Farewells... and all that crap

Two years in SP are coming to an end. We have had our farewell, and most will pack up and leave in 10 days. Good byes are being said, senti testimonials being written, and people are getting nostalgic. I, for one, can’t understand what the fuss is all about. It is not like I am going to a different planet.

I mean, it feels a lot like those Hindi movies – you know the dramatic climax where the heroine is set to fly off to some exotic foreign locale with her fiancé; and the hero comes running in braving bad traffic, evil villains, and stupid airline rules to finally catch up with her; that too, when the plane has already started taxiing for take-off; suddenly, the pilot makes a halt, and announces, “Miss. XYZ, someone special is waiting for you!”

Well, if you felt the above paragraph was full of bull, all I can say is that is how I feel about farewells. I mean, do we really believe that if the plane had taken off, the hero would never have met the heroine again? I mean, whatever happened to mobile phones, email contacts, and at worst, catching the next flight to that place. I know, I am sounding stupid, but then, that is what you get for reading a stupid blog.

Now, coming back to the ‘farewell’ issue, the rate at which people are going senti, it seems to me that I am the heroine flying away (when the farthest I can go now is to Bhavani, though I confess it is as inaccessible to ppl here as Mars), and there are my dear ‘hero’ friends, who have to wish me good bye and write testimonials, or risk being burnt in hell for ditching friendship!

Not that I have an issue with writing testimonials, or people writing one for me. In fact, I appreciate it. Thanks for letting me know that I am a witty, smart, intelligent, sharp person with a good sense of humour! (I feel sooo flattered!) Thanks also for writing that you will miss my PJs and MCs (yeah, I actually believe that!) But, I seriously cannot understand the fuss behind saying good bye.

I mean, if you mean anything to me, I will keep in touch. Somehow. Mails, Phone, Orkut, pigeons, whatever, but I will be in touch. The least I will do is say “Happy Budday” in Orkut, every year. And, if I mean anything to you, I expect you to remain in touch too. And, if this communication link gets broken due to some future event like job (no time dude, work pressure), beautiful wife (24 hours is too less to admire my wifey, where the hell do I find time for you?), stubborn kids (pester power is no longer just a marketing jargon to me), or plain laziness (c’mon da, I don need to call you to prove that I am ur friend), well, I will understand. And, if you manage to keep in touch beyond all this, yippiieeeeeee!

But, if we don’t keep in touch, 2 days after leaving SP, doesn’t it say something about our ‘depth’ of friendship? Yeah, we were in the same batch, we shared so many wonderful moments, batch unity, etc etc etc… But, we could very well have been in two different worlds, and just happened to share 2 years in SP. I promise you, I will NOT miss you. Not even one bit. Yeah, this may sound like I am a cold hearted guy, who doesn’t know the value of networking, but as I said, I am stupid and this is what you get for being a stupid guy’s batch mate (note: batch mate, not friend).

Since you are equally smart, I can assume you understand what I have been trying to say all along. So, why the senti farewell messages, the testimonials, the “keep in touch” lines, the “time to move on”, “fare well thee”, “10 days to go L” IP groups and status messages? Why can’t we just go our separate ways without behaving like long lost lovers?

P.S: The big hypocrite that I am, I wrote “keep in touch” to many people while writing testimonials.