Promises to keep

This is a tribute to Manu Parashar, an FPM student who is no longer among us. He passed away - almost in his prime, with his best and most fruitful years no doubt still far ahead of him. Many unfulfilled promises, many shattered dreams, many unfulfilled commitments. In honor of the enigma called LIFE, this tribute to Manu Parashar will be in the present tense.

Manu Parashar talks only one language - the language of fun and no tension. Nothing verbose about this tribute - I only fleetingly know him. The few times that I interact with him, my questioning generally revolves around acads and what stikes me as extremely fascinating is the way he simply refuses to talk about anything to do with acads. Coming from an FPM candidate, I am astounded. I think he lacks focus. And then I am introduced to a new world of FPMs, each of them with a colorful zest for life.

Once I meet all these wonderful people, the truth dawns on me. Manu Parashar knows what life 'is' all about. Manu Parashar knows life 'is' not just about cramming for a quiz or a thesis defence. I am deeply overwhelmed by what has happened. Even in his death, Manu Parashar teaches me the same thing that he does while living. There is far more to life and the reality, reinforced so harshly and unexpectedly, is that life is far too short for all the things you wanna do. Life, for me, is no longer just about the work, work and work alone.

I have some promises to keep, chief among them are the things that I wanna do while I am still alive and kicking:

1. I want to learn the guitar and the mouth organ - and impress at least one girl with my charm and my skills
2. I want to learn how not to look ridiculous on the dance floor
3. I want to travel on a HUGE ship - a ship as complete and huge as the Titanic - hopefully with someone who can rival Kate Winslet while I try my best to outdo DiCaprio
4. I want to ride in an open jeep while playing the mouth organ - with not a care in the world about what the rest of the public might be thinking about me - ala Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana
5. I want to take my mother to Vaishnodevi once - just like another good son did for his mother in 1998.
6. I want to sing - any song that comes close to my heart that day - every day.
7. I want to get rid of all the hatred in my life.
8. I want to go watch the Wimbledon. Center Court. Period. And tell others that I was there watching Roger Federer cream his opponent (though I hate to think of Nadal at the receiving end)

And the biggest promise of all:
I will live life to the fullest - I will enjoy every single day, every single moment as if it is my last - as if there is no tomorrow. I will make it a point to spend more time with friends. I will also make it a point to get back in touch with all those long lost friends. BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

Because now it is too late to keep my promise of staying in touch with Manu Parashar.

MANU PARASHAR - This goes out to you. 'If' I can actually translate some of these wishlist items to achievements and some of these actually help me live LIFE to the FULLEST, that would be my biggest tribute to you. 'If' I can keep these promises to myself, that would be the only way I can express SORRY for not keeping my promise to you.