"Are you a Gujarati?", was my immediate question after Kashyap told me his name. "No, I am a localite", said Kashyap proudly. All the Kashyaps I had met before were Gujjus and that was what had prompted me to ask him such a stupid question. At that time, little did I realise that this bastard was going to be included in my best friends list. He occupied the cube next to me and along with Lech and Keyur, who occupied neighbouring workstations, we formed a closely knit group of four. After pulling him into stocks, a reasonable percentage of our conversations would be about the markets. Kashy, as only the people close to him are entitled to call him, soon bettered Lech and me on the penny stocks front and his picks include the likes of the now delisted fraud company Mardia Chemicals and under 1 buck company SRG Infotech, which earned him reasonable dough in under one week. His untidy cube was his another characteristic. Thousands of printouts, tens of books, a few new shirts, a toothpaste, a torch, certificates and marksheets, passport, table tennis rackets, a water bottle, an original F1 flag, neckties and a hand crafted bamboo pen holder are amongst the few things that filled his cubicle.
Kashy has now quit. He has ended his 3 year long stint with the company and is now gone to UTD to pursue his MS. Kashy you have left a void in my life. Come back soon!
PS: Da, will show you Bombay the next time you come. It is much better when it doesn't rain :-)
