Memory

Rest In Peace Manoj. I will miss you. I keep thinking I should have made some time to meet you - either here in Singapore or back home in Chennai. I think we met in the second year. And I don't think we hit it off all that much, though. We became friends much later, though, if I recollect right. I knew you wanted to be a pilot back then. And you were pursuing engineering just cause that was a requirement for your folks to allow you to take up flying full time. For something that was a hindrance in your path, you spent a lot of effort studying the coursework. You were amongst the few I knew that had access to all the reference texts. ...

I had never been one to appreciate music. I had a few tracks that I listened to all through college. I still remember the CD that Satya gave me – sort of an initiation to rock and metal, so to say. I wasn’t quite a fan of classical music at the time. Neither Indian classical nor western classical. I did like a selected 2-3 songs from each of the prominent boy-bands of the time – Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and the like. A fad that I grew out of in a couple of months time. The only bands that stuck to my playlists are Nickelback and Iron maiden. Most of the rest are singles and a good mix of pop, rock and melodies. ...