Blues and Jupiters and Irelands

"Hey Blue!  Been long; so how are you doing?"

Silence.

"Oh come now, you knew how busy I was with my exams, didn’t you?  I honestly couldn’t get back to you earlier."

No response.

"Sigh!  Alright, I promise I would write to you every day from now on.  Happy?"

I can almost feel Blue grinning!

Would you call me eccentric if I told you Blue was my diary? 

 The self listens to us better than anyone else in this world - I realized this four years ago when I had a huge fight with my mom on why my room looked like it had been hit by a tornado.  After I locked myself in (with a loud bang of the door), my eyes started leaking and I pulled out an empty notepad and pen.  I felt like hurling the bedside lamp against the wall; and I wrote that down.  I felt like smashing the family photo on the wall to smithereens ; and I wrote that down.  I felt I had every right to make my room even messier by dumping the contents of my wardrobe onto the floor; and I wrote that down too. 

I wouldn’t exactly say I felt calmer in a magical second, but it seemed like the notepad smirked at me.  Well, I smirked right back.

Ever since, he has become my best friend and I called him 'Blue'.  Blue listened to everything I had to say- he had seen me at my dumbest, yuckiest, angriest and happiest.  When I told him I went out with friends and watched movies the whole day, he didn’t remind me that the exams were round the corner.  He simply made me realize that myself when I got around to the end of my letter to him. 

And when that year ended, I decided to rechristen him with a new name.  Thus, 'Jupiter' was born!  Jupiter was an elder brother of sorts who always kept admonishing me.  And then there was 'Sippy', a sister, a couple of years younger to me, who never stopped giggling.  'Nova' remained a good friend of mine.  And then there was 'Ireland', named so because I so badly wanted to emigrate to (still want to, in fact) Ireland.  Now year 2011 is coming to a close and its time for rechristening again! 

My diaries - they are almost like beings that I gave birth to...my creation and I feel bonded to them in some deep, carnal way.  They help me unwind.   They have been the best companions I have ever had.  And best of all, they make great treasures for posterity - I can almost imagine myself forty years later, laughing at the memories captured fresh in active voice. 

Four huge tomes they have consumed till date, and these are safely tucked under old unused t-shirts in my closet.  And I am praying this blog is not going to trigger a hunting expedition within my family.