'Nothing new' - Free advice to people who hate being away from home

It used to be my standard reply. When people asked me while chatting on Gtalk or talking on the phone, the first question they inadvertently asked was 'Wassup????' And as any other long term onsite assignment employee (read chronic illness patient) would open his mouth, suddenly popped out a lame 'aaah nothing new'. I had personally got so used to using this that I even had saved this as a template sms in my mobile and also on a notepad document on my desktop so that I need not type this in each of my conversations. I just copy - pasted and conveyed my boredom to the world. Wasn't that efficient? No wonder I am an IT guy. I had got so used to this message that I accidentally pasted this when someone just wrote 'Hey Utkarsh, I bet you liked my girlfriend' (OK that is a little exaggerated but you get the point.)

There was a time when I was the guy who always has something new to talk about everyday. I was so occupied with so many activities that I could hardly find time to sit down, relax and spend time with myself. Well I didn't even feel the need to. I remember the time back in Pune, when my day started at 6.30 am and ended at around 12 pm with no dull moments in between. There was so much to do and so little time. I was of the sincere opinion that sleep is a waste of time and is something which is just medically necessary for the human body to function properly. I used to pity people who used to sing paeans for their world records of sleeping.......aaaaarrgghh what a loser! I used to take pride in telling people that I sleep at around 1 to 2 am every night only to get up at 6.30 am for my Cricket practice. Cricket, Office, Gym, Jogging, Hangouts, Party, riding my bike etc. were a part of my daily activities. Those were the days !

But things changed, and quite dramatically for a person like me who loves to be in comfort zones for long periods of time. I started to get quite a lot of time for myself. Once home from office at around 7 pm, there was nothing much left to do. Well there was a little bit of activity in forms of gym and cooking your own meal but still there was too much of free time and nobody to share that with. Eventually this extra time got into my system and I started changing from the happy fun loving guy to a more serious kind of work troubled guy. Also the friends that I made here were not going to stay forever and eventually I became the guy who gets left behind and all his friends leave him one day.

I may sound quite depressing right now and I actually have been quite a bit down lately. However there are certain things that I realized that can make you utilize the time you get with yourself. Especially if you are physically away from your social life. The key is self motivation.

I learnt cooking for instance. For a person who could boast about coffee, tea, maggie and ice as the only real things that he could cook, making chicken curry is quite a leap. Then I thought, the best way to utilize the free time is to pick up a hobby and probably that is the best decision I have taken in a year. I went to the nearby music shop and got myself a spanking new six string. With the assistance of the the internet and a lot of self motivation, I can now play actual songs that people can recognize..(at least I think so....Click HERE to find out yourself) .

So the whole point I'm trying to make here is that at first the loneliness can suck you and you could choose to succumb to it and be miserable. However if you choose not to, you can get away from feeling blue by trying to make yourself more interesting and suddenly you would be ready to face all adversities and even loneliness with ease. Seems easier said than done. But hey what's the harm in trying something new? What is the worst that could happen? You would waste some time. But you already have plenty anyway. I personally think I'm a lot less miserable now thanks to my new found hobby and the sheer fun in tormenting my room mates with guitar practice every evening and also the cooking experiments that I often indulge into !!!

I think the next time you asked me 'Wassup' you probably wont get back a 'Nothing new' from me :)

Harle House...Maggi Villa....Isha Mansion

For the people who know me well, it must not be something very difficult to guess that I am a person who likes to be in his comfort zone for years together. Change is something I hate. Probably this is the reason that you don't find me switching company, cell phone, bike and also priorities too often. I am this way and many attempts to change this particular trait of mine have gone futile. People can attribute this quality of mine to various reasons but I myself know that this is just because of my lethargy. Every other day I come across an opportunity to change, however I let it go away. Probably this particular feature is also present in all my friends too and that explains how we all get along so well !!!

Naturally it seems absolutely appropriate that I get really pissed off when I am supposed to make a big change, huge actually, in my life. Its called "Shifting my place".

You might be wondering about the strange name given to this post. Read on for getting the exact meaning and the countless emotions involved in the name I have given.

Today I have a very mixed feeling while writing this post. Feels like I am standing at the junction of multiple rivers of emotions. These emotions are Nostalgia, Freedom, Happiness, Sadness, Apprehension, Excitement and most importantly Change. Today I have moved out of Karanjkar Niwas for good. Yes, the place of Mausiji / Maushi to most of the readers of this blog. Along with the old, tattered, dusty,damp and at times smelly place, I leave behind a million memories.

Karanjkar Niwas has been our home since June 2005. The initial members of the house were Sudipto, Sayaneel and Gaurav (read as Basu, Bachha and Bhai a.k.a. Goloo )

Before I moved in, I had spent around three miserable weeks in a PG accommodation.
My initial two weeks in a city that I knew nothing about proved to be like a catalyst in making new friends. I feel that when you have people you can trust, nothing can scare you. Not even the intimidating corporate career. Thankfully, I made friends real fast and decided to move in with them. These three inhabitants of Karanjkar Niwas welcomed me into their small, congested and 'not really an amazing' place. But I loved it, just because I had friends to stay with. Nothing really mattered to me more. It was a million times better than staying alone in a single room home and single room life. Thus Karanjkar Niwas became OUR home. Never did we expect that the same ol' place was going to be our shelter for the next three years.

Although, the four of us were the original inhabitants of the place, there have been many changes over the period. I remember at least 15 different people who have stayed with us in these three years. The ones who had actually moved in for some time were - Som, Avinash a.k.a. Chhotu, Chetan a.k.a. Bauji, Saurabh (Bhai's chota bhai). Apart from these names, at least a dozen guys have spent many nights at our place. Right from our ITP batch mates like Anik or Ritesh to other friends like Ashish a.k.a. Maadel, Srinivas a.k.a. Chinni, Bahar , Piyush, Sudarshan, Sudeep, Mohish a.k.a. Gujju, Veer.... man!!! the list goes on. As the list is virtually endless, so are the episodes that we have had at our place.

We have had an infinite number of little episodes at this place that send us all in fits of laughter. To elaborate more, I would like to add that all the people who have stayed with us in this house have all been far from normal. Each and everyone (including me) is completely weird in his own sense.

Well !! I guess I have written too much about us. Now is the time for the real deal. The title of this post. The girls in our lives (as we would all claim.....only the fact that they never knew!! :) )

Harleen Chawla was by far the prettiest girl I had ever talked to.

What else, she was in our ITP batch. The "Delhi Girls" was a community that I had never interacted with in my entire life. I had always heard of them but never seen, let alone interacted with them. So as you can see, my first experience was absolutely wonderful. We (Meaning Me, Basu and Bhai) would always make other people jealous whenever we used to hang out with Harle. Harle is what we used to call her and had started to call our home as "Harle House" during the training days. I still remember Harleen's birthday celebration that took place in our house. Strangely, the stain of the chocolate cake that we had plastered on Harle's face still lies on the wall of our drawing room and the memories of the time we spent that night still lie in our hearts.

As the days passed, people started moving in and out of our lives. Harle, sadly went to the Noida Office and so did many of my batch mates. Baccha went to Kolkata office and with him, most of the Bengalis from our batch.

One fine day Som, Bhai and Basu had started liking girl from our office (read - Moving on Harleen). She was Maggie. Im not really sure what I should write about her because I never had any interaction with her (Also I didn't like her much, but that is entirely my opinion. :) Bhai and Basu were definitely in love with her. Without my knowledge, our home was rechristened as Maggi Villa.

Guys note the rise in the stature of our home. Initially it was Karanjkar Niwas, then it became Harle House and now it was Maggie Villa. The mirror of our dressing table was now decorated with words like 'I Love Maggie' and 'Maggie our sweetheart'

Then one day, the expected happened. Maggie was spotted sporting an engagement ring and whoa within no time, my roommates were sulking at their intangible loss. As far as I know about her, she is happily married now !!! The dressing table wanted the name changed on the Mirror. Somehow, someone of us would write a girl's name on it when a prospective love interest was spotted and as soon as she got committed or engaged, the name used to vanish the next day and a hunt for a new name used to begin. I wonder who was doing all this :o

After going through another heartbreak, we had moved on. And moved on pretty well. Som went onsite. Bhai left Maggie Villa (It was still called that) and it was only me, Basu and Chhotu remaining in our heartbroken house. As they say time is the best medicine. So it was, with nobody of us managing and for that matter not even trying to attract someone of the opposite sex to move from our professional life into personal. There was a period of 0% activity related to our so called love lives :) I was involved in my super tight schedule of Cricket+Office+Gym , Basu in his usual sense used to be at home in the evenings watching TV and Chhotu, well at his real home i.e. Office.

Life moved on as usual and again the routine started as expected until one fine day when God had some change of plans for us (me at least). I was entering the Sharda Center parking on a Monday morning feeling blue as I always do. But something was different, way too different than normal. The reason was the prettiest girl I had ever seen in my entire life!!! My heart skipped a beat (maybe two) when I first saw her. I am not exaggerating at all guys. I still believe that nobody can be prettier than the girl I saw that too in my own office parking. There are mails that come from people on IT bench in the morning claiming that if you look at something really beautiful, you will be happy throughout the day. I never thought that it can really happen. But truly the face was astonishingly gorgeous and more than worth my silly condition. So pretty that it made me restless throughout the day and at least a couple of nights that followed. Something within me shouted loud "The house needs a new name!!!"

As a perfect roommate I didn't waste any time and told about 'THE ONE' to Basu and Chhotu. Both were happy hearing something like that and naturally were excited at the chance of seeing a really beautiful girl in our vicinity. Both of them managed to get her glimpse within the week and found out that she was in our finance department. We all knew only two things about her : 1) That she was extremely good looking and 2) Her seat in our office. But there was a major problem at hand. Nobody knew her name and didnt dare go and ask her that (obviously!). The hunt began!! I remember having asked around 15 different guys and almost 5 other girls :) about her. The problem was that all the 15 guys themselves were smitten by the beauty and the 5 girls were too proud to find out details about a stunningly beautiful girl. Well it is expected from 'em anyways isn't it?

Then one fine day a junior of mine told me the name and some heart breaking details about her. Her name was Isha and i thought that it was the most beautiful name in the world somehow. The sad part was to get to know her name from a new joinee and the news that she was already engaged. The only happy news to all of us was that our house finally found a name for itself. We began to call it ISHA MANSION and our monthly bills were circulated now with a subject line as 'Isha Mansion Bills'!

Basu, Chhotu and me were head over heels for her, well along with around a couple of hundred other techmighties :) I remember having silly arguments with my roommates about whose bhabhi and whose wife she is gonna be in future. Ghanshyam was also one of her heart broken lovers and was involved in such arguments with us. The situation was absolutely hilarious every time me and Basu would team up and speak about Isha as Ghanshyam's bhabhi.
I claimed to have a better chance of getting her pertaining to the fact that she also was a Maharashtrian like me. Ha! let alone chances she never even took cognizance of the fact that people like me, Basu, Ghanshyam and the hundreds of her devotees even existed. I never saw her even speaking to any guy in the office. We would agree all the time that thinking about Isha never brought any "Bad thoughts" (read - lewd ) within us. And that was absolutely true. She was a cut above the rest, unapproachable and pure. One who would get a mark on her had our dirty hands ever touched her. She had truly made all of us fall in love with her simplicity and beauty. The days just passed on blissfully with her in our minds and hearts.

One day Basu had to move to UK and Chhotu to his new flat. Thus I had no choice but to leave Isha Mansion. A mixed feeling, same as what I have right now writing this post filled me that time. But like all great experiences, this one also had to end somewhere and the day finally arrived. The pain of leaving Isha mansion was multiplied by the fact that I had to move in the new place alone. Basu was leaving the same day I had to shift. He and I shared a superb camaraderie throughout our stay together with similar tastes and thought process.


With a heavy heart (like I have tried to portray in Technicolor above :))I had to bid adieu to my home and start a new chapter in my life. I was really thankful to God that I didn't have to move in with any strangers. Parag, my cricket team buddy and one of my best friends was gonna be my roommate from now on. So things were not as bad as I thought they would be.

An ITP training day was one of Enjoyment, Fear, Tension, Relief, Competition, and Celebration all clubbed into one. I distinctly remember having spent mornings in tension about a tough paper, entering the TR2 training room in fear, feeling relieved after seeing an expert sitting next to me and celebrating after a good result in the canteen. Then there were days of my actual work in TechM, the boring part. Throughout this dull period, my friends were my constants and variables all along and helped me sail the corporate storm smoothly as they still do. Then there was my best period, my cricket days. A period of extreme activity and fun with practice, matches and generally cricket the only talked about topic at home. Gym, parties, movies were other activities that kept me happy all through these three years.

Amongst all this whirlwind and a plethora of activities that I indulged in, the only thing that remained as it is was our home, our Karanjkar Nivas, our Harle House, our Maggie Villa and our Isha Mansion. The house that I called home.

Anand Baitule

John. These days whenever this word comes to our mind, we instantly tend to relate it to John Abraham; the bollywood hunk. But, it is not the case with the Friend Circle. Whenever we hear the word John, there is only one person that comes to our minds. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is none other than Anand (a.k.a) John Baitule. Now if you ask me why Anand got this name, I would probably give you a terribly sarcastic look or maybe just laugh at your foolishness and maybe even slap you (unless you are an absolutely stunning girl, that is). So if you are a girl and I haven’t slapped you on this question, you can thank me for the compliment.

Throughout the Friend Circle you might have found a plethora of adjectives that I have used while describing my friends. But the personality in concern is way too complicated to be described by mere adjectives. I wish English could be as complex as some of John’s ideologies. (Guys I might refer to Anand as John, Sarkar, Ghalib and Jonny according to my wish with the first 2 being christened by my dear Asu and the last 2 terms coined by the author of this blog ;))

Jonny was the first real friend that I remember to have had in my life. I was introduced to him much much before the other guys in the circle. He was my bench partner through the most part of my schooling days. I remember we clicked as friends instantly with similar likings like Cricket and sports in general. We have shared some unforgettable days in school and played quite a lot of pranks ourselves. Of course our mediocre pranks would invariably be overshadowed by the big daddy of all pranksters Piyush. Still I remember some distinctly, like the Black Magic prank we played with Padmanabh Kullarvar. I won’t write about it much but would like to mention that this prank might be the reason he left Somalwar School.

I also remember how we made a lot of money in the Annual fete that was organized in our school in the 8th standard by creating a game that had, well, a healthy 10% chance of winning (for the players of course). I believe we had both earned some 60 Rs. per head and trust me, we felt rich.

Coming back to the present tense, John is still a Best Friend and always will be.

This person can be called as the Rule Creator. The only person authorized to break his rules (well no prizes for guessing) is himself. He has this habit of saying “Aisa Nai Raita” and then after he has to break his rules, he simply says “Kabhi Kabhi Aisa karna padta”.

He is a self proclaimed fitness freak and claims to be healthier than most of us (me included). He always has this condescending tone whenever we discuss physical fitness. Now what reality speaks is already known to the people who have reached this far in reading this post. The growing size of his tummy seems to be a concern for all his well wishers, but he claims to shed it off in a month or two as usual. Maybe he is just referring to some 2 months in the past or the ones coming after 30 years. I wish they come a bit earlier.

He has this knack of using one liners wherever possible (If the situation is unsuitable then he would not change his line, but change the situation to suit his one liner and then blurt it out). I’ve recently heard that he wanted to use a one liner “Mai bhi yahi chahta hu” (taken from his bible – The script of the movie - Sarkar) so desperately that he had to break off from a friendly relation with a girl so that he could use this line.

Since the time we have seen the movie Sarkar, we have started calling John, well, Sarkar. Only some of us are lucky enough to find this gem in his one Liner delivering mood and trust me nothing could be funnier. He gets an adrenaline rush as soon as he hears a single word of praise, more precisely – “Ek Number Sarkar”.

Some of Sarkar’s hobbies (I mean apart from intense physical fitness) include home maintenance, cooking, watching Sarkar, chatting on the phone with his buddies(only in Airtel happy hours ;)), sleeping, changing careers, meeting accidents on his bike, going on multiple first dates, etc… the list goes on and on.

One of his important idiosyncrasies is the use of the Urdu language when you least expect it. He must have used some high funda urdu shers even while taking milk from his Doodhwalla in the morning.I can bet my money on this. He has a sincere feeling that all females are smitten by Urdu Shayari and they tend to be attracted towards the Shayar. Whether this is a truth or just his wish is a matter of speculation. By the way I don’t see myself indulging in Shayari while talking to any good looking female anytime soon, but that’s entirely my opinion. I won’t mind using this technique of our desi Ghalib if it’s proved to be successful.

All I can say is that come what may, I will always stand by my dearest friend Jonny in all his good and bad times and I wish there are none of the latter type.

I would like to sum up this post with one of John’s favorite Shers-

Tujhko dariya dil ki kasam,
Sakiya mushakkil daur par daur chalta rahe,
Mehfile maikeda rang yunhi sajta rahe,
Ek girta rahe ek sambhalta rahe,
Ashq chashme purnab se behta rahe,
Aur dil se dhua yuhi nikalta rahe,
Tere chehre par ye zulfe bikhri rahe,
Aur neend ki god me subah yuhi nikharti rahe,
Aur ye teri sitam aadaye…………hai,
Ye dil hai dil, kabtak sambhalta rahe.

Saurabh Rajurkar

Bhau...Yes he is called bhau (even by girls).I dont really know the origin of this pet name of Saurabh, but i cannot imagine him having any other name.I really dont think there is anyone on this earth who calls him Saurabh (including his parents).One of the latest entrants in our clique, Bhau has become one of my best friends very soon.

Bhau is one of the few friends from my circle who was not from my school.He did his schooling from Somalwar Ramdaspeth and was the classmate of Nitin (so you guys can link him to us via Nitin to begin with).I still remember the Bhau who played cricket against us during our inter-school-unofficial-and-very-exciting cricket matches.I really hated that version of him and thought of him as a very arrogant and rough guy.I was proved wrong, quite correctly, when I had the privilege of being his class-mate during my engineering days.

Bhau is one guy who, I can claim, is one of the most whimsical and moody people I have ever met.He has this habit of following his wishes and whims instantaneously without thinking of the repercussions and also the effect they have on others. I have been a victim (if not just a sufferer!!!) of his whims many a times. One such incident was the untimely return from Hyderabad on a day we were supposed to go sight-seeing and when we had free return tickets of the day after. He many-a-times behaves in very rude and curt manner, inadvertently hurting the sentiments of the people he spends time with. The number of such instances is almost intangible.

But, being his friend for quite a while and knowing him very well, I have come to know eventually that he does not mean anything he says particularly. Now whenever Bhau shows his mood swing, this is a common reaction by all of us - "Haaaaaa.. Bhau hai Chhod na!!!!".

Quoting all this does not mean that he always behaves like this. These are only occassional instances and rest of the time, Bhau is a very loving and affectionate creature. Bhau has a heart of a child. He is like a child in most respects. Many a times he is in a need of some guidance and most of these times it is his friends who guide him. He also loves spending time with his friends and absolutely loves them.But recently this time has come down drastically due to two reasons. One being in a Military-Business-Administration college ;-) and the other being undisclosed.(How undisclosed can it be anyways ?????)

Bhau is a very good cricketer and has been an ardent follower of the sport throughout his life. He was the captain of our college cricket team and has also played at professional levels.

But... as everyone knows, the growing size of his tummy has led him to have a lot of BACK problems and has compelled him to miss many a crucial matches recently ;-). There has been no committment to the game from Bhau in the last few matches we played together. (Sudarshan and Anup would definitely agree !!!!!!!!!!!).

Joks apart, Bhau has been working really hard since the last 2 years and has matured quite a lot (at least I hope he has). I wish him best of luck in all his endeavours and just want to mention that - In case of any doubt clarification or need of expert advice, we are always there for you Bhau!!

Sincere Apologies

Dear Friends,

Im really sorry for procrastinating the updation of this site.The work load of my job compelled me to do so (please believe me). I am looking forward to complete all the remaining introductions as soon as possible.

I hope you all must have seen the addition of the Google Search Bar on my Blog. I request you all to use this facility and ask all your friends to use it extensively for all your future Google searches.

Please download the softwares like Mozilla Firefox and register for Google Adsense using the links on this blog.

Again, I wish to apologize to all those friends whose introductions are not yet posted on this site. Guys, be patient.

Thanks a lot,
Utkarsh

Atul Markand

Sumeet Deshpande

Tatya,Despo,Sumdi,Desai-ka-tillu, etc. are some of the 30 odd names i can think of Sumit.Nobody on this planet has more names than him.Nobody on the planet has as much talent either.A very bright student throughout his life takes academics as just another class 4th arithmetic problem.It comes naturally to him.Now sumit may not agree to this and try to be modest, but guys this really is the truth.He is one guy who has a great brain between those funny looking ears.

I was the first person from our school to be introduced to Sumit.It was 9th standard when Sumit migrated from his Amravati School to mine.I very well remember the first day of Sumit in our class.I was sitting on the 3rd last bench with Anand and the 3rd seat was empty.Sumit had no other option.As normal 9th standard guys, I and Anand were a bit averse to let an intruder into our private and very exclusive group.We behaved formally with him and asked him some stupid questions to which he gave answers in english.It was a tough task to control the laughter.Nobody dared to speak in English with us MAN!! That did it.We guys decided to rag this newcomer and the senior members of the group like Anup and Sudarshan (Thats what they considered themselves to be) started the proceedings with some adult questions.I remember the gesture Sumit had shown us as a depiction of his vast knowledge about the stuff and i still laugh thinking about it.Little did i know then, that this alien creature was destined to be one of my best friends.

This total prankster, fun loving, adventurous, crazy, whacky and wild guy, became an integral part of our so called GROUP.I remember Sumit's first prank was to spray ink on the shirt of chavanni (our P.T. teacher) and im still proud of him for doing it.The man with the hair of steel (He holds the world record for breaking the most number of combs, metallic ones included !!!) , record breaking 'longest hair on feet' and teeth of Bugs Bunny is also a voracious eater.Man take him to a Savji restaurant or for that matter any place and just watch him eat.This 5'7 hunk of 60 kgs can devour an entire Chicken or maybe even two, making other stalwarts in this industry like Ashish and Sudarshan look like nappy clad new borns.At any dinner, he is always the last man standing.. i mean eating.

Sumit is the latest entry in our group (7 years) but has, with his great qualities of a true and caring friend, never made anybody realize that.In fact i think there are many facts about him which nobody except us know about.He is a very good singer and has absolutely no stage fear. He has this unique activeness and enthusiasm in him which makes him an ideal person to organize group events and functions.He is a guy who will always think of the people around him before himself and this un-selfishness has enabled him to boast of one of the largest friend circle, gathering friends wherever he has gone, be it Schools & Colleges he has studied in and the Colonies he has lived in.

Tatya is also a sports enthusiast( like the other members of the group) and loves to play any game be it Cricket, Soccer, Carrom or even jogging.He is also a fitness freak just like me and was my jogging partner during our final enginering semester in Nagpur.Im sure he misses those days and those rounds of VRCE ground, those chats with the new girls we had be-friended, those kegel (our secret, guys!!) exercise we did everyday as much as i do.

He was the first person to leave Nagpur after getting graduated and I had a very bad time saying good bye to him.I hope nobody saw the moisture in my eyes, the day Sumit left for his job.But destiny brought us together when he got himself posted to Pune and I cannot express how happy I was when I came to know about this.

Guys I guess i should stop here before this story becomes too long to be interesting.

Nitin Narke

Narke..Well to say the least, this guy is one of the most talented guys ive come across.He is the most informed person i know and is a great communicator.I have seen no other person to be so well informed about the smallest of the issues; be it politics, sports, business just to name a few.On any given day this guy can deliver a speech on absolutely anything under the sun that too making others feel that he has prepared for days together.

His talent is not only spread across the communications domain but also other walks of life.He is a very good sportsperson and an adventure freak.One of the most enthusiastic persons i have ever seen, he is game for anything involving adventure.He will be always a phone call away from any such plan.I mean can anyone imagine a 22 year old guy to go visit Haridwar,Hrishikesh and other such places ALONE just because nobody else was available? He is a guy who agreed to ride a bike from Pune to Nagpur (Thats 800 kms guys) along with Anup,Sumit and Sudarshan, when this plan was informed to him 2 days before the journey.

Nitin has been my friend for 13 years now and we share a lot of things.It his regular practice to call me up almost every other day and just talk about anything.He has this peculiar habit of calling up friends late in the night and release his frustrations by giving gaaliya for some 20 mins and then when he's done, he informs that he is done for now.

One thing which impresses me most about Narke is that he, like me, considers his friends his biggest assets.He is a very helpful guy and is a true friend.I remember many incidents when he had come to the rescue of friends in trouble, be it fights, money or girls.If you have trouble, Narke is the guy to call.And whenever he was in trouble, we reciprocated the same to him( Im sure he agrees to this ).

He is one freaking wild guy when he gets behind the steering or a bike's handle.Our own Nagpuri Michael Shumacher has never lost a street race, be it on his Kinetic Honda,CBZ or his Maruti 800.I must mention here that he is one helluva talented driver.On our trip to Kanha he drove the whole distance from Nagpur to Kanha National Park excellently ( Though one small risk, but im sure he knew what he was doing ).

I will probably never run out of topics when describing one of my best friends Narke.

Piyush Ghatole

Peeeeooooooo.Sense and sensibility, these two words can never find a place in Piyush's lexicon.I have never encountered any creature with a longer tongue (literally) on this planet also including the wild animals.Piyush sure knows how to make the fullest utilization of this.He can talk absolutely crap and that too for hours at a stretch.

Always confused with his decisions this guy is a complete time pass and I can very well remember at least a million instances when he had called me and we have talked absolutely non-sense for hours together.I can very well confess here that he is the only person on the earth who can beat me in talking non-sense.If he is the best (or worst) in this field ; im the second to him.Im sure Piyush agrees to this.



I have been with Pu since 1st standard and can claim to know him inside out.

This guy was the most facile person during our school days and could do absolutely any damn thing on this earth when someone would try to coax.This application of pressure has enabled us to savour some of the most enjoyable days of our school.Nobody can forget the energy Piyush had during the all-so-important marathi class of Bedekar Madam.The way he shouted in the class, the way he sang, threw rulers, balls, can never be forgotten.I think I will have to write a separate post only about the pranks Piyush executed during our school days and im sure that would be the longest and the funniest of them all.An absolute prankster, Pu was deeply missed by me after our school finished.

Though the school finished, I found out that our friendship only strengthened day by day.
An avid music lover and sports fanatic, Pu was bound to become one of my best friends.
I cant forget the days when our whole gang went swimming at NIT club for 3 months when Pu taught each of us the so-very-exciting Back Dive.

The person with many world records like longest tongue (see photos for a better insight),eating food for the longest time (6 hours),Talking on phone for three hours in an undiscovered language, etc. is one of the funniest persons that I can ever imagine to have taken birth on this planet.


It is my regular practice to call him up and just dump the accumulated garbage of the hectic week on his head almost every week.I actually end up getting dumped in his crap at the end of the discussion.But thats what I like about him the most.I have never seen a serious side of his and never intend to see it either.I leave my brain 1000 kms away when talking to him and so does he.

Too much with the introduction guys, I can never talk sensibly and about Piyush together, this long.

Its an absolute treat to be his friend and I thank the Farrelly brothers for directing Dumb and Dumber.Also i would like to thank My producers and directors for keeping faith in me and................. see what i meant ???

Ashish Deshmukh

Ashish Deshmukh (Model,gatar,asu......,etc)has given the world a totally new dimension with his exceptionally advanced analytics and theories.Technically super sound and highly experienced in all the subjects(and papers) he has made some historical statements such as "Ha program majhya ghari roj live disto".He forgot to take his brain with him when he started the voyage of his life.Nobody can specifically point out any such reason which makes Ashish Deshmukh such a person, and to add, nobody can point out any reason in whatever he has ever said or done.

I am still searching for a day when Ashi made sense of the things.

The duplicate of the duplicate of the duplicate of Shahrukh Khan's duplicate is a self proclaimed hunk.He has considered and projected himself as nobody less than Arjun Rampal, Zyed Khan,Shahid Afridi,Upen Patel and maybe even Praful Patel(You can never guess).

But let me tell you this 6'2 inch lanky lad is sure a Ramp Burning material.He was even offered to walk the ramp on a number of occassions by our Gym instructor who is also a modelling consultant but our MODEL doesnt walk on local ramps you see. Its Milan or nothing for him.

Jokes apart, one of the most striking things about Ashi is his simplicity.He has this air of comfort around him which is really very comforting for the others too.A very kind person at heart, he is a friend of each person he has met in his life. He just cannot have any foes.
Very much like me, he cannot live even a minute, without his friends.

People can leave their brains at home when spending time with him as he himself doesnt have any, and doesnt compel the others to use it either.

I have seen a thousand shades of his character being with him since the last 13 odd years and consider myself proud to have him in my life.I could see his true strength during the time he held his family together when his (actually our) brother passed away in a mishap.He is a true best friend i cannot live without.

I guess this is the shortest i can write about him.

Sudarshan Damle

AAba.The oldest of the USA (Utkarsh-Sudarshan-Anup) brigade (actually youngest in age just old because of his eccentric ajoba-like habits).This person is the most notorious guy i have ever seen in my life and im sure i havent seen the best of him yet.

Me and Sudarshan have been studying together throughout our life (Right from 1st standard, middle school, high school, diploma, and engineering).So it makes him my first best friend. Being together for 17 years out of the 22 is really something.

Sudarshan has this sabhya sadha image created entirely by his demeanour in public which makes him the favourite person wherever he goes.It is his uncanny ability to impress people just by saying a small sentence like 'How are you' or anything at all in such a polite and suave manner, that saves him from punishments even after committing the most serious of the mistakes.

The only ko-bra in our group is actually very unlike the conventional image of these people.
He is probably the most generous and helpful person one can ever meet in life and I consider myself very lucky to be with him since our childhoods.

Sudarshan Damle is a phenomenon which cannot be constrained to a text file and so i will end this brief introduction here.He will be seen a lot many times in future I assure you.

Anup Ratnaparkhi

Hero. This is the word which best describes this guy.We all actually started calling him one on the day when there were more messages of girls from all the different walks of life - his table tennis gals, our college gals, some school gals, others ( even he doesnt know the origin of some ) on his cell phone, than ours.

Anup has been my friend since maybe ever.The famous A of the infamous USA (Utkarsh-Sudarshan-Anup) trio is a sportsperson to the core.He is born to play and boy does he play well! Talk about any game on this planet (Getting the best of the girls included), he is a master.Whatever game he plays, be it Table Tennis,Cricket,Football or even Video games he excels in it without much difficulty.Though the toughest competitor is me ; most of the times ;-)
Ocassionally i beat him too (Guys dont forget this is my site and i get to say things in here).


I have been friends with Anup since over 13 years now and we talk everyday even today for hours.This should explain the kind of cameraderie we share and so I would like to sum up this introduction by saying that he is a best friend; literally. Else I will have to write around 1000 pages (a4 size font 10) and still feel like i have left somethings out.

We will see more of him as and when I think of any special kissas and thus limit my introduction to the generics.

One more thing is that I had hurt him last time when I was in Nagpur and I hereby publically apologize to him for the same(Sorry no details and questions).

That does for the introduction I guess..coz before i complete this write-up ill be talking to him on the phone.

Introduction of the Friend Circle

Hey all..

As promised im going to write about the Friend Circle and what better way to start proceedings with a brief introduction of my buddies...

Here i would like to state that the introductions are in no order of preference and are entirely my ideas and whims.

My introduction will come last because im the host you see.

So here goes....( Sorry guys but this had to be done )

Welcome to the Friend Circle

Hey people...Welcome to my very own blogspot.
At least there is something of my own now.
I welcome all those who receive this link and also the ones who dont, to write anything in this blog.

I hereby declare this blog....OPEN

Whenever I get some free time, im going to write a post based on the title of this blog "The Friend Circle". Hope you all will like it.

Till then......Take Care.