how important it is to have girlfriends..in the past week..we were there to mend a broken heart and to heal another bruised heart..and of coz companions for some retail therapy and gym partners to work it out.

and girlfriends can also be relied on to give one a blast of a time..with their creativity that most guys..ahemmm lack...and the craziness thrown in there..i had a whale of a fun time celebrating my belated birthday. am so very touched by the efforts, garland and all, to pull such a thing especially heheheh..in view of the scarcity of telur. also, i shall try to sing the song next time..but i can never beat the music teacher eh..heheheh..melu malu no more now, so let's say it one more time, the more we get together, the merrier we'll be :)



very pretty, i love! so matching and coordinated eh..



and the completed works of jewel on me..and in the foreground two sari cloth i had received for my birthday. just need to find a good seamstress willing to take in another order at this time.


......................................................................................................


for the record, my history of indiaphilia..to loosely use the term,as i dun honestly have a fetish for things indian,..started during my jc days. i guess the interest developed from the friendships forged. but honestly too, i had always have equal opportunity friendship..of the different races in my years of education till now. i only had an issue with a particular group, in which things end up being more complicated then they should be, which got me wary for a while, but that's another story.

anyway my jc class was one with a lot of scholars. during my time, we have not opened up to those in prc ..instead we have the sia scholars from india. and so i had a few in my class..we just clicked. or they find me to be the more friendlier of the local people in class perhaps.

there was this girl, called arti from bombay..and the class joker onced introduced us as 'this is arti and this isn't'-arti'. arti of coz is the smarter and more confident between the two. it wasnt very clear to me how close we were until one day, arti confided to me, a conflict in the matters of the heart. eventually she got it sorted out herself and went out with the other dashing scholar avin..i think they are married now.

and then of coz there was the angtsy AB who was actually from UWC and got put off by another college...so he always appeared like he got a chip on his shoulder ..and who some in class thought he was slightly delusional. he was also the first snag i knew. sometimes i felt i was the mediator for him and some people. we went on to visit him in london later on. and surprsingly phyz got on with him very well..hahahah ..i thk they clicked..over some things i rather not mention here. he had also got on very well with my friends in uni.

and then there was G. who was really really smart but he just couldnt settle down. instead after a few tests and exams became a master pen twirler. that wasnt the funniest thing about G. he had his whole family in india ready to disown him when they found out that he had cut off his turban..and from him i knew there was such a thing as a fix on fake turban..something he would put on when family visited.

and then i got to know hari in uni, who is actually of nepali descent but whose family had settled down in the tea plantation state of assam. and i had always told him i wanted to visit him there coz i had always wanted to see a tea station..he aced his studies of coz and clinched a much coveted job in a top consulting firm..i will always remember him as the a brilliant humble guy, who also always remember my birthday :)


and then there was a few more later on in my work life. arpal in the states. kk in singapore, the friend who also happen to be our boss... and rohit..another humble quiet brilliant guy who also happen to be a secret master chef..

the common thread about all the above..they happen to be foreign indians..but i had my local indian friends. mostly the girls and then later on the two mr alis..who within the few months gave me a new introduction to the lil india ..so that i know now where to find my thosai other than just tekka market and komalas..

........................................................................................................

oooh,..anyone, especially the ahpek, if he manages to read all the way till here, i can imagine that he is going to chuckle and say to himself..god, tis is like an ode to her indian friends..hahahaha

i think it doenst really matter what race or religion my friends are. i cherish them all the same. even if we are different, we can always find abit of ourselves in each other.