Its Farewell time!

My First Farewell
Its official now. I will be leaving for India this coming friday(23rd May). The news had been official for sometime, but I had been kind of holding it back from most people. The reason ? I didn't want any farewells ! Sounds silly but if you were me, you would have known why. For one, I already am missing this place. I have had a real great time here during the last 2 years, and to think that I will be leaving this place is already painful.To make matter worse, a bunch of people who hold significance in your life, get together to bid you farewell, which actually makes things worse for you because you then realise all the more what you are going to miss.

But then, things don't always work the way you want them to. The news leaked last friday morning and within next 2 hours, I got my first farewell lunch ! It was from the group that I had pretty much had lunch with over the past 2 years and it was only very logical for us to go out for lunch again ! Sanjay, Hemlata, Mohan and Aruna were there. I did miss I did miss a few faces who were the prominent ones on our usual lunch table but weren't there that day as they were either no longer in Milwaukee or were held up with more compelling things. It eventually turned out to be a party from Sanjay as he paid the entire bill. We took it as Sanjay's bday celebrations :)

My lunch group is something I am going to miss real bad. It was always fun on the lunch table. We talked about everything from company policies to movies to fashion to personal life, and a lot of gossiping too. And when there wasn't anything to talk about, we used to bet 100$ on stupid things ! Oh yeah...whether the exit on I-894 was named EXIT 9 or EXIT 9AB was worth 100 bucks :) Memories...
Guys...I will miss you and hope once in a while I will figure in your discussions on the lunch table too !

My Second Farewell
This probably was going to be the only farewell I was going to get until the secret got out. This was at Naina's place. Her mom and bro are visiting her from India and Naina took this as an opportunity for us to meet her family and at the same time bid goodbye to me. But luckily, there wasn't anything that made me feel that it's a farewell. It was more of a get-together with lovely food cooked by Naina's mom. I really had a good time with everyone who was there and each one of us had some stories or other to share. We didn't realise how late it was until the clock hit midnight. Mohan made a brief guest appearance and blessed us with his holy presence. A few people who matter a lot didn't make it to the occasion and I missed them. But then that's how life is. The best part of the evening was that this time there weren't any rounds of TABOO, the game that I dread. Why ? Well thats another story for another day. Its time for me to get some sleep.

BTW, there's another formal farewell scheduled for Wednesday. This time, its from everyone from my project at my workplace.