I met a friend today whom I had not seen or heard from for a really long time. There are about three people in this whole wide world of seven billion people whom I would not mind sharing a room with for more than 24 hours. What I mean by that is that for some reason, I'm comfortable around these three morons, and they around me (or at least I hope so) and that we know each other well enough to not be surprised at any of our idiosyncracies, which might upset someone who is any less acquainted with us.
This friend, I'm pretty sure today, is one of those people. The two of us are complete opposites, though it might not look so on the outside. When we're in our comfort zones, I'm extremely loud and often tend to draw attention to myself, whether by choice or not, I'm not so sure. He, on the other hand, is extremely quiet. He's also quiet when he's uncomfortable but that's a different kind of quiet. In fact, I can tell you how to spot the two:
If he's sitting next to you and saying nothing but looking into the distance, he probably likes you.
If he's sitting next to you and saying nothing but looking down, at the ground, he wants to leave.
There are some other things I've noticed. If he's excited when he meets you and high fives you or does something stupid, he thinks you're cute - guy or girl, doesn't matter. If he just walks up and stands beside you saying nothing, he thinks of you as a friend. He rarely laughs at a joke. He just chuckles. Not in a cute way, though; he chuckles like he has asthma. Which he might, I'm not so sure.
That he hangs out with you is no sign that he actually likes you. How do I know he likes me? He's told that to me, multiple times.
In terms of facial muscles, I believe he compares to Imran Khan, the bollywood actor, in that he has exactly two and a half emotions. There's the happy face, which you can only notice when he's goofing around. I do not know if he's really happy when he's doing that, like happy in the Buddhist sense. But I'd like to believe he is. There's the at ease face. That is the face I'm familiar with the most. I believe I saw that today when he introduced me to his girlfriend. Or maybe that was just me projecting. Then there are the half expressions of discomfort/sadness//anger, none of which cannot be separated enough from each other to form distinct entities. They co-exist, always manifesting together, just in different ratios.
I do not believe he knows how much I value his friendship. I've only known him for about five years, which is actually a really short time. But if you had to give me a questionnaire with a thousand multiple choice questions asking what my friend would do in a given situation, I'm pretty damn sure I'd get each and every one of them right. If fact, I'm willing to bet it would be the same the other way around. I perhaps cannot say the same about the other two of the three people I mentioned earlier.
There are three magic words which I believe every person, irrespective of who they are, would like to hear the most when they're going through hard times - I get you. That is actually perhaps the most underrated sentence of all time. I wish this idiot would know that sometimes I feel a little happier just knowing that he exists and that if I talked to him, he would understand exactly what I was going through. I wish a lot of things.
Of course, he's not a perfect human being. Not anywhere close. Like, if perfection is Ladakh, he's somewhere near Hyderabad. I wish he shared more. I don't know what goes on inside his head when he's alone. I don't think I've ever actually seen him rant at anything. I wish he weren't so snobbish at times. I wish he were more sensitive - there are better ways to tell people that you don't like their idea than "This sucks. You're going to fail". I wish he'd read books other than Advanced Engineering Mathematics and Sherlock Holmes. I wish he'd watch more movies.
But those are nitpicks. I like him for who he is and if tomorrow all of the above came true and he somehow suddenly became Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation (who is my idea of a perfect man), I don't think I'd like him any more - I don't think I could like him any more. Because that would then go beyond the realms of platonic attraction and would just be weird.
Anyways, I met him today after a really long time and he seemed to be very happy. He has a girlfriend now, did I tell you that? Someone I finally think I approve of. Someday, far into the future, when I'm long dead and he's seventy years old with two kids, I hope he reads this. I hope he reads this and remembers me and that I always wished well for him.
This friend, I'm pretty sure today, is one of those people. The two of us are complete opposites, though it might not look so on the outside. When we're in our comfort zones, I'm extremely loud and often tend to draw attention to myself, whether by choice or not, I'm not so sure. He, on the other hand, is extremely quiet. He's also quiet when he's uncomfortable but that's a different kind of quiet. In fact, I can tell you how to spot the two:
If he's sitting next to you and saying nothing but looking into the distance, he probably likes you.
If he's sitting next to you and saying nothing but looking down, at the ground, he wants to leave.
There are some other things I've noticed. If he's excited when he meets you and high fives you or does something stupid, he thinks you're cute - guy or girl, doesn't matter. If he just walks up and stands beside you saying nothing, he thinks of you as a friend. He rarely laughs at a joke. He just chuckles. Not in a cute way, though; he chuckles like he has asthma. Which he might, I'm not so sure.
That he hangs out with you is no sign that he actually likes you. How do I know he likes me? He's told that to me, multiple times.
In terms of facial muscles, I believe he compares to Imran Khan, the bollywood actor, in that he has exactly two and a half emotions. There's the happy face, which you can only notice when he's goofing around. I do not know if he's really happy when he's doing that, like happy in the Buddhist sense. But I'd like to believe he is. There's the at ease face. That is the face I'm familiar with the most. I believe I saw that today when he introduced me to his girlfriend. Or maybe that was just me projecting. Then there are the half expressions of discomfort/sadness//anger, none of which cannot be separated enough from each other to form distinct entities. They co-exist, always manifesting together, just in different ratios.
I do not believe he knows how much I value his friendship. I've only known him for about five years, which is actually a really short time. But if you had to give me a questionnaire with a thousand multiple choice questions asking what my friend would do in a given situation, I'm pretty damn sure I'd get each and every one of them right. If fact, I'm willing to bet it would be the same the other way around. I perhaps cannot say the same about the other two of the three people I mentioned earlier.
There are three magic words which I believe every person, irrespective of who they are, would like to hear the most when they're going through hard times - I get you. That is actually perhaps the most underrated sentence of all time. I wish this idiot would know that sometimes I feel a little happier just knowing that he exists and that if I talked to him, he would understand exactly what I was going through. I wish a lot of things.
Of course, he's not a perfect human being. Not anywhere close. Like, if perfection is Ladakh, he's somewhere near Hyderabad. I wish he shared more. I don't know what goes on inside his head when he's alone. I don't think I've ever actually seen him rant at anything. I wish he weren't so snobbish at times. I wish he were more sensitive - there are better ways to tell people that you don't like their idea than "This sucks. You're going to fail". I wish he'd read books other than Advanced Engineering Mathematics and Sherlock Holmes. I wish he'd watch more movies.
But those are nitpicks. I like him for who he is and if tomorrow all of the above came true and he somehow suddenly became Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation (who is my idea of a perfect man), I don't think I'd like him any more - I don't think I could like him any more. Because that would then go beyond the realms of platonic attraction and would just be weird.
Anyways, I met him today after a really long time and he seemed to be very happy. He has a girlfriend now, did I tell you that? Someone I finally think I approve of. Someday, far into the future, when I'm long dead and he's seventy years old with two kids, I hope he reads this. I hope he reads this and remembers me and that I always wished well for him.
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