Immortality

So... Yesterday was interesting. It was turning out to be the most generic sort of Friday night for me (all of them seem to be as of late). In my PJs with fifteen minutes till midnight and guess who decides to call? None other than Sam (You'll find out more about her in later entries no doubt). So at midnight I found myself driving off to have a late night (early morning?) snack with my hair suffering from severe post-pajama syndrome and a crumpled up lame tee with jeans. Sam of course has to show up in her finest with jewelery to boot! So it ended up being Mr. You-Look-Like-A-Bum and Ms. Dressed-Up-To-Party at a 24-hr diner few minutes past midnight.

Having been out of touch for the longest time (apart from the occasional run-in at one of the the libraries) we pretty much had a lot to catch up on. It would seem a lot had indeed changed since we last spoke. After a paltry meal (a sandwich we decided to split between us) which neither of us were particularly interested in and some liquid sugar (commonly regularly referred to as "coke") we decided to go out for coffee. What else can you do at two o'clock in the morning?!?

After driving around looking for a 24-hr Tim Horton's we landed the most dingy sort of place (rather sure it's the hottest pit-stop for Brampton's Weed Junkies - based on the number of cops that stopped by the place and of course the nocturnal crowds sitting in the shadows of the carpark). One and a half hours later with no coffee consumed but a complete re-account of the past few weeks behind us we both decided to call it a night.

Hence ended the midnight escapade of Sam and I at 3.30 the following morning. I realized on the drive back that there were two type of friends. The first requires an inordinate amount of closeness and constant nurturing or it simply ceases to existing. The second variety works in the exact opposite manner. It can be a week, a month or even a decade, whatever the reason, whatever the duration, the closeness you share never expires. At any given moment, may it be through running into one another at the library or a random phone call, you start off where you left things off. No questions, no love lost. The relationship that Sam (and for that matter most of my friends that truly matter to me) and I share is definitely of the latter variety. An immortal friendship.

The Car

A man in my opinion has several key achievements during the course of his infinitesimal existence on earth; First Step, First Kiss, First Car, Finding that Special Life-Partner, Marriage, First House and Children.

In my short journey to date, I've achieved another of those key milestones in the form of my first car. After much toil and suffering flipping through the obscene amount of car adverts I finally found that mechanical playmate I've been looking for (intentionally made corny). So last Sunday I put forth a deposit for a car that I picked up three days later. The car which happens to be a 2004 Acura 1.7EL is in a sporty metallic blue. It also comes with a good set of rims, a kick-ass v-tech Honda engine and a few dents here and there courtesy its previous owner. However all said and done, like my first girlfriend, it is very unlikely I would ever forget this piece of machinery in the years to come. Although this would be the most expensive item I've purchased to-date and I couldn't be more happier. Having always wanted to buy my first car on my own, I feel I've achieved that milestone in good time.

Here's for a hopefully trouble free ride. Cheers!

Friend`ology

So you have friends, enemies, strangers and then you have those people who don't really fall into either of the above mentioned classifications. Lately my social graph (working 6hrs a day studying the world of social networking, I've picked up some of the jargon) has been dominated by the latter. Where exactly do your ex-s' fall in the grand scheme of things? and what about those occasional flings and old crushes that have descended into that gray region of uncertainty?

If I really wanted to be optimistic a glance at my facebook account states that my "friends" number in the hundreds. Surely I don't consider all of these people to be my friends (then why have I given them free reign to rummage through my personal photos and conversations!). If facebook were to be considered the ultimate authority on social relationships then my good friend, lets call her "bambi", has enough to be elected in Colombo using just her "friend-vote". So if all my "friends" on facebook aren't really my friends then should they be classified as such. That-Guy-Whose-Name-I-Can't-Recall and She-Who-I-Don't-Know-Where-We-Met come to mind as excellent lists to group these people under. Then again doing so would be at the risk of being on the receiving end of some serious payback. At least the status quo would be broken with the ability to classify majority of the folk under enemies with good authority.

Alas, none of the alternatives are practical under current social etiquette. So for the foreseeable future I would have to continue to tolerate a few people with whom I no longer share any social nor emotional connection as "friends" and shrug them away as figurative party crashers of the most stupendously boring party in the universe that is my life.

The big Two-Too

Oh well, it's that time of year when the internal clock in your brain arbitrarily decides to click one down in the countdown towards your expiration date. This is not entirely the most optimistic outlook on one's birthday, but it is definitely the most realistic. Looking back, a mere one year ago my world was full of opportunities and aspirations compared to who I am today. I am tempted to term this as a form of tunnel vision, where with age, experience and wisdom, you understand that everything is not possible and we probably would not achieve everything we'd hoped for as children. Frankly, achieving just one of those dreams would be an accomplishment worthy of a lifetime of work.

On the optimistic side of life, I reminiscent back on a long series of birthday celebrations and all I can recall is laughter, happiness and time spent with friends.

1. This of course was the dawn of a new era for mankind. With much rejoice and celebration the world over was born the king of the world. I have seen the pictures of this party at our "annex" atop my ancestral home. Well it can't really be called an "annex" of the usual sense but more a wing or extension of a house in the heart of vibrant Colombo. I bet it was the most torturous party for my newly-born self with the traditional Sri Lanakan "cheek-squeeze" and people obsessive over picking you up. All I'm interested at this point is the poop in my diaper, the cake I'm being fed and maybe those nice ridable toy cars my grandparents and my parents got for me!

6. The second year at St. Joseph's College and a litter of little scoundrels for friends. So the entire class was invited, all forty or so of them and I vaguely remember Uncle Tissa's humongous speakers and a magic show to boot! Most of that class are people I still consider friends and associate closely. Imagine that, the friends I made seventeen years ago are more or less the same people I'm left with today! Who said grade one wasn't stressful!

14. This was probably the first time Jilan came into a party of mine. We were probably in that phase of cautiously evaluating each other. It would still take a few more years for these observations to be concluded and a life long pact to be formed. Later he would tell me the "spend-the-day" style parties I had during this era were probably the most enjoyable for him. They mostly included an insane amount of video games, cricket and unhealthy cholesterol-rich junk food. However a lot of the people who attended these parties are forever lost in my life, a reality I still regret today. It seems regrets of this variety become second nature as you mature.

16. Earlier this day I signed one of my first business contracts. The initiation of my foray into the chaotic and cut-throat world of business. In this age of forced maturity, I decided to have my first "club party". Well not really since my parents downright refused to have anything to do at an on-going club. So instead my 16th Birthday Party was held at a newly opened nightclub named "Area 51" that my parents had conveniently bought out for the night. This is probably the point where I had an epiphany about to my parents' cunning controlling nature. Evolutionary genetics suddenly made sense.

17. So this would be the first time I "brought home a girl" per say. Well not in the same context your hyperactive perversions assumed! So I was going out at with my first female companion at the time and among a sea of my guy friends there she was feeling right at home. All-in-all this would be the last generic party of Cricket, Pizza and a spend-the-day attitude.

18. What exactly do you call a party where you order food for two-hundred and fifty people and you forget (?!?!) to invite a hundred of them. This stroke of genius was committed by none other than your's sincerely. So the party began as a small gathering of friends and family which soon grew to become the universal subset of everyone I've ever known, met or sometimes only heard of! After much pruning and filtering this hideously long guest-list had one flaw. I was put in charge of inviting my entire grade. As I do not wish to bore with a long list of excuses as to why I couldn't complete this rudimentary task, my friends were told via text/sms two hours before the end of classes to inform the aforementioned student body of the party. I'm surprised that more than thirty people from school ended showing up.

21. First time away from home I would celebrate a birthday. None of my usual friends, neither ammi nor thaththi. However, strangely not too far from home. Maybe I was home, since I was with family. People who love and care about me. Especially considering my uncle drove five-hundred kilometers (from Akron, Ohio) and through one snow storm to be there! Also this night wasn't your run of the mill type of birthdays! It had it's own tinge of adventure! Maybe not suitable to elaborate considering the context of this blog, but let it be known it was no ordinary day.

Missing In Action

"In a faraway land we got shit made,
RayBan shades, warheads laid
babes born in air-raids
My girls roam the Everglades,
Indian tribesman gamble spades,
Indian chicks, they get men laid.
Milk and honey smoke high-grade,
gold and diamond gems and jades,
ride up on our tanks, invade ,
blow out things to save our name and...."

That is a lyrical expert from the song Come Around from U.S. hip-hop artist Timbaland's latest album, Shock Value. The album has been one of the most successful hip-hop albums in the world in 2007. The featured artists of the album include some of the most elite hip-hop artists such as Missy Elliot (7.6m), Dr. Dre (75m), 50-Cent (21m), Nelly Furtado (15m) Tony Yayo (.8m), Justin Timberlake (15m), Fall Out Boy (2.5m), Elton John (250m), Nina Simone, Magoo (1.5m) & Kanye West (9.2m). If the artists featured on this album are any testament to it's significance, the combined 397 million records sold by them adds the figurative icing on this Timbaland cake.

Why is all of this relevant to the theme of this compilation? The Featured artist of the aforementioned track "Come Around" from the album is in fact by a Sri Lankan Artist, M.I.A (Missing-in-Action).

Mathangi Arulpragasam alias M.I.A although was born in London only to return back to Sri Lanka for a couple of years while her father aided in the creation what is now the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Most of her lyrics to date such as the one listed about brings forth ideologies of her native background. "Boyz" a track from her latest solo album "Kala" having achieved the #7 position in the US Singles Chart, M.I.A is undoubtedly the most successful international artist of Sri Lankan origin for many decades.

Being virtually unknown in Sri Lanka it would be interesting to see what sort of reaction Sri Lankans would have to her controversial lyrics, especially in light of her family's involvement in the country's geopolitical affairs.

Note: It should also be noted that M.I.A is also MTV's (Music Television) artist of the week at the time of publishing this entry.

To Each Man, His Friend

When you walk into a new school there is usually a million questions running through your mind. Will you be accepted? Will the teachers in charge be acceptable people? And most importantly what will happen to the friends you already had and will you find new friends? I'm not quite sure if the thought processes were as complex or dramatic for a five-year old going for his first day of school, but I am sure he would at the very least understand the significance of what was about to transpire, a right of passage none the less.

As I stepped into St. Joseph's College on that fateful January morning in 1991, I met one of the most significant influences of my relatively eventful life to come. Memories of my first day of school are hazy at best, it was a dingy sort of place with baby blue wooden partitioning creating make shift classrooms. There was a particular smell I always associate with my grade one classroom, which I later realized was the unbearable combined aroma of vomit and urine. You happen to magically show up in this strange environment with the typical 90s "mickey mouse" water bottle your mother hung around your neck and got you to promise never take off.

Walking around weighed down by a heavy liquid filled canister hanging from your neck and an ever present insecurity about your bladder control wouldn't be considered the most optimum friend making scenario. However when your five-years old it seems that's exactly what you need to be doing. To your fellow five-year olds it seems that water bottle was a figurative "bling-necklace" in a hip-hop circle and that rectangular folded napkin pinned to your breast pocket symbolized equality and a beacon calling out to your fellow napkin-pinned peers.

On that first day of school I met a chubby, tall and obviously hyperactive and giggly friend. To this day I'm not entirely sure what triggered it but sometime during that first week we both decided the other guy wasn't so bad after all and he ended up become my very first friend in the world, and still remains to this very day seventeen years later. That would be "Loku Damian" (Big Damian) because there happened to be a relatively diminutive "Podi Damian" (Small Damian). Today he's referred to by a single consonant, D.

That first year would pretty much consist of D and I getting into mischief; mostly terrorizing our fellow classmates and especially the sumo wrestler like behemoth in the opposite class. Over the years we would grow up around each other and pretty soon for me, he would be the only one I can truly relate to in those vastly turbulent teen years. Just like the start of our relationship which I now know to be a life long deal, it seems impossible for D and I to get together without getting into mischief of one form or the other. Only now the trouble we were attracting included psychotic thugs and pseudo gangsters! Many years later after being in different school, different social circles and later different continents altogether we've still managed to be those two insufferable five-year old brats who met in one dingy grade-one class room and swore to be best friends for life.

It would seem we've stood the test of time my old friend.

Aneurysm in Identitiy

I am an introvert by textbook definition. In a crowded party you'd find me in some arbitrary corner contemplating how I ended up in this very place while the world around me is filled with laughter and socializing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being an introvert. People have a funny way of feeling sorry for you when your isolated and alone. Every now and then this would be some random girl who has stood out from the crowd for as long as she can remember, looking for a kindred soul and some self pity.

By the laws of probability and experience it would last a grand two days before we both realize the fallacy the mutual connection was based on and would move on to our respective roles in society. She would once again become the populist center of attention and the envy of most girls while I would revert back to the introvert I would always be.

Knowing all this you'd expect all those around me to be introverts like myself. On the contrary apart from one very significant character in my story, none of them seem to display any introvert-like traits. It would seem I have taken introvertism one step up in surrounding myself by a truly extrovert universe.

Most people describe life as a house, where each waking moment you spend looking out of a window at the world about you. I on the other hand seem to be locked out of my own house. I am forced to looking into my own life through a window as I live my life seemingly in the third person.