The Story of You Me and You (ten years and counting...)

Where do I begin? To tell the story of You Me and You... I suppose I could begin with Love Story and that ever familiar Theme from Love Story but that episode (can we ever forget the cardamom milk) doesn't include you me and you... it was more you me and my childhood best friend. So instead, lets fast forward a couple of years to grade 5 when you me and you got into major trouble with Mrs Mary Carmel for looking after some other class in the sports field because we thought we couldn't get into trouble because we were all powerful captains. How wrong she proved we were... And that was our very first crime!

So then we moved to high school and it still wasn't you me and you... it was more you and me and me and you and dear diary entries on who was whose best friend and physics class text book changes from a magnet's N and S poles to N and J poles. And then suddenly all the old familiar cliques went through a major reshuffle and we were left with you me and you and Ayesha. And even though we hung out with her for four years and tried to be as close to her as we were to each other, it just didn't work out in the end because she was never like you me and you.

So what were you me and you like? We were three teenagers who spent every breaktime talking and laughing about everything under the sun... we spent birthdays and special occasions with a larger group and still managed to have our private moments of laughter at something silly someone else said and that no one else would have ever found funny... like the day when we started our morning at 6 am in pouring rain on our way to some singing comp and on the way there, my driver (was it Murugan) suddenly stopped the car and began running backwards after a wiper that had fallen off... run Forrest run... and who can forget Vegetable Toppings... we also spent hours on the phone obsessing about boys and Sweet Valley and sent out annonymous cards to our crushes on Valentine's Day and on the eve of Michaelmas holidays (wasn't there something about Michael and a cycle?)... and we also just hung out and went for plays and rock concerts and ate at Wimpy's and cruised Alsa Mall (yeah, we were that cool ;)) and recorded tapes like March Madness and Come September...

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
Oh simple thing, where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on

It was simple and those were some of the happiest days of our lives. And we did know our school like the back of our hands... the Kuns tree and the stadium and the jungle gym and the auditorium and our classrooms and our spots under the trees... And then you went to another school and you stayed behind and me, well I found myself in another school too. And we were still you me and you only now we didn't see each other every day and we had the added complication of boyfriends in our lives... so there was lots of lying and covering up with our parents and there were good times and tears and there was heartache and heartbreak and at the end of it all we were left with you me and you. I still remember the night in Dec 1998 before New Years Eve... we stayed up all night and dressed up and experimented with Kahlua and took drunk photographs and went to the beach in the morning and had a swim in the pool and that was the day we came up with you me and you... December 31st 1998... I don't recall how or why.


And so we reached 1999... that year is an epic by itself... we finished school... we had our first jobs... we went on dates with boys... sometimes we went on many dates with many boys on the same day... we got shockingly drunk and sang Christmas Carols on rides home and had to be carried up stairs much to the shock of my grandmom's elderly watchman... we woke up early every morning and spent hours trying to get fit and experienced the simple pleasure of rowing on a river... we watched movies and ate at the Food Court... we went for parties and met hundreds of new people... we played pool and made another best friend who is still the only one who can come close to understanding you me and you... we wrote letters and received letters and said tearful goodbyes as you and lots of others left Madras for greener pastures... and we spent nights drinking Citroen vodka and Kahlua and Cointreau and sneaking out and sharing things we'd never shared before... Ah, the summer of 1999... will there ever be another time quite like it?

A long time ago, we used to be friends
But I haven't thought of you lately at all

Yes... there were so many people that summer that I don't even remember half their names... But you me and you didn't end with that summer even though you weren't there... there was the horrible time you and me got caught sneaking out and the awesome party you and me threw on our birthdays at EC-41... and there were plenty of fun weekends with you me and you and our various beaux... And so it passed... 1999, and 2000 much like each other and I guess 2001 as well... there were trips to Bangalore and trips to Goa and trips to Pondicherry and Kodaikanal... there was Deep Purple and Bryan Adams and Roger Waters... there was always the East Coast Road and beach houses and house parties and night clubs and pub hopping... And just as emotionally as it had begun, it was over... three years had passed and you me and you found ourselves at the beginning of another summer... the summer of 2002...

We get high in backseats of cars
We go out in stormy weather
And that's the way we get by

You bought a new bag of pot
So lets make a new start
And that's the way to my heart to
Way to my heart

That's all we did I think for 3 years... get high... and that summer of 2002 was no different... except at the end of this summer you me and you would live in different cities... again... And so we spent that summer living like there was no tomorrow... we met up every day... we met up every night... R's backyard and W&W were our playgrounds... every afternoon we'd drift from W&W to the cigarette shop opposite the ice-cream place, and then back to W&W and sometimes we'd go to Barista and Rat's terrace and C's terrace and sometimes we'd venture as far as the drive-in but we always returned to W&W... and in the nights we'd go drinking at the beach or the beachhouse or G2 or Geoffreys but mostly we sat around in R's backyard and laughed and talked and got stoned and drunk... at least one night a week was you me and you night at my house towards the end of that summer... so you me and you would drink till we were blind and smoke till our throats hurt and talk about how it had been and how it all might be... and sometimes we'd sing the songs of our youth that always made us smile...

Time, don't let it slip away
Raise your drinking glass, here's to yesterday
And time, we're all going to trip away
Don't piss heaven off, or there'll be hell to pay
Come full circle


It's been three years since that memorable summer... sometimes I can hardly believe it's been so long because whenever I want to remember something good, I always think back to that summer and it seems like just yesterday... sure, you me and you are still best friends... and you me and you have been together since... you and me even watched you get married just the other day... but that summer was the last time that you me and you lived in Madras at the same time...

I sit here miles away and say I miss my home Madras but what I really miss is you me and you... because what is home if not the people (and dogs) that make it the most wonderful place on earth...

So when I should return to Madras, if you and you don't live there anymore, I will still go out and get drunk and stoned with all the random people we've gotten close to over the years and I will still visit the same old places we once visited together, and I will laugh and sing and reminisce about days gone by... but as I do all these things, at the back of my mind, I will be remembering you me and you and the amazing time you me and you had growing up in a little city called Madras...

So when I should return to Madras, if you me and you are together again... well... it will be the best time of my life again...

I move on to another day
To a whole new town with a whole new way
You don't know where and you don't know when
But you still got your words and you got your friends

That's right... I've got my friends... I don't need much else... And in all my travels I've never quite got the same feeling I get from Madras and I've never quite met anyone who is as special to me as you me and you...