Lucky to Have friends - My first call

Since last more than 10 years the first call I am making every day is to 9811….49 to wake up Rajesh Agarwal for our game of Tennis. He used to be my partner earlier now plays against me.

I met Rajesh for the first time some time in 1996. We had been allotted shed no 222 for our plant and Rajesh owned 220 with his partner Aman. To find out about the locality, me and Papa went to his office where he had set up a CNC job shop with two CNC machines. I still recollect that scene exactly and his blue Maruti parked outside. Once we shifted to 222 we started meeting regularly. After some time we decided to have lunch together and since then we have been having lunch together everyday since last 10 years when ever we are at work . I am pretty sure the maximum time I have spent my day time and maximum calls I have made in the last 10 years is with him. And same must be the case with him also.

Rajesh and I share some common hobbies. Both of us like to read and play tennis. Because of this we have developed a great understanding amongst each other. We do have a daily discussion on stocks though we are not into it much. Cricket season sees us cursing the Indian team(they loose so often). Politically we are inclined differently so we have our arguments on that. Another thing we have common is patience, I believe, though he has tons more than me. What I like about him? There are many. As I mentioned above first is his patience. Secondly his habit to make a “To do” list even for trivial things. If you visit his office you will notice some sheets of rough scrap papers on which he will scribble his To Do list. In fact he is so systematic that I tease him as Mr. System. When he took a 4 week long vacation to USA couple of years back – the amount of planning he did can help any tourist to plan a trip to US.Once though I have seen his system fail also. Last year we were in Germany and while traveling on city bus at Munich he forgot his digicam in the bus. More than the loss of camera he lost out on the pictures he had taken during the trip. Another virtue that he has is he is a very satisfied guy. Always happy. Never bothered about something that he does not have. He is very organized and he will preserve the envelop also along with the letter. Couple of things I would like him to do – reduce some fat and quit smoking. I am sure he also wants to do this but has not been motivated enough to do this and he will do it pretty soon.

I keep on boosting I am lucky to have some of the best people God created as my friends and I will never be lonely in my life with these great friends. God bless them