Sometime back, I blogged about how most gay men in Bombay find Miranda Priestly uber-cool, hearkening back to a conversation with Emily - well, the other day, I discovered that another friend actually has very Miranda-esque traits while at work - and when I pointed this out, the said friend decided to hit blogging with a vengeance. So check out Miranda In Mumbai and you'll die laughing at the antics - and no, I'm not getting a commission for the plug.
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From Miranda, to my friend, the Penguin. I gave him this name in a blog post that was vitriolic at being dumped by him, after a three-week dating stint, and since then, that name has stuck. Our relationship has, however, changed. By virtue of the fact that he is part and parcel of the Inner Circle, we have had to adjust, and move on from being awkward and gawky around each other, to friends. Of course, there have been moments here and there, silent moments when we've each prayed that the other coughs to break the pindrop quiet when we've been left alone together... but at the end of the day, we both realised that it was time for the moniker to change.
"So what new name do you want me to assign you?" I asked him, and he shrugged on the other end of the phone - I could imagine his grin and shrug and all, and he replied, "I have no idea. You gave me Penguin, because you had a story to tell of me there. That was when I was being... flipfloppish. So I guess that's our story."
"Well, then it's time that we get a new story," I decided.
After that conversation, we met up on different occassions - party nights, birthday nights, movies, etc etc etc - and I kept on suggesting various names that i could use for him: Mad Ad Boy, LifeBoy... yadayadayada, but of course, he hated all those gruesome names, and I drew a blank.
And then, I told him the other day, when we went to see a movie, "Do you remember the penguins in Madagascar? The one movie we've seen before this, just the two of us?"
That elicited a chuckle from him, and I went on, "Actually, that's why I called you the Penguin. Because, watching that movie was such a strong association for whenever I thought about you - watching that and cracking jokes afterwards - cuz, we both loved the penguins there!"
And, now he crooked up his left eyebrow and said, "The plotters, eh?" Chuckle.
Going by movie memories, the only other option is calling him Circuit, and this sounds even worse than Penguin. So, I've decided to do away with my search for a new nickname for him. He remains as is. It's the association that changes, though: he's no longer the flipfloppy creature I railed against, who I thought incapable of having a relationship - he's now the fiercely protective friend (another character trait of penguins, in case you didn't know), the one with the evil grin, beautifully hectic boy, and undeniably as plotter-ly as a penguin can get.
Someone I'm glad to count as a friend. *cue for mushy awwwwwwwwwwwww sound*
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