Let me take, “only a minute of your precious time”
To take you back, to 1993
I was “just an average ordinary everyday kid”
When, in Sishya, the principal introduced him to me.
Narmada house, blue uniforms in school
Forming a lifelong friendship, writing poems like a bard.
Floral shirts at home, like the shark, he was so cool,
Playing wall tennis and putt putt golf in the backyard.
Vidya Mandir, was the high school grind,
“Women, women, lots of women”
Physics teachers, English ma’am’s Chemistry burners – bunsen,
Chasing and raining women of a different kind.
Separated by oceans, there was a purpose,
Beyond ICQ, Paril Olof, there was someone to write for, more prose.
An introduction in my absence,
“Though when she was here, he was somewhere else”.
In a marriage, no one is “two steps behind”
Only side by side, him and hymn, together in a sacred bind.
The wedding bells rang, he had found his better half,
Some to walk the walk, talk the talk, laugh the laugh.
Soon his life took him to Switzerland,
Satyam to EF, his life went from good to grand
Two children, a new parent, but proud and fine,
One unique, and the other a splendorous sunshine.
Among this “hysteria”, “we might be all alone tonight”
But life is a journey, worth the long fight,
With family and friends, virtually always there
Forty years, life is run like a tortoise, not a hare.
“So come on, Let’s take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up”
It’s time to celebrate, loudly, let’s all say,
To my dear friend, Happy, Happy, birthday!
Karthik Raja 