Hello friends!

It''s nice to be with you all once again.

I attach great importance to the friendships I built up forty years ago or even earlier than many of the recent ones.

There are several reasons for that.

One, basically, I'm not much of an extrovert although I was in the marketing for almost 30years! It was indeed difficult for me to create newer friendships at my age. Two, the friends I have for the last forty years, were with me throughout in all happiness, trials and tribulations of me and my family. We maintained contacts all these years without a break. We visited each other whenever possible, attended family gatherings like weddings, consoled each other in breavements. We are concerned about each other when one of us or any member of our own families falls sick. We become tense and anxious even when one of us doesn't keep good health. We make frantic calls till we're certain the other guy recuperates. Three, our children understand this bond between us and encourage us. Anup, Danny, Devadas, Dinesh, Indrasenan, Kalyan and Ramu and this humble self form a terrific team! Almost all of us have high BP; I bounced back from a serious MI (heart attack), Dev just manged to escape by undergoing angioplasty avoiding hospitilisation. Danny was lucky to limp back minus one kidney when it was discovered he had developed malignancy. (Many still don't know about it even now!) Anup had been in and out of Hospitals quite frequently because of his high blood sugar. Dinesh had problem with cholesterol control and Kalyan and Ramu takes the BP contro tablets. The most remarkable feature is none of us is overly tensed about our own health problems. We relax our controls whenever we meet and take a peg or two more than the usual and recall the really wild days we spent in that sleepy town, Salem when we were in the prime of our youth!

There is something that's very unique about Danny. When he joins a group his energy percolates into others. His rich baritone voice infuses a certain liveliness into the most docile of human beings and his love of life will enthuse even the dejected and disappointed. He practises yoga after his surgery and is a great advocate of it now. He brought back another friend of ours from the brink when he was diagnosed with mallignancy. He found time to spend with our friend, taught him some yoga which he practises even now and our friend is a much healthier person now considering he is 79!

Anup was the baby of our group and I think we pampered him! He's a happy go lucky sort with full of wit and humour and even now I think, he is a 'problem child' for Asha (his lovely wife) and his children! Danny and I were reckless and wilder than any other member of our group. But Dev and Dinesh exerted a sobering influence on the gang so, we didn't plunge headlong into any danger. Dev had a nasty habit of lighting a cigarette every nowand then. He was just short of being a chain smoker! Dinesh left the gang for Madras to look after his dad who was ill. So he missed some fun. Indru the short, stocky and a totally bald (even then) was the financiar for all of us. It was because all will have empty purses towards the end of the month and wait eagerly for the monthly remittances.

All of us had a mtorbike/scooter and we used to thunder down the streets of Salem much to the dislike of the pedestrians and envy of the other less fortunate young men.

But, one by one the members of the gang left Salem ultimately I was the lone person there. Anup left for Kerala when he joined a multinational, Dev was elevated and left for Bombay, Danny left for Madras and Indru for coimbatore. Kalyan and Ramu too prefered Madras towards the end of 70s and beginning of 80s.

Then in the 90s and 2000s, we once again started meeting each often and the ties were renewed. The renewal came like a bang because we felt we needed the companion ship we missed so long. Then came the marriages of our children and these truly were occasions for our reunion and great fun.

When my daughter and her family came down to Chennai for a 2 year stint, we seized this opportunity for more frequent meetings which we continue.

It's great to have friends in whom you can confide, share your happiness, seek advice other than your own family members. We will continue this bond of friendship in the years to come.

Bye

Murali