An ode to zambezi

I was listening to Jagjit Singh yesterday. Everytime I listen to Jagjit Singh or ghazals in general, it reminds me of my friend zambezi who has been pretty active in the comments section lately but hasn't commented for a while now because he is sick. This post will be an ode to zambezi. We go back a long time, almost seven years now. Zambezi is a guy who lives in New Jersey. He is very good looking for a Kannadiga and not ashamed to let you know about it. The first time I met him he looked like a hippy DJ from Manhattan. He had a ring in his ear then. I don't know what happened to that ring and if he now wears it in his nose or somewhere else inside his pants which would be a painful place for a ring to be in. Zambezi had travelled from New Jersey to Massachusetts to meet me, where I was doing my masters degree.

I think the first time that we met we spent most of our time drinking all throughout the weekend because drinking was the only way friends spent time together in those days. We visited the Quabbin reservoir in central Massachusetts which is a pretty nice spot. The dam at Quabbin has a sign which bizarrely informs people that "Rolling down the side of the dam is prohibited". Quabbin is apparently the number one tourist destination for dam-side-rolling which sounds like an interesting hobby. After zambezi visited me, I then visited him in Jersey and was surprised and terrified to find that he lived in a ghetto. We had some adventures, which mostly consisted of driving around in the ghetto blasting rap music and acting like idiots. But it was a good time.

We went to Atlantic City and gambled with a couple of other friends. Zambezi did some strange things during that trip including assaulting one of our friends in the group for some vague reason. I think the friend kept touching and pushing zambezi around in a friendly fashion and zambezi didn't like it. It put a damper on the night. Zambezi is a big fellow and fighting him is kind of difficult. I tried once and ended up losing my virginity. We did Atlantic City once more. The second time it was just me and him and we had to drive around in Southern New Jersey for an hour in a drunken state to find a place to sleep. Finally, we found refuge in a Desi motel and shared a bed containing a visible infestation of bed bugs. We asked the motel manager where Wharton State forest was because we had seen it on a map and we desired to visit it. The guy said he didn't know. The next morning we came to know that we had stayed the night in Wharton state forest. I wonder if the manager was even aware that he was in the US.

Zambezi then came back to Massachusetts to visit me once more. I had just bought a new car then. Zambezi was enamored by the dashboard lighting of my car which, as one internet reviewer says, "Has a feel similar to the cockpit of a plane without the bother of fighting hijackers". This trip led to him buying a Volkswagen for himself a few years later, which was then stolen by someone else who had a similar fascination for Volkswagen dashboards. We drove up Mt Washington, the highest peak in New England. I barely knew how to drive then and I think I was an arrogant young prick because I wouldn't do it now even if you paid me to. I accept all payments through Paypal. It was summer and we were wearing shorts. At the foot of the mountain, it was a warm 75 degrees. When we reached the top of the mountain, the temperature was sub zero and ball freeze occurred within minutes. Back then we were smokers. After we scaled the summit, we had a smoke in celebration. And then our lungs gave out, we suddenly couldn't breathe and had to sit down because of the thin air. As I said, we were arrogant young pricks.

I think returning back from Mt Washington was one of the best drives I've ever had. We were driving through the green farmland of Vermont as seen in the title picture of this blog and dotted with those picturesque grain silos and farmhouses. Dusk was falling and there was no traffic so I put the car in cruise control, and then we put on some Ghulam Ali and spent a quiet two hours together. Ghulam Ali while cruising through the dusk in Vermont. Nothing quite like it.

Zambezi got married recently and he still lives in Jersey. If he put his mind to it, I think he could even run for Governor. He has a good personality and people seem to like him. I don't know why I compiled a post on zambezi. Probably because I don't have anything else to say today. I will probably compile a post on my other friend, Slime next.