This one is for you guys!

I will never remember when I first made friends, but yeah, my first friend ever is Usha. She was my neighbor in my home town and we did not even know the word "Friend" or its Telugu equivalent స్నేహితురాలు when we made friends. It was a great relationship that had everything but love. There probably was, but we were too young to understand and by the time we would, we parted ways. She staying back at Narsapur and I moving to Guntur by virtue of my father's job (for the record: she now stays in Delhi with her husband – not employed, no children yet). And after that, I have had a lot of friends, who were not really "friends" friends, but yeah! Most of them pass the acid test. Then came along this person, I fondly call "world famous" (and believe me, there is no exaggeration in calling him that), who seemed detached and impersonal and was always busy clarifying ICAN and EDI concepts round the clock. He might have spilled a whole cup of steaming coffee on Satish had Mahesh not stopped him (or was it the other way round? I will never recollect!) From that day I should say, there was no looking back. I instantly called him "world famous only in Wipro", a phrase I borrowed from my already dear friend Pankil. Now of course, I have consciously dropped the "only in Wipro" part given that a lot of the then Wiproites quit and got scattered world wide literally. It was a roller – coaster ride for close to one year and then came along the rest of the people in the lunch gang. Jyothi! (Who we all loved, and sometimes feared. oh! she can get real scary when deliverables are due ;)), Prema the "Map Cruncher" (I bet she still remembers the P4-PO Flat – EDI mapping and a whole lot of others which she actually learnt by heart!) and of course Sandeep Menon, who we (Andy, Jyothi and I) used to call Sandy Menon and a long time after that "Kamenon" and "Boss" alternatively (Janani and I). Kamenon – because Thong calls Sandeep that (his email id has the woed "kamenon" in it) and "Boss" because he is THE Boss ;) Not that Hugo Boss thing though. Janani and I always thought he is different, specially those times when he would talk of gay marriage. He he he. I am almost always "impatienty in the await of response" from him for my emails. And what! Today is his birthday. Janani did not remind me of his birthday (I can lie through my teeth). And what more! He is the future account manager for Carrefour (and that future, ladies and gentlemen, is not far away). Sounds like the "heir of evil". Doesn't it? There of course is Dasam Sandeep (Sandeepu). Poor sandeepu was victimized by "You know who" more than you could ever imagine (not that I was not and who knows better!). He doesn't seem like someone who takes work seriously, but like hell! He is a super PL/SQL guy perpetually caught between "You know who" and "Geraldine". Well! Know we know the state was not perpetual J What! Why is it so dark? Whats with the lights? Why is there thunder? God! It is raining. Who is that there? Oh! Janani! Look what you have done! Come on in, girl! I need some cloudy (Akshay! Sun rahe ho?) flavor in life. Have you yet learnt to feel those negative vibes? Or are you still in that unrealistic world of yours where you think nobody can touch you? Oh! Ho! Get me some mint girl. This part of the ODC reeks ;)