branded 'twins'

LESSON 1: Avin Richards


born in close proximity of each other... one of the first same aged person i saw in my life... living in same apartment.. same floor... parents are close friends.. sisters are even closer friends... well that was the starting of the coincidences.. i dont remember when it was or how it was when i saw him for the first time...coz all my memory has one person next to me... HIM...

we were called or branded twins for the uncanny resemblance to each other.. both physically and mentally.. we used to go everywhere together.. nothing could come between us without getting trampled upon..

we have been through a lot together.. in times of being thrown out of class, getting suspended.. and due to this a lot of money was saved by our parents.. coz whenever there was trouble it was me and him.. there was no chance that anyone of us would be alone in it.. this included the fights, the arguments, the bunking, the 'flirting' etc etc.. we practically gave a new definition to predictive investigation.. (well more like if he is there in it then 99.99% probability that i am involved too)

my earliest memories start from the time when we went to learn swimming... clad in our underwears holding rubber tubes.. the amazingly dexterous dives and one of out parents desperately pulling us out of the water.. looking for water snakes and jumping in to catch them (unaware of the fact that water snakes have more chance to be venomous than land ones).. then one of the most vivid memory.. the day i first knew that i actually cared for someone in my life.. the day avin managed to get a huge cut when he went searching for the ball we lost.. blood was gushing like there was no end to it.. he was unconscious.. i cried for the first time for someone... i was afraid.. but he pulled out of it... thanks to maybe a lot of tears from a lot of people..

Avin was always a non violent person from heart.. but maybe it was my old self where i wanted to vent my energy on something and i thought that being a protector of justice was the best.. so i was always there all ready to beat the crap out of anyone whom i felt was violating my rules.. and just coz he did not want me to get beaten up he used to join me.. even though it brought him a name of being the DADA too.. well i should say one of the DADAs... we were incredibly strong for the kids of our age... so we had our advantages... still remember the day we chased and tore down 8 guys ( 1 year senior to us) for destroying our project.. and the day we send 4 packing to the hospital for beating up my friend... we were violent but still we did something right..

whatever it was that i did or though.. he would be there with me. he was like my mind.. i could tell him anything... with him i was free 'not' to think.. coz he would do it for me.. it was heaven...

then it all happened.. the first blow came when we had to shift.. then soon came the time when i had to go to another school.. soon he too left.. we grew apart.. and finally after a long break of like 8 years we met.. but it was just a meeting.. we barely recognised each other.. the a few months back we met again.. then again.. one fine day i got to spend the entire day with him.. and i knew that we were still the same.. i had re-discovered my twin.. the branding 'twins' was for life.. he was still the same.. i had changed.. so had he... and guess what, in the exact same way.. we both came to detest fighting unless it had something to do with our friends getting hurt.. we both grew us as renowned techies.. we both grew up to hate maths.. we both loved bikes and gadgets and computers.. and we both even took the same stream.. the exact same stream.. we were still twins.. and today i proudly re-invent that term for us..

he is not my brother, not my friend, not anything.. he is a part of me.. a clone maybe.. he is me..

and most importantly he has a huge part in making me what i am today.. i have a lot of friends.. the reason why i am able to get them is his lesson.. he taught me to stand with your friends no matter what.. let the world think what they want.. let them do anything they want to you.. all that a true friends needs to do is to stand with his friend.. even if it means you dont like what they do.. (i mean in a good way)... i can proudly say it coz no one would term me an avin as a dada now.. we did protect the justice.. only thing he was not into it.. but he stood by me.. taking blows for me.. never complaining one bit...

the time i spend with him are the ones that i want the relive the most.. as i said it was and it would be the time when i am me...

a new chapter....

when you are with friends you see life.. you see everything clearly... time never stops... it just goes on and on... there are times in your life when you look back and think.. if i could have one more day of that... what is it that i do today.. i work.. i work... and i still work... you forget the smaller things in life.. you forget the ones that has changed our life...

when coming to think about all that it occured to me that maybe there is something in life that requires a mention and a rewind.. a look back into life.. into my life and into my those people's life.. the times we shared, the secrets we kept, the troubles we put each other through, the crushes we might have had, and of course the fights... each which stays in our head like a dream we saw a day before... so vivid, so clear, so touching.. but just like the dream we dont get time to think about it.. after all what does past have to do with me today.. i have new friends.. better friends.. right?? i guess not.... i dont think so.. i can sure as hell make myself believe that.. but that would be lying to me..

so i want to thank all my friends out there who has made the differece to me... starting from my smallest class.. i wanna write about those who had been there for me.. whenever things mattered the most to me.. consider this a trubute and a testimonial to you... and a urge to all out there to think about the smaller things in life...

and ya in case anyone thinks that the ninja has become all serious and philophical please do try to prove the classical theory of gravitation exists in a singularity.. if you do that. maybe i may become serious.. ha ha ha... ok??

Afterlife....

looong time... to busy to write... but finally life catches up with you... so here i am back in front of the computer to write the next episode of my life... and as always there is someone who is there to provide me the initial push and the memory.. well this time it was a call from a private number.. which by the way i thought was the CEO of GOOGLE calling me for some kind of business proposal.. but unfortunately and thankfully it was my old classmate Roshan.. no no no.. dont worry he is not the new CEO of GOOGLE.. he was calling me from Rome.. so the private number... thinking about him.. there are a lot of episodes we shared in our life.. there are a few which stands out exceptionally well... REALLY WELL.. heh heh heh....

it was when we were in out 12th grade.. we had a choice of 3 timings to go home after school.. at 3pm 4pm and 5pm.. being 'US' we would always opt for the 5pm bus.. even though this bus was meant for the company employees to go home, we never faced any issues.. mainly coz i think the employees could use some laughter and fun after their hard day at work.. and we were the ones to give them that...

so that fateful day (fateful coz i was destined to carry this memory for the rest of my life and this took away a few Kb of the memory i could have used to learn a new theory) we (me, aswin, aaron, roshan, graison, renu, divya etc etc) were sitting in the bus.. the bus was parked in front of the company medical center.. and it was slowly starting to get crowded with the company employees.. roshan was in the seat behind me narrating a film story.. well i should say that he is a darn good story teller.. with only a small flaw.. which being that even though the title of the stories are same the contents are never same... memory issues?? heh heh heh... he was telling the story of the film 'THE OMEN'.. unfortunately the content was not that of the film.. so since it was a new 'film' we all were fully into it.. even the employees... so he was telling..


ROSHAN: so one day morning they all got up... they went into the room to look for her.. but suddenly...... they found out that she was missine...

OTHERS: oooooohhh....... uh-huh...

ROSHAN: so they knew something was wrong.. so they all went looking for her to the nearby sanitary..... and...

OTHERS: huh???? (confusion sets in...)..

ME: errrr.. rosha.. what did you say right now???

ROSHAN: what?? they went to the sanitary...

OTHERS: (chattering with each other.. more confusion)... errr....

ME: what do you mean they went to the sanitary???

ROSHAN: why are you disturbing.. let me complete the story.. cant you understand anything...

now that is a offending remark (asking if i can understand anything... ) hey wanna have a bout on quantum physics?? on string theory??? huh??

ME: hey i am serious.. i.. err... we . did not understand what you just said...

ROSHAN: what is wrong with you all??? and you especially??? are you not a christian?? and still you dont know???

ok.. this was serious!!! now i should have studied the bible too.. where was sanitary mentioned there??? what has bathroom equipments to do with the bible and god??? hmmm.. this could be interesting...

ME: da i am sorry.. but you know na that i dont go to the church.. i am really sorry.. i will start going. but can you clarify this just this once?? please??

looks of genuine despair on everyone's face must have melted his heart.... so he decided to explain it us low-lives...

ROSHAN: da... i'll say.. but shame on you.. you being a christian.. anyway... let me ask you..

holding our breath....

ROSHAN:where do you bury your people when they die?? huh??


OH.... MY.... GOD.... suffocation kicked in... everyone one was so shocked that no one could even laugh or breath... or blink.. or think..... and roshan still had no idea whatsoever why we all had that look on our face..

and when we started laughing even the driver came over to ask us what was going on.. coz he had never seen such a sponataneous and huge outburst anywhere.. he knew it had to be good... we were laughing for like the next 30 minutes... it was contagious...

and since friends are meant to be supportive we did remain quite and observed a silent prayer at all the hardware stores on the way home... every single day....

and ya.. thanks to him we dont have pretty much any doubt on how afterlife is gonna be like...