Monday 29 October 2012

How I Met Anjali - 1


Entire Hostel was empty as everyone was enjoying their semester break that time. We had a minor problem, as our (I, Mehboob and Dhiru) 7th semester project was not accepted by our guide. Although he was generous enough and gave us another one month time to complete the project. Initially we thought to stay in hostel during the semester break and seriously work on our project. But Dhiru had to go home and we were really upset with him, as we wanted at least Dhiru’s moral support to have completed our project. Now in order to stay in hostel during the holidays, we had to address certain basic issues. Most of the dhaba’s within the campus usually used to remain closed during the holidays. Also, our hostel was located at an isolated area. Actually it's in a small hill and our hostel used to be the end point of our college campus and is at a distance of  around one km from the college. It would have been a little scary to have stayed alone in the hostel. My roommate Nair, told us that he didn't have any plan to visit  his home town, Kerala that time. Sinha and Tarok were also interested to stay with us for few days. So finally it was all set and we decided to stay back in the hostel.

Now our AEC (Assam Engineering College) is quite far from Guwahati city. AEC bus service was excellent and all the buses used to go to the heart of the city and even the bus frequency used to be quite decent. Well, during the holidays the frequency was not that great (after every 2 hours). But as far as I can remember, in the evening one extra bus used to be functional. Those few days we had a typical daily routine. We all used to catch the evening bus and few of us used to get down at Sundarbari (just outside the college campus) to buy chicken and 2 movie CD’s on rent. Remaining guys used to go till Maligaon (some 5-6 km from Sundarbari) to buy our stuffs. After buying our stuffs, we had to wait for some time for our college bus to go back to hostel. Our friends who got down at Sundarbari, were also used to wait for the same bus and we used to go back to our hostel together. We fixed “Ghottu”, one temporary hostel boy who stayed nearby our hostel to cook dinner for us. We used to pay him 50 Rs per day.

By the time Ghottu prepared food, I and Mehboob worked on our project and the remaining guys used to spend some time in the common room. There was some problem with the TV we had in the common room and it was not working that time. Once the food was ready, Ghottu used to have his dinner and before leaving he would give the mess key to us. He prepared very tasty dry chicken and we used to bring some of it to our room. By 9:30 PM we all used to say “CHEERS” and enjoy one of the movies we bought on rent. We tried our best to sustain our stuffs till the end of the movie. After completing the movie, we used to go to the dining hall to have dinner. After dinner we used to spend an hour in the common room and then everyone used to go to sleep.

The dhaba nearby our hostel was closed, so we had to go to a different dhaba near the college for breakfast and lunch. After breakfast we used to work on our project for few hours and then go for lunch. After lunch we used to watch one more movie and again in the evening we used to go out. Two of us would return the CD’s and used to take 2 more new CD's and of course the chicken. Other guys would bring the stuffs and we all used to come back to hostel by the same bus. For 3 days it continued just like that and then one night something happened that completely changed my life.It was a stormy night and it rained heavily, we could hear the lighting thunder sounds. There was no power that night and after we finished our stuffs to the last drop, we literally had nothing to do.We had already shifted the hostel land line phone from common room to one of our friend’s room. Keypad of hostel land line was usually locked but since we were just few guys in the hostel, so the key was with us. Those days we had to rely on land line, as that time mobile phones considered to be a luxury and very few people could afford it. Out of boredom I and one of my friend thought to make some prank calls. We had a look at the telephone directory and dialed our engineering girl’s hostel. It kept ringing for quite some time and then got disconnected. We tried one more time and the result was the same.  Now, why should any girl would stay in hostel during vacation? Once again I had a look at the telephone directory and that time I tried to dial “Ayurvedic College” girl’s hostel. Ayurvedic College is just near our engineering college.

Someone received the call and said "Hello.. Hello !!"

I was not sure what to speak and just said “I am calling from engineering college and I have a very serious problem. I am suffering from severe insomnia. You are a doctor right? Can you kindly treat me?”

She replied “Yes, of course, kindly come to our hospital tomorrow.”

We talked for few minutes and as soon as she realized it’s a prank call, she said “there is lots of grass in your engineering hostels and you better start to clean your up hostel by cutting those bushes for 2 hours a day. You would definitely have a good sleep after that."

We continued to talk like that for few more minutes. I asked her name and which place she belongs?

She replied “I am Poonam and I am a north Indian, born and brought up in Shillong"

She also asked my name and I replied as "Rajiv". Her voice was very attractive, but who the hell had the slightest idea that in future we would be staying together for our entire life?

Next Part

55 comments:

  1. Chalo finally I got to know the real story..:-) Poonam and Rajive eh!!..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ha ha Binesh, actually Poonam and Rajiv continued for several months :)

      Delete
  2. What is your "stuff" and the "other movie" :-)..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha ha Binesh :) Actually we used to bring 2 movie CDs. One movie we used to watch in the evening and the other movie(your question :)) we used to watch the next day afternoon. By other movie i didn't mean the actual other kind of movie :) I think by 7th semester we all got little bore watching the same kind of movies .. isn't it? You really didn't get the stuff ? :)

      Delete
    2. Well in our case our seniors showed us the "other movie" each time after ragging...:-) that was enough to forget all the pain from the thrashings we got...the worst part was we had enact the scenes of the other movie the next day :-9

      Delete
    3. ha ha Binesh :) I know a lot about ragging in ur college. Alomgir used to say so much :)

      Delete
  3. come this weekend with some stuff. good one.. more on the prank call nxt time .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hmmm Ratul, this weekend what plan? definitely more on the prank call. Today Ashish called me and he also said the same :)

      Delete
  4. I m sure tht "stuff" is nothng othr than yr favrite "Old Monk"!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah Dude! most fav:) That time i couldn't think beyond old monk :) U must be a old buddy, sorry i couldn't recognize you.

      Delete
  5. Aha awesome :D nice narration of memories :D waiting for more

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Ramya. Surely, there's so much to write :)

      Delete
  6. priceless story!!....truly "The" Love Story of our AEC in 50 years!!!.....now we know that if we ever suffer from insomnia, we can call Anjali (a.k.a Poonam) for treatment!!..:):)....but her remedy "cut grass for 2 hours a day" won't be that effective here in Bangalore I guess as there would be hardly any grass in a concrete city!..ha haha!!...:):)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He he Kaushik :) Poonam and Rajiv continued for quite some time :) May be now she will ask you to run in a treadmill :)

      Delete
  7. Hi Jahid, thanks for inviting me thru my mail.. Lovely story and I really love the way she ask him to cut the grass to treat insomnia.. hehehe.. so cute!
    Following you now.. :)

    Live, Laugh, Love @ http://fida-sunshine.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Fida. It's my story and now a days also she ask me to do hell lot of things :)

      Delete
    2. lol.. my husband also always complaint about that.. you guys loved it before marriage so don't complaint now ok.. hahahaha.. :)

      Delete
  8. Absolutely cool story, Jahid da :)
    Waiting for the next story ( From prank call to soul mates - the journey )!!
    Maybe u can also narrate this story to me during some "stuff session" sometime ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Sandeepan ! How is your health? Get well soon,long time no "stuff session" :)

      Delete
    2. Health is getting better. Just a matter of a few more months!! And the "stuff session" will definitely make a comeback :)

      Delete
  9. he he he.. der aaye durust aaye.. i was thinking all the while why this story didn't get published.. finally its on the board..even though i've told this story to sruthi and about the pseudo name "poonam".. we were eagerly waiting for this..

    ReplyDelete
  10. one farmaish from my end.. see if u can pen down few lines on it... the topic is ... " jahid brings the 1st ever computer in our hostel and the special previllege that our room suddenly gets because of it, like, no dirty shoes, no smoking etc. in the room and how bhushan applies his brain and cracks ur password"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah Nair, thinking to write a Bhushan series. Kya bolta hai?

      Delete
  11. lovely sharing Jahid..hope to read more on your journey :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Raj. Surely, there's so much to write :)

      Delete
    2. the phone keypad was locked as lot of hostel boarders used to call at free of cost. Jahid knew how to dial numbers without the keypad..

      Delete
    3. ha ha Dhiru :) I had really become an expert on that. Whenever any of my friend had to call free of cost he would come to me and say "I have to make an urgent call, can you please dial the number for me?"

      Delete
  12. haha.. this was such a sweet anecdote.. love does show up in the most inexpected places, doesnt it ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah Roshan, love do show up some unexpected places :)

      Delete
  13. Awesome mate. Although I have heard the story before during our 'extra class ' , great to read it once more and go through the comments. Keep going!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks dude. Long time no extra class :)

      Delete
  14. Loved the way u have narrated.. Enjoyed reading your story Jahid..

    Ur new follower :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Sonia. I am glad that you enjoyed my story. Also thanks for you encouragement :)

      Delete
  15. I was planning to read this story and finally did it today..now I knew why we had to pay high hostel phone bills.
    Seriously, I didn't know your story started off like this dramatically..may be I was too busy in my own story..

    But how did u guys planned your first date..I mean how did you asked for Poonam the next time you called..and got her in line

    Dipankar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey! Dipankar, Nice to see u here. Hostel telephone contributed a lot in building our relationship :) First date was a memorable one and my wife narrated it to many of her friends. I will surely write about her version of our first date.

      Delete
  16. ultimate but factual stories......only we can understand the depth of
    these stories.....very nice....really those were D best days of our life.......

    tutul

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Areee Tutul, So nice to read ur comment. What's up these days?

      Delete
  17. Loved your story of how you met Anjali. I think you should give us more details about how you both ended up marrying. Perhaps in another blog in future?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely Rama, so much to write, right from my first phone call till we ended up marrying :)

      Delete
  18. An unexpected beginning indeed. First time visiting your blog, seems interesting :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Kakho. I am so glad you found this blog interesting :)

      Delete
  19. So, the telephone is the true hero of your life! Enjoyed this personal anecdote. My best wishes to you and yours.

    Joy always,
    Susan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe! you are correct, telephone is the true hero for me :) I am glad U enjoyed my personal anecdote. Thank U so much for ur good wishes!

      Delete
  20. A fabulous post !! So are you still in touch? Please narrate the other events that followed after wards :D Wow ! So you have a cross religion marriage, like my parents :D I would love to read more Jahid. Thanks take care !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Tanya :) I am extremely delighted to know that your parents also have a cross religion marriage like us. Yeah, would definitely write some more about it :)

      Delete
  21. Well, one thing is for sure, I would love to stay in a hostel which is on a small hill, kinda all girls dream. And it is really interesting to read how you met her...On to second part now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We met face to face after almost 2 months since the first phone call. May be in the 3rd part :)

      Delete
  22. :D Read it quite late...somehow I can restart believing in coincidences...er...destiny...thanks to you!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Kriti, life is an amazing journey... Thanks for visiting out here!

      Delete
  23. Gr8 Beginning mate :)
    Really loved the story (y)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Stallion :) so glad U enjoyed my story !!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...