Pillars of Strength:

When you try your best but you don't succeed

When you get what you want but not what you need

When you feel so tired but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

When the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

When you love someone but it goes to waste

Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

I will try to fix you!!

[Coldplay - Fix You]

This is what exactly friends do. They fix me. As I revisit the moments that changed my life altogether, I close my eyes and flashes of beautiful memories frame themselves around me. People always say friends enliven our life like million stars that lighten the dark and vast night sky. With friends, cups can be filled with oceans, infinity can be measured and pigs can be made to fly, they say.  Until I met these five, it was just a vague idea for me. 

Infosys, Mysore. The place where we met as part of our training and where we were destined to become geeky IT freaks. At least that's what people call themselves (Jerks!). Sigh. Okay. So, while we were destined to become them, we didn't have the slightest idea that we would hang out together all the time. Wait a sec. Nobody says hang out anymore. We gang out. Still doesn't sound new. Nah, we do whatever the eff we want. But together.  

Here are the rap sheets:

Lokesh AKA Loki: 

The leader of the pack. A proud iPhone owner. He's the most responsible person in the group and a die hard fan of Steve Jobs. He's like if you give him a broom, he would paint Mona Lisa with it. Be it any job, he'll get down to business in a matter of seconds and finish it with utmost perfection. He and I, we're the opposite sides of a coin. He's all that I'm not and couldn't be. I would look like his evil twin. We've got pretty much similar tastes in movies and are RDJ (Robert Downey Jr.) fans. 

While there was imminent death by Java for me, I used to vent my stress off in the TT court. This guy beat me in every single match we ever played. But there were days where we both beat the crap out of the opposite team when we played doubles. Smash after smash, the rivals would go wailing to their moms. I wish I could beat him once. Don't worry brodha, you're defeat is not far away. 

Nivetha AKA Names of all animals: 

The girl who never gets tired brawling verbally with me and we go to war all the time. We don't even call each other using our names. She's like this friend who you always bicker with. I never knew her until then but we stuck together with glue in no time. Loves to object and oppose my taste in women. Likes Eva Mendes. I bet she doesn't have even little idea of who Mendes is. (I'm gonna get kicked for this!) A shopping junkie.

She's the person I go to, to drain all my sorrow and she is a kinda friend who would slap you hard to tell you that you're doing something stupid. Girl, no matter how hard it looks, things will eventually turn out good. Stop chasing shadows, just enjoy the ride!  

Ganesh Singh AKA Salsa Singhu:   

The guy who likes the 'salsa' girl. I'm sure he's already running away reading this. He cares a lot about the others in the group. He's very much dysfunctional without his mobile. You gotta give a lot of credit to him as he likes to be glued to the IRCTC website. Whenever the both of us meet , we keep swearing like hell, talking rubbish. We would later be ashamed to see everyone around shut off their ears to stop listening to what we swear and we would still continue. 

Raji AKA Raji:

Sensible and Silliest cuteness she is. The bond that binds us together. Typical South Indian girl. There will be a character in every Indian movie who represents the audience. This character asks questions or doubts to the hero on whatever the hero does. The act is done to prevent audience from getting lost from the film's plot and to prevent them raising questions about the logic in the film. I would say that she would perfectly fill that role with much elegance. A dosa lover. Right at the brink of midnight, go to the food court near the multiplex and you'll see her with two dosas. It was two every single time. 

I felt so irrecoverable and lonely after all my college classmates were moved to a different training level. With all those pages of code, it gets gnarly you know. I had her best company to beat the odds. 

Anita AKA The English Teacher:

There's always this person in the group who would correct all the misspellings and wrong word usage in English. She's that fourth grade English teacher we all feared with incredibly huge glasses and a long ruler to spank our palms. We would spend years decoding what she says on Whatsapp and she doesn't have any idea what she's trying to say. 

She's the spiritual face of the pack. Trust me, she can make miracles happen. She once prayed that nobody should ever understand what she types and it happened. Kidding. She prayed that I should get a transfer to my home state and it unbelievably happened. Keep praying girl. 

So this is pretty much my life. Yes, they are my life. We are now separated miles apart with everyone living at different corners of the country. Occasional conference calls keep us together. I feel like I'm kinda paralyzed without them. Hoping to breathe together again. Chaos will be cheesecake. With friends like these, I could even stare back at God if there is any staring competition. He would be the first one to blink.