Happy Birthday Joise

A nice day in Mangalore. I am inside Bharat Mall, noting various offers on sale. Buy one shirt get 2 free! 50% off on jockey! Panataloons end of the season sale! Suddenly the whole building began to shake. Is this an earth quake? Will i be able to get those 50% OFF jockeys?? I wake up to see Joise back from Kerala, in Mangala, waking me up saying "Eneekeda, va chaya kudikan pokam." The only time i am not upset about losing sleep, or losing a great 'offer'.


Our morning tea-drinking sessions at Leela Palace also were stuff of legends. We would savor the tranquility and the clarity of laziness standing in front of the 'swimming pool'. This was the time when we discussed about the big issues of life. Those were the best days of my life.



We had a lot in common. Everday, we were the last to start from the flat in Hariraj to Infy.We were the 'bachelors' in the house.We had some of the same bad habits (no commitments) and good habits.(wine,beer and other alcohol, chicken manjurian from mythri. C&H).

I never hid the fact of the attraction of the fairer gender.But joise took (fake) pride in the claim that he was impervious to those charms.

But soon all that was to change.


Then the #$%@ infy sent him to Bangalore. Judy was the saddest person, i think i was the 2nd saddest person.

I used to take a lot of advice on the matters of life and love from Joise always. He was always resourceful, practical and insightful!


Still, whenever i need a good advice i call him.

While love visited my life, Joise also had come back to Mangalore. During the blizzard of SMSes i used to send/recieve while during curfew, he made up one cheesy sms "he read in my cell" about "a dream nithya had". "In my dream my house was filled with flood. i ran from room to room. Then manu came and rescued me."


After this, he took me to Nithyas flat for me to give her the birthday gift. He is the ultimate wingman.

Funny fact: We are the only room mates in the world with the same pattern striped pants. (It looks like criminals in jail) Once he picked me from office, and we were both wearing those pants. It was a scene.

We had a lot of drinking sessions sitting opposite to the police station in mangala. once it was celebrating his canada trip. then comin back from canada. then getting married. The last drinking session was at his home punctuated by 5 types of wine celebrating life. It is a night i cant forget.

When i was under the belief that i will stay a bachelor for life, I often told Judy and Joise that i will come and stay with them sometime when they are settled.Now by fate, i did it twice, and then over that, a long one week stay as a patient. Sacrificing a lot of vacation they nursed me to health. I could not be as comfortable anywhere else.

We went on some crazy trips together..Posa de gumpe. Manipal on bike. MM Hills. :)He had seen my posts asking about this hills in BB.One day during tea he asked 'would you like to go take a look at it?' It was a working day to boot. Without a care in the world we set off..

Whenever i am helming some skit for ES in a competition I thank god Joise is not in the fray for their PU.He has a ton of ideas up his sleeve. We have brainstormed many Oscar-worthy scripts like "Lamp post". Then Vinayan-style tear jerker about an a guy with no hands/legs, just a thumb. "Room Mate", a suspense thriller which could have been a great follow-up to Survivor! I did make a video on him, about which he was not too kind. We made a lot of M&J Cartoons of which funniest ones were scripted by him.The ability to laugh on oneself is very rare. He has it.

I wish him the very best, fulfillment of his wishes and desires. I wish he remains my friend for life.