro... I miss my building friends and our evening sojourns, I miss those games we played as kids and the fun we had at Holi and Diwali, miss moms food and dads passing the glass at parties, miss the first crush, miss Juhi Chawla and QSQT, miss India's world cup triumph of 83, miss that feeling I got when I got my result in 8th sem and then my GRE score, miss my UF commencement, miss Jason and Adil and Harsha and Churi and all my UF friends, the cooking turns and even worse.. the cleaning ones, trips to WinnDixie, the job interviews and prepartions for the job fairs, miss my VCET buddies esp Ketan, Solo, Rupesh and Sachin, Sujith and Rangeela and Mahimkar even more and to borrow a phrase from one serial that touched me the most...

" The memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul.. I remember a place...a town...a house...like a lot of other houses. A yard like a lot of other yards...on a street like a lot of other streets.

And the thing is...after all these years, I still look back...WITH WONDER."