Friday 31 October 2008

"I'll be there for you..."

A series that was started by 3 brilliant people, in the year 1994, went on to be the longest running series and shaped our concept of fashion, friendship and life in a way so different that we wouldn't recognise ourselves today without it.

Friends...3 ordinary guys and girls with regular ordinary daily problems and mannerisms...and how they conquer their own problems..and strive to be what they want and get better at what they really strived for..!

Joseph Francis Tribbiani..a striving actor, an Italian from the suburbs of Queens, goes through endless number of hardships, from acting in Pinocchio plays to absurd baseless plays, from getting kicked out of being the butt double of Robert de Niro to being cut off as the lead in a major television show, Days of our lives...he finds a way to survive in the industry and finds a way to the top..!

Ross Geller, a high school geek turned palaeontologist gets married for 4 years to Carol who eventually turns lesbian, while bearing his child, Ben, and is together brought up by Susan and Carol. He ends up marrying thrice and a series of OFF & ON relationships with Rachel Green. He also had a child with Rachel, called Emma, but decides to remain unmarried. He becomes a famous palaeontologist; eventually settling to make ends meet with Rachel.

Rachel Green, a normal sophomore supposed to marry an established orthodontist, Barry Farber, but backs out at the last minute to find a way on her own.She fights to make it to the top , fights against her parents and their wishes and eventually ends up as a buyer in Ralph Lauren and an independent mother bearing the child with Ross, their daughter called Emma Geller-Green.

Monica Geller, sister of Ross Geller, who was undermined by her parents about her capabilities, proves them all wrong. An extremely obese female who loses weight to seek revenge on Chandler Bing (Ross's friend), who criticised her. She turns head chef of an extremely famous restaurant (Alessandro) and falls in love with Chandler Bing over a one night stand.

Chandler Bing, a professional data processor, born to a mother who writes raunchy novels and a father who changed his sex to turn into a drag queen. An excessive smoker who fights to give up the habit and after many a kick backs finally kisses it goodbye. He used humour as his defence mechanism, an extremely immature guy filled with mannerisms, one failure after another and a guy afraid of commitment. He falls in love with Monica, over an one night stand. Then ends up marrying her turning to be the perfect husband, they have difficulties having children and adopt twins.

Phoebe Buffay, an illegitimate child whose adopted mother killed herself when she was 5, strived hard, found aroma therapy, learnt how to play the guitar by herself and wrote her own songs and earned off the streets,and as a masseuse. She falls in love with a divorced lawyer called Mike, who retired from law for living to play the piano. Mike, born off rich, well-off parents provided Phoebe with everything normal that had been missing from her life.

It was a series that had such constant pace and momentum to it. One can never point a finger at "Friends" and say, "this is absurd!". I agree there were shows as classic as, "Happy Days" and "Three's Company", but none of them could dream of achieving what "Friends" achieved. It portrays every bit of inspiration that all of us need at some point or the other..be it quit smoking, move on after a bad relationship, lose weight [:P]...simply every tiny bit of it..awe inspiring..!!!

A series that portrayed everything that represents as I can say "glass half full", everything that is good and still alive amidst us. Everything that required some patting on our back; that reminds you that goodness still dwells and how much your friends can actually make a difference and help you out in those dead rough patches which do not wish to move on.
"I can't have enough of friends..20 years from now and I'll still be watching 'FRIENDS' ".

Wednesday 29 October 2008

All I could do is write about it

Well this life that I've lead has took me everywhere
There ain't no place I ain't never gone
But its kind of like the saying that you heard so many times
Well there just ain't no place like home
Did you ever see a she-gator protect her young
Or a fish in a river swimming free
Did you ever see the beauty of the hills of Carolina
Or the sweetness of the grass in Tennessee
And Lord I can't make any changes
All I can do is write 'em in a song
I can see the concrete slowly creepin'
Lord take me and mine before that comes.

Do you like to see a mountain stream a-flowin'
Do you like to see a youngun with his dog
Did you ever stop to think about, well, the air your breathin'
Well you better listen to my song
And Lord I can't make any changes
All I can do is write 'em in a song
I can see the concrete slowly creepin'
Lord take me and mine before that comes.

I'm not tryin' to put down no big cities
But the things they write about us is just a bore
Well you can take a boy out of ol' Dixieland
But you'll never take ol' Dixie from a boy
And Lord I can't make any changes
All I can do is write 'em in a song
I can see the concrete slowly creepin'
Lord take me and mine before that comes
'Cause I can see the concrete slowly creepin'
Lord take me and mine before that comes.

Courtesy: Lynyrd Skynyrd

ETERNALLY "mine"...

So there we were..me and my friends on a quick runaway from the ever dreading painful campus..to my home sweet home..and Calcutta..
And, being a book lover and having friends who share the same passion..off we went to college street at our earliest opportunity..
A very usual concept of haggling and shouting and everything that follows to pull off a smart one..which acts both ways..cause the shopkeeper doesn't want to let you rip him off..and you don't want to get ripped off by the shopkeeper..more like a viscious circle..
Then a rare book by Virginia Woolf was picked up by one of my friends..and as we opened the book inside it was written in a hasty fashion...

"Sheela,
Sorry for being late again..
Love always,
Rishi.

20.02.28".

It was then that it occurred to me that may be the lucky couple made it through and got married and passed away and their books got sold off by their children, may be they broke up and she sold it off or gave it away or gave it back to him. Millions of possibilities..May be it was the n'th time that the book was getting sold..God knows how and where the book is going to end up..But it will always bear the memoir of the fact that it was given by "Rishi" to "Sheela"..forever and for always...

A gift that will stand all by itself forever and for always...The perfect gift..cause one always looks for the various gifts that could be brought so that they always have never lose it..untampered by time..and somehow i turned glad for all the books that I'd ever got as gifts..cause they are now and forever.. "Eternally mine"...