Monday, August 3, 2009

Life on Wheels - Rollerblading with Kartik

I knew Kartik in school. He used to be an ubercute chubby, dimpled little chap then. And then I met him again in June. He's still cute, very much dimpled, only now lankier past expectations and two people taller than me. It’s been a long time since SVPV and I am thrilled to realize that like most of the little guy pals of my early years, Kartik has also grown to be a gentleman. Although I did get to meet his alterego too ("Kratikman" as per data from a reliable source aka A Morye) and waddaya know! K'man is incorporated right into his regular personality!!!!

When he first messaged me on gtalk and told me he was coming to Singapore, I admit to having had some mixed emotions. I never knew him closely in school and various questions arose in my mind: How had he turned out? Khadoos? Nice? Queer like me? What was it going to be like meeting after so many years? Would it be awkward? etc…

But I soon realized, that the chap had such an easygoing personality, it was only natural to get comfortable with him and within an hour of meeting him in June, for the first time in so many years, we were gabbing as if no time had passed at all. Of course Suji (Sujith)-one of my oldest and bestest pals during school, was also there and that did make a difference. There we were-three old school buddies, hogging north Indian grub, chatting, gossiping about everything and everybody we knew, reliving every little memory we shared, strolling along the banks of the Singapore river soaking in the nightlife blaring around us and in general “hanging out” after what I had earlier thought would seem like an eternity.



Kartik was supposed to leave in a few weeks but his stay got extended and the three of us went out for an evening of more memory sharing, subway sandwiches and amateur pool playing. I am a horrible pool player but hanging out with the guys was like being reverse bungeed back into a time when life was simpler and dreams were fresh. I would have stayed to go bowling too (I was certainly attired and energized for it), but the long prospective wait made me say my goodbyes.

Kartik stayed on in Singapore longer than he expected and last Sunday he finally agreed to go rollerblading with me. We tried to rope Suji into our nefarious plans but he was wise enough to decline and opted to go partying instead (LOL). Anyways, K Mani came home and me, Sush, Kartik and the Schma Dawg headed out to the East Coast Park (ECP) where Kartik and I rented out our rollerblades and protective gear.




But we soon realized that it really had been ages since we had rollerbladed last and after Kartik fell a couple of times and I was compelled to sit down a couple of times to soothe my aching feet, the fact that we had gotten older did hit us somewhere inside.

But the fact that I was rollerblading with an old pal made me feel for a bit that I had gotten a piece of my past back when Suji and I used to spend our entire summer vacations whizzing around on our skates like crazy people breathing the free air and “living” tension free lives. I was grateful for that experience in the midst of my grown up life.

So we rollerbladed for an hour and sat on the beach for some more time before heading home. Kishmish loved his time on the beach with us, but then he always does.


He certainly was happy about having Kartik around and Kartik meanwhile was on the receiving end of the much coveted Schma love :-)

After we got home, we chatted some more over dinner. I was satisfied to have been able to feed a pal with food I cooked myself (that’s something none of my chuddy buddies would ever believe I could do).


Life is a roller coaster. We all live our lives and get caught up in our worlds. And life whizzes by. I know it’s kind of a cliché to say that one should take the time out to stop and stare. It is not always practically possible to do so in the middle of the fast paced lives we lead. But it is possible to live each day like it were the last (another cliché), treasure the memories as they build up and keep one’s eyes open to pieces of the past when they do waltz into the present, and enjoy them while they last.

Was really great hanging out with you guys. Let’s do it again sometime. Next time: ice skating at Kallang? What say?

4 comments:

  1. Oye Morye...come na then to Singapura for some good fun! we'll all go blading together!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i thought roller blading would be easy...after 10 minutes realized, man am i gettin old or what.. but it sure was fun..
    sure looks like u guys had a blast as well...
    -Shalini

    ReplyDelete
  3. hehehehehe...its not easy man...people say its like skating...but tis much tougher...but it is fun! we did have a blast!

    ReplyDelete

Halloa! I'd be happy to hear from you so please feel free to drop in a word or two about this blog post. Cheerio!