The Ex Factor

"somebody told me
that you had a boyfriend
who looked like a girlfriend
that i had in february of last year"

A song by the killers, no doubt reflecting sexual confusion in degenerate London... But honestly, i think we're just one step behind them... Chennai, the last place where you'd expect such stirring events - but just today, I mention to a friend of mine that I met some girl or the other (lets call her girl A), and then this friend of mine (lets call her girl B), tells me that girl C, who is a friend of both me and girl B, used to go out with this guy, (boy A), who is now currently going out with girl A. Here I am saying, hey, I just met girl A, and then I find out that girl A = girl C's ex bf boy A's current girlfriend. And I'm suuuure if I dig deep enough, I'll find out that boy A, no doubt, is some other friend of mine's (lets call her girl X, since she is currently hypothetical) ex boyfriend. Which makes it a complicated equation.
And I was never good at math.
Back in school, there were a couple of my friends, boy B and boy C, who were going out with girl D and girl E respectively, and everything was hunky dory. Suddenly someone pisses someone off, (I could tell you who, but i've lost it in a flurry of letters) and boy B is out with girl E, and no doubt in retaliation, boy C is out with girl D! Now, I'm in touch with all four parties concerned, and they are all very embarassed by those memories no doubt, but they'd argue it's part of growing up, and all that. No problemo.
But I find that the current lot of Chennai socialites, at age 20+ are still at it! It just feels like, since when I first started partying in 2000/2001 (when EC41 actually was a cool place to be), the whole party scene has just grown five years older without ageing a day - you see the same faces at beach houses, you would still hear an 'ouch' if you threw a stick behind the nearest bush, and I bet it'll be the same sets of lips too, if you care to look!

Is Chennai so bereft of people then, that we have to cycle people around within the same clique? Was mentioning this phenomenon to my colleague, and she said, yes, you kids are all on the same wavelength, so its natural. So I said, same wavelength? But they're a bunch of idiots! And she goes, "Yessssss..."
Touche.

I feel compelled to admit that recently, I went for this wedding, cos the bridegroom was related to me in some way (explaining would require a whole new set of alphabets so I won't even try) and so I go up, plastic smile, hand the (probably plastic) present, and look up at the bride, and... That's right, a girl I had gone out with couple of times. Girl F weds Boy E!!!!