DIL DOSTI LOVE

'I felt a part of me was gone the day Sanjay left..
I wondered wat killed Sanjay : was it the betrayal,
the bus,was it me or was it Sanjay himself'

'Hum apni manzil ko paane k liye kya kuch nahi karte..
Aur sab paane k baad hume aisa kyu lagta ha ki humne
jindagi se ye to nahi maanga tha..'

So true na..Most ppl if not all suffer frm this 'I m not really sure of wat I want' disorder..So we all live to achieve that elusive thing in life..Which most often is a glam clad lifestyle, professional success,or a hot bod probably...So is thr a way to know wat exactly one wants..

Very difficult..Crazy it may sound, but the filmy formula of 'close ur eyes and see wat u desire the most' might just work here..
Whether we r sure of wat we want or not, knowing so brings a certain peace in life..

So What did I want frm life..Applied the close ur eyes formula..And I got the answer..I wanted no big bucks in life..I jst wanted my frens n family to be around, and work in a good corporate, not necessarily a big corporate to do sumthng of interest..Love is sumthng that we all want..I hv had my share of love..But lately I hv come to realize that I cannot probably handle this thng called love..So my ambitions are preety small u see.




So had I had my ambitions..Yes and NO..As of now none of my close frens either frm school or coll are at this hell called Gurgaon..Here I am, working for an MNC which pays me decent but I see no life in this place..OK I hv some good mates at off. but u need 'em 24x7...dnt u..? i miss 'em all..my frens,my family, my love..But I guess i hv screwed it up big time and there s no gettin back now..

But the irony is, I had it all and then I lost it all..Y things went the way they went..Y I did certain things the way I did..And now, here I am..far frm being myself..

Wish I cud resurrect things..I want it back..my Life...

Sandeep Singh, Gaurav Thakur, Shailesh and Sukhiya -I

Acronyms :

DAV JVM - My school. Did my +2 frm here.
NOP/SOP - North/South Office Para (colonies close to my school)

PS: occassionly words in brackets describe inner feelings..bhawnaon ko samjho..

Ranchi is close to my heart, more than any other place on earth for sure. It surpasses my affection for evn Godda, my hometown. I did my +2 (DAV JVM) and then Engg. (BITS Mesra) frm this place, which means the better part of my higher education. My love for the place goes to the extent tthat I can simply roam around the places, the market, the Shyamali colony thr and that too evn alone [not that I wud prefer roaming alone]. Climate s good, ppl are lively, girls are pretty n to top it all it has lil in common with its state next door Bihar.

Enough abt Ranchi I guess.
(Soch rahe hoge description to aise de raha hai jaise Swiss land ho)
Getting back to the topic. Its an unusual topic for sure. Has just four names. Who are these four, forming the centrestage of this post. These four were ['are' rather, m sure they are still alive] my seniors (immediate ones) at Ranchi who I came in touch with. Each one of them being distinct different, weird and unusual at the same time. I will talk abt each one of them in the order they come into picture. First comes Sandeep Singh, my HERO [well no sarcasm meant!!] in many a ways. I alongwith my friend Kunal had come to Ranchi for the first time after we had got ourselves admitted to this prestigious DAV JVM, 11th Std. We had thru our seniors got a room booked at one of the houses at NOP since NOP was close to Shyamali colony; where JVM was located. At noon we approached the landlord and said we were the ones who he'd been xpecting. He led us to a set of two interconnected rooms, one of which wud be ours. After seeing our room we tried to enter the other room. But we had to knock as it was locked. The door was opened by a sleepy fellow. I looked at the watch. It showed 12.15.
(pata nahi kaisa insaan hai, insaan v hai ki nahi)
Anyhw, he introduced himself as Sandeep Singh.We kept our baggage and left for a frend's place who had already been at Ranchi since past few days. We got back to our room the next day. We tried entering the next room .

Locked.

Knock knock.

A sleepy Sandeep Singh opens the door. Time 1 pm.
(Wah beta avi v so rele ho.. jiyo!!)
We said sry for the disturbance and got back to our room. It was only in the evening (around 5 pm) when Sandeep Singh has had his full quota of sleep that we had a full formal talk wid him. We told we had come frm Godda and had got admissions at JVM, 11th Std. He on his part said he was frm Ramgarh (a place close to Ranchi - 3 hrs) and is in 12th Std, at DPS.
(Kahi ye Thakur ke khandaan se to nahi..Are nahi, iske to dono hath salamat hain!! )
Sounded good so far xcept the Ramgarh thing which I found filmy.

Next Monday - 7 am.

I am getting ready for the school. Just when I was to leave, I saw Mr. Sandeep Singh still sleeping.
(Abe kumbhkaran ab uth v ja..)
I gently tried waking him up showing him the clock.
(Kahin Kumbhakaran ko gussa na aa jaye...)
He reluctantly pointed a finger at the wall. I followed his finger and saw that he was pointing at the calender.
Me: 'what r u showing.?? Its no holiday today.'
Sandeep Singh: 'See there will be a star marked on todays date'.
I closely observed the calender. There was actually a star on todays date.
Me: 'Yes thr s a star, so'??
Sandeep singh : 'On days that are star marked, dnt wak me up. I dnt go to school on these days.'
(Haan haan, jaoge v kyu, saal bhar me 6 mahine sona v to hai..!!)
I took a closer look at the calender. And I saw that nearly every alternate day was star marked. I left for school wondering hw he managed his attendance.

On getting back frm school around 1pm, I saw Sandeep Singh still sleeping.
(Shabaash, keep the good work going!!)
When he saw me , he finally woke up.
(Aakhirkaar sharam aa hi gayi..!!)
After the usual enquiries abt my first day at JVM, I asked him how he went abt his lunch n dinner. And he said it was Raju the tiffin wala who brought meals. Naturally we joind Raju, We enquired more bout this tiffin system and he gave us his first sermons on life at Ranchi. He taught us the 5 commandments :

1. Never to give advance to Raju beyond a sum of Rs 100.
2. Never pay the rent until Bhaiyya (the landlord) asks repeatedly for it.Try delaying it for as long as u can.
3. Live life ur own way. Girls, sports , padhai..Do watever u like as n when.
4. Always watch night shows. U'll never hav to tak tickets in black.
5. Do not join the trio of Navendu, VK and HariOm for tuitions. They are all crap.

Having had this gyan, we followd rule 1 right in the evning when Raju came, passing him a 100 Rs note as the advance.Time to follow rule 3. We playd indoor cricket in the evning, and were happy to see a few pretty faces watching us frm the balcony of one of the flats in the apartment opposite. And we wasted no time to try out rule 4. We left for the night show, late in the evening. Time passd on and in due course we followd rule 2 n 5 as well, though I found the 5th a bit odd considering the trio ruled the teaching circuits..

A week passd . And then came back frm home Sandeep singh's roommate - our personality No. 2, Sukhiya. This wasnt his real name, which I dnt rmmbr anyways. He was the most unusual being on earth, I have ever known. He used to study for atleast 8-10 hrs a day but still failed in most if not all of the subjects. And equally unusual was his mode of studing. He wud study for a couple of hrs and then wud sleep for sum odd half an hr, and this continued in loop, through the night. He wudnt tolerate the slightest of noise/evn music while studying. Many a times he wud skip his dinner to save money, thriving on biscuits. And this when he had a figure that wud challenge the best of female models. Actually it was his thin frame that had earned him the nick name Sukhiya. He was a regular to school unlike his roomie Sadeep Singh. Sandeep singh made fun of him all the while and we too chipped in wenever we saw a chance. His xploits earned him lil respect frm me n Kunal. We cared lil if he was studying or watever. We played music whenever we wanted.

This annoyed Sukhiya no end and he asked his friend to gimme a threatening. Came his friend one evning - enter our 3rd character Gaurav Thakur. Tall fair handsome but lean. He entered my room in gravity and asked me y I disturbed his frend while he was studying.
(Apne chomu dost ko samjhate kyu nahi..Music se disturbance nahi hota..)
I said, 'I dont purposely go out to disturb ur friend. Its just that he cant stand music at any hr of the day for his so calld study' (putting stress on the words 'so calld study'). He changed his tone and said , 'look we all know of his ways to life. More than the disturbance, its just that he needs some respect to be shown, evn if he deserves none'. His maturity at handling this struck a chord. We got along well since.

And since then some water problem at his flat made him come almost daily in the evning to our flat with his schoolbag which never during the two years carried books/notebooks or evn a pen or pencil. So wat did his bag contain. Clothes, comb, shampoos, and a hell lot of cosmetics. He wud spent hours b4 the mirror. Ok taken that he was a smarty but he went overboard wid his acts. And one day Gaurav brought wid him his flatmate, the fourth character - Shailesh. He went str8 to the bathroom and shouted 'Baba, yahan to mast paani aa rela hai'.
(Bechara, lagta hai sadiyon baad paani dekh raha hai..)
Shailesh gave perfect company to Gaurav wen it came to gettin their looks right. And then began the first of their numerous tales of how they had proposed their last girl and how things were on a roll and how they were so close to the final hurdle.
(Fenk to aise rahe ho jaise Salman Khan ho..!!).
Incidently Shailesh n Gaurav both did idolised Sallu. But they for sure had the best database on all the hotties be at JVM , DPS , NOP or SOP.

One fine day on getting back frm school, Sandeep singh askd me an unusual ques :'U kno Aparna jha ?' i say an unusual ques. coz Sandeep singh used to talk lil abt girls. Nor had he ever talked of his exploits with the fair sex. Probably he knew his limitations and was grounded unlik his two mates. So the ques. came as a surprise. This was a sort of ques. that was expexted frm gaurav or Shailesh. Anyways I answered a dumb NO. He exclaimed saying wat the hell was I upto at DAV. How come I had not seen/evn heard of the hottest thing at JVM. He finished the topic saying me to find out the cynosure of all eyes.

So did I meet her or did I not..? Oh come on, sure I did..!!In the sequel to this post.

English Drama [b4 a Godda audience] - A tribute to Miss Jommy!!

Like the Science Congress event, this one too leaves a mark in the minds of the batch in general , and those who orchestrated it in particular. This again is about 'US', the group of highly talented people [atleast WE believed so totally], who could not SING, couldnot DANCE, PAINT, RUN lik a sprinter, wern't xceptional at SPORTS, werent xactly Aamir khan in their heydays, werent the ROCKERS either who could flaunt their Guitars in public, but still thought were SECOND TO NONE.

So just when you thought we were one amongst those ordinary losers, the likes you see in the novels of Mr. Bhagat, second yourself. The stage is set not just for the regular song and dance nos, there is sumthng calld Theatre and Drama as well that it's so renowned for. And if sumbody in the old sleepy town of Godda still took interest in this thing calld Stage Act , WE were the ones.

Being grown up having watched our good old hindi movies, we have sumhw at times felt that we too can act. We sumhw hv had this pseudo belief that acting comes naturally to us. Our belief strenghthened by the fact that we had so far done quite a few stage acts by now and we felt the air of being a pro in the field. So when Miss Jommy planned this stage act with WE the actors in mind, we were only happy and ready to oblige at first instant , unlike the Science Congress case which we did under sheer pressure.

Miss Jommy, the phonetics guru that she was, had come up with the idea of an English play. I still distinctly rmmbr the day Miss Jommy had her first class at St. Thomas. She had come to take English for us, the then 5th standards. As she began in her usual phonetic tone, the class burst into laughter. A lil nervous and conscious, she asked me was sumthng wrong.? I said , 'Nothiung really Ma'm. Just that the students are not habituated to this kinda accent'. And since that day our chemistry with the new English teacher was incredible. English never remained the same for us after she left the school wen we were in 8th std.

Cut to the moment. She came to us and narrated the theme of the Act to us. It was a play with George Washington as the protagonist. The play had the backdrop of the slavery system that was order of the day in the then US society. History gives no mention of a full fledged movement against slavery by Washington.But he did oppose it in his later yrs. Anyways, the play had a scene in which a b'ful girl was to be auctioned in public. Miss Jommy told us to find a girl frm the class who wud do the role. Naurally every good (read pretty) girl declined. We didnt approach those who were ordinary looking, the reson being that the script demended a b'ful girl. So we told Miss Jommy to find some junior who wud do the role. We proposed Sapna's name for the same. Sapna agreed. This enthused (most if not all) members of the group.

So started the job of fitting people in their respective roles. I was so happy that whenever during the rehearsals, sum1 cudnt get their lines and look/expressions right, I wud be calld to demonstrate the scene. That also meant I was the lawyer one day, Washington's brother-in-law the next and Mr. Washington himself the day next to it. Sumhw every1 started fitting into their roles. I finally took the lawyer's role. Divya Prakash was the one who had to do the auctioning of Sapna the slave.

All thru the rehearsals evry1 waited eagerly for the auctioning part of the act, barring Divya Prakash ofcourse. He used to turn pale doing the auctioning act b4 a crowd which at times included members of staff and at times Father himself. The lines to be be spoken at the auctioning made his life evn more difficult and ours evn more entertaining. He had to go lik : 'Hello gentleman. Here you have at ur disposal this incredibly b'ful slave who can be all urs at just a few bucks. Just look at her face . She s all Mona Lisa. Look at her legs - Marble will take a beating.....'
With lines as provocative as this the audience was bound to go hysterical.

As a result of this auctioning sequence our play was already becoming a hit with the audience. So after weeks of rehearsals came the day whn we actually had to present the act. But suddenly for some reasons unknown to us, the venue shifted frm our school to the 'Town Hall' . We unanimously declined to go ahead with the act. We knew the crowd wudnt endure a word in English. The very thought of audience senpresenting an English play b4 a Godda t shivers down our spine.But repeated assurances frm the Principal and the authorities made it a yes. So we went ahead. Initially there was a bit of restlessness, which only grew wid time. The situation had come to a point where missiles would soon be targetting us. But to our fortune the auctioning scene just started, generating a loud rage frm the crowd. We sumhw felt bad for the poor Sapna but it was important that crowd didnt get overly impatient. Or else hell cud break loose.
Life was more important than a bit of cheap applause.

And thus ended the dangerous English Act b4 a Godda audience.
That was the last english act we ever did. This near life saving incident always brings back memories of Miss Jommy and her accentuated English. Was quite an xperience.
Ma'm wherever you are [m sure you are doing fabulously well and are happy], I on the behalf of the class just want to reiterate (in case we never earlier did) that we have all the way loved and admired you. You had been such an influence on us as kids, and today as grown ups we wish we have had more of ur lectures. Thanks for being the lovely English teacher you were. Wish we meet sumday.