Half Girlfriend

During our Engineering college hostel days we had a senior. We used to call him “Arvind da” (Name changed). He was very friendly and decent. He used to roam around with a girl of his same batch from different branch. She was Pooja(Name changed). They would enjoy their evening stroll in the campus, spent time together in the canteen, go movies together, only two of them. The beautiful lady also frequently visited him in our hostel. He stayed in a single room. They would spend good amount of time in the hostel on the weekends, and then went out by the college bus. For us they were ideal couples. They looked alike, both had the kind of charm, they always had smile on their face. Those were pre internet and pre mobile phone days. We also didn’t have a landline phone at our hostel, it showed up much later. But our Girls hostel had one from the beginning. If the boys had to communicate with their girlfriends or friends they had to either give a visit or go to the telephone booth about a km away. But during the ragging days there was also another option. The seniors would write letters, yes, hand-written letters, and would ask some decent first semester guy to deliver it.

So, one day I met Pooja in the city. We both hello-ed. I asked if she's with Arvind da. She smiled. Aha, I remember her smile, so delightful. She said she's alone, some shopping stuffs. Later in the evening I and one more friend were with Arvind da, in his room. We were simply gossiping, smoking. 

"Today, I met you girlfriend near Pan Bazar, " I said.

"Girlfriend? I don’t have any girlfriend."

"Come on Arvind da," the words came out from me and my friend’s mouth simultaneously.

"Are you talking about Pooja ?" Asked Arvind da.

"Ofcourse yes, or who else?"

Arvind da laughed, "Pooja is not my girlfriend."

The discussion continued for some more time. Arvind da was close to us. He tried to explain his relationship with Pooja. But we were not convinced.

"So you mean to say Pooja is only your friend and not girlfriend?" I asked.

Arvind da remained silent for a while. And then he said, "It’s much more than friendship I must acknowledge. But then she’s not my girlfriend. It is somewhere in between."

We were totally confused.

"Are you guys into some kind of physical relationship?" My friend asked.

Arvind da tried to bring his charming smile on his face, but it was fake. 

"No yaar, nothing like that."

"Not the hard core type, but kissing and may be some other soft stuffs?"

Arvind da again laughed and denied. I think he was upset with the question. He was a very emotional and simple guy.

"Forget it. You will not understand our relationship. It’s very complicated," he commented, smile on his face.

Even though we were not matured enough to understand such relationships, but we didn’t bother our senior friend anymore since then. A couple of years later it was time for Arvind da's batch to move out of hostel. We still had another two years. It was time to depart. Arvind da passed us a small diary. We were supposed to write our address/contact number/email address (Yes, suddenly internet cafes became a booming business those days). I noticed many of the guys mentioned some goodbye quotes on the diary. I was confused. It’s pretty easy to say Hello and get introduced for the first time, but farewell quotes are difficult. I didn’t know what to write? And then something came to my mind and I penned it down, fast.

Arvind da laughed. It seemed he liked my goodbye message.

Actually such relationships has had always existed. Some relationship better remain unnamed, unrecognized. Chetan Bhagat tried to give it a name. Like many others, even I didn’t like the idea. I think for some people "Half Boyfriend" name would have been more convincing name than "Half Girlfriend", or does it anyway matter? My wife picked up the book from a store long back. Even though I’m not a big fan of Chetan Bhagat but I read the book. I felt an emotional relationship is not presented in a mature way. But the book is a best seller. The novel is made into a movie as well. I don’t have any plan to watch it though, but "Half Girlfriend" made more than ten crores on its opening day. Not half bad, isn’t it?

Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

How I met Anjali - 7

How I met Anjali - 6

I’m pretty sure I and my old buddies didn’t know about Valentine’s Day during our schooldays. It doesn’t mean we were among the good guys, only our general knowledge was weak. In those pre-internet days, I think even the love birds of our hometown were also ignorant about the blessing and the strong affectionate wishing of this particular day. 

After I joined Engineering College, the situation remained the same, even though my general knowledge improved a bit, but joy of Valentine’s Day was ocean’s apart. That was the time when this day of love was becoming more and more popular in India. So popular that some political organizations started to take advantage out of it by picking couple from the parks, and then insult them, harass them, all in the name of so called Bhartiya Sanskriti (for the sake of Indian culture). I remember one occasion when few of my college friends gathered under a tree to display their Valentine’s Day protest with paper banners and placards. Well, their intention was simply to tease some of the college love birds and to have some fun. Anyways, it was quite an entertainment to watch their protest.

The story was completely different after I met Anjali. I got to know Valentine’s Day more closely and deeply. I was in my 8th semester. It was yet another Valentine’s Day. I and Anjali visited Guwahati Kalakshetra. It is a cultural institution to promote the art in Assam. The place is close to nature with lot of open space to walk around. It has got neat and clean beautiful gardens. Kalakshetra has a museum which reserves old traditional things of various tribes of Northeast. There is also a beautiful art gallery and an open theater. People can enjoy live performances by various artists out there.

We were strolling around Kalakshetra. It was cold and foggy. I think it even rained for a while. Anjali always used to carry her fancy umbrella. We were not among the couples who held each other’s arms while they walk. The passage through the garden turned slippery. The trees looked beautiful. Water droplets on the leaves. It was green all around. Lovely weather. Great feeling. And then all of a sudden Anjali was down. She slipped. I laughed. Her clothes got dirty with mud. I gave her my hand. She stood up. She didn’t say thank you. Instead she shouted at me.

"You stupid. I fell down so badly and you’re laughing. Why you didn’t hold me when I slipped?"

I was totally stunned. "How the hell I know she’s going to fall?”

“You slipped so fast. I didn’t get any time to react,” I tried to be more defensive. But still the argument continued for quite some time. 

It has been fifteen years, and all throughout her shouting never stopped. And for me, nothing changed much either, even today I prefer to play defensive.

Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.

Not An Ordinary Love Letter

Rakesh and Rumi were in their eighth grade. Adolescence is an interesting phase of life. Guys get to learn many new things and girls start getting undue attention, particularly from the senior guys. Well, some smart girls also make their first boyfriend. Rakesh had a crush on Rumi. He had even expressed his love to her many times, but Rumi was not interested; neither in Rakesh nor in any other guy. She was matured enough to think beyond love and wanted to concentrate more on her studies. Gradually Rakesh was getting obsessed with Rumi. He wanted to win her heart at any cost, but he didn’t know how? Some of his friends had tried to help him. His friends played the mediator role and exchanged messages between them. But Rumi was not at all interested. Rakesh was getting crazy and his condition was becoming miserable day by day. Rumi’s thoughts and images kept occupying his mind. Then one day, out of the blue Rakesh had an idea. He thought to write a love letter to Rumi. Well, not an ordinary one, but love word written with letters of dripping blood, his own blood.

It was middle of the night and Rakesh was pretending to sleep. His parents were already asleep in the next room. Rakesh calmly got down from his bed and started to walk towards his study table. He switched on his table lamp and then opened his geometry box. He picked the compass and stared at its extremely sharp edge. Rakesh wanted to pierce his skin to get some blood. He had also placed a small container on the table to collect his vital fluids. He was a little confused with which part of his body he would pierce. Lost in his thoughts, he was very anxious and also very scared. He was sunk in an ocean of emotions. Even though Rakesh was distracted by the annoying mosquito sounds and their bites, but those tiny irritating creatures couldn't take away the feelings he had that moment. Rakesh tried to be calm as he feared his parents might wake up. It was a long night for him, but he was successful in his mission. He managed to express his heart in a couple of lines, written entirely in blood.

The next day one of his mediators passed on the note to Rumi. The guy had conveyed to her that Rakesh had written it with his blood. Rumi read those beautiful words. She took the letter close to her nose and inhaled a cloud of air making a loud sniffing sound. She could smell blood and became very emotional. She looked at Rakesh and their eyes met. Rumi didn’t know what to do and she was on the verge of crying. Rumi hadn't spoken to Rakesh for the last few months and now she wanted to talk to him. She became very emotional for Rakesh, but she was still hesitant to talk to him directly. During lunch break she talked to Rakesh's best friend Santosh. Rumi said to him that she was very disturbed.

'Why Rakesh had to do this? I’m feeling so guilty. I was always rude to him. He loves me so much, he had cut his finger to write to me,' said Rumi and tears streamed down her cheeks.

On seeing her condition Santosh felt very bad and he said, 'Rumi, I have to tell you something. Actually,  last night Rakesh had seriously thought to pierce his finger and take out sufficient amount of blood to write a long letter to you. But he was scared to hell. He tried his best, but couldn’t dare to pierce his skin. He then came up with an idea. During these monsoon days, Rakesh's room is usually a shelter for mosquitoes and they use to suck his blood all the time. Last night he had killed about fifteen to twenty mosquitoes with his hands; all of them were healthy, loaded with fresh human blood. Rakesh somehow managed to write a couple of lines using those mosquitoes blood'

PS: This is a true story, but the names of the characters have been changed.

How I met Anjali - 6

How I met Anjali - 5

We had already encountered quite a few times, and we usually met pretty far from our college campus. Guwahati university campus was a perfect heaven for me and I used to feel little safer out there. I was sure my college wouldn't be there. Also, her college, as well as her hostel was quite near to the University. But day by day I was overcoming the fear. I started to become bold. I became so daring that sometimes after dark we even used to enjoy our evening stroll in that narrow and little exposed kind of road, just opposite to few of our engineering college hostels. With time, I developed a comfort zone with Anjali and even didn’t hesitate to visit her hostel as well. 

Aha, how can I ever forget those long, stressful and also little embarrassing kind of waits inside her hostel gate. Having a cellphone was like owning a BMW those days. I think in today’s world, in exactly similar kind of situation, guys would make 100 calls or rather 100 missed calls waiting for that long. Most of the time when I used to visit her hostel, she would come and ask me to wait. Their hostel had a small waiting area and fortunately few chairs were also there. I simply used to wait and wait, totally clueless about what the hell she was doing inside. Sometimes she used to send one of her friends to entertain me, might be when she realized the fact that she's actually very late. Who knows? She might have wanted to confirm whether I had already left or was still waiting like a cow. There was a room pretty close to the waiting zone and the girls inside always used to keep the window open. It was quite embarrassing to wait for that long in such an uncomfortable environment, but with time I got used to it. Every time I got to hear those laughter sounds originated from that room, my heart beats used to accelerate. I always thought the girls were laughing at me. So many visitors used to come and go, but I continued to wait. 

One afternoon we simply entered the Jalukbari Park, the nearest park in the city from our college campus. Well, that was quite a dangerous and vulnerable place to hang around, but it didn't bother me much that time. I felt that was a totally different category of park and we didn’t rise to that level yet. That was for the first time I entered that place. It had a big pond inside and many couples were enjoying their boating out there. At first instance I thought to give it a try, but that would have been a suicide. The pond was clearly visible from the main road and it wasn't difficult to recognize the boaters in broad day light from there. Also our college bus always used to pass from there. The park had lot of bushes and I was quite fascinated to see few fancy looking umbrellas. Well, only the tip of the umbrella was visible in those bushes, but  after a closer glance I got the glimpse of two human looking species under it. Couples were holding each other tightly and were whispering. They were sitting so close to each other that sometimes even their lips connected. 

We thought to maintain some distance from such valentine kind of people. We were simply enjoying our casual kind of gossip. Anjali was born and brought up in Shillong. She said that her parents are originally from MP and they have many relatives in Raipur. 

“Where is Raipur?” I asked.

“It’s in MP.  It’s the capital of MP”

I found that very interesting and wanted to crunch some more fun out of that.

"So what is the capital of Chhattisgarh?"

She thought for a while and then replied "I think it’s Bhilai "

Then I asked her the capital of Jharkhand. She already started to get irritate.

"You came to showcase your geography knowledge or what?"

"At least you should know the capitals of all Indian states"

She asked me the capital of few North Eastern states and I answered them correctly. Then she asked me the same of few European countries and I couldn’t answer few of them. She blasted at me that even I didn’t know the capital cities of some of the well-known countries. I countered her and asked the capital of Goa. I was really enjoying the "shame-shame" game with her. Then all of a sudden she opened her water bottle and out of anger threw some water on my face. I was quite shocked and my t-shirt also got wet.

"What the hell you did just now?"

"You stop this nonsense or else I will throw more water on you"

I was very annoyed and was getting little ferocious too. I snatched her bottle and poured hell lot of water on her. Without saying anything she immediately took her bottle and left from there. That was a little embarrassing moment and few people already started to stare at us. I also started to walk behind her and in no time she was already outside the park. I shouted from behind and asked her to come back. She took a rickshaw and was going the way towards her hostel. Immediately I started to run and jumped on that rickshaw. I asked the rickshaw guy to stop. Anjali had a quarrel with me for next couple of minutes and then we again returned to the park.


How I met Anjali - 7

A Stranger On A Train

6th semester exams was over and everyone was pretty much prepared for their Industrial training. Well, the training was mandatory for all the traditional branches, but for some new ones it wasn't. As far as Computer Science was concerned, the training was not compulsory for us. One reason could be because there wasn't any software company in Assam those days and the authorities didn’t want to put too much pressure on the students. Most of the students usually used to do their Industrial training in one of the refineries and Oil companies out there. Some fortunate ones used to have their own kind of jugaar(source) and they could manage to do their training in big companies, in different other cities. Some of our hostel mates, most of them were from mechanical branch, could manage to do their training in a reputed company in Chhattisgarh. The guys were so much excited for their adventure. Few of us preferred to remain at the hostel itself. Well, anything related to study and education was always my last priority, and on top of that the training wasn't mandatory for us. But to be honest, we were little jealous of those guys and we knew that they would have a hell lot of fun for the next couple of months.

A gang of 10 to 12 mechanical goons boarded a train to Chhattisgarh and they had some great fun out there. Our friend Jeet was also part of the company. Jeet’s elder brother recently cleared his IAS that time and was posted out there in Raipur. Well, he only did all the jugaars for those guys and they stayed there for almost 3 weeks and then they had a short Delhi visit. Well, the visit was part of their training program and after a week they again returned to Raipur. On their way back, they couldn’t manage to get all their railway tickets on the same compartment. In fact, their berths were scattered in two to three different compartments. Now our friend Sab was always a Rangeela(fun loving) kind of guy. He's blessed with his sensational talents, that could impress the girls so well. His performance was not only limited to our college boundaries, but was extremely magical quite far and wide as well. He's tall, slightly dark and extremely handsome. He's just the perfect kind of dream boy for most of the girls. Sab’s greatest advantage was his flattering tongue. How could he managed to be so over sweet and also remained quite dignified at the same time?  It’s such an art and with time he mastered it to such a great extent. 

Fortunately for Sab, one cute and extremely smart looking girl seated just next to him. Sab noticed the guy who came to see off her at the railway platform. From their conversation and their touchy kind of activities, Sab was almost sure that the guy was her boy friend. As the train started to move, passengers were quite busy to adjust their luggages. After sometime, few of our friends came to Sab’s compartment and were pretty much delighted to enjoy some kind of an eye candy. As usual, everyone started to pull Sab’s leg a bit for the enchanting train journey he’s about to enjoy. Gradually everyone opened up a bit and had an informal  kind of introductions. The pretty lady was also an engineering student and went to Delhi for her Industrial training. Everyone was having a wonderful time and at lunch, guys went back to their respective compartments.

After lunch most of them went to sleep and my friend Sab asked the lady "Don’t you like to have some sleep?"

She had a cute smile on her face and replied "No, not really. By the way, you can sleep if you would like to"

Sab replied "No, I usually don’t sleep at day time"

She again smiled and said "That’s nice, that thing should be left for the night I guess"

So, gradually they opened up a bit and chatted for hours. In the evening again few friends came to Sab’s compartment and everyone enjoyed tea and some snacks together. Time simply flied that particular day and it was already 8 PM. It seemed, as if only a couple of hours had passed since they boarded the train in the morning. Group of friends and a lovely evening, along with cool train breezes. It was such a fascinating moment and Sab simply waited for some kind of a free space all around. It was dinner time and guys again went back to their respective compartments. Fortunately for Sab, he got the side lower berth that day and on top of that, the lady occupied the upper berth, just above his one. The train was supposed to have reached Raipur by early morning, but the girl was supposed to have reached her destination at midnight, by 2:30 AM. She was not in any mood to have slept that night and my friend Sab already started to get, kind of intoxicated and the effects was much more than those heavenly fluids, which he was so much used to that time. He was getting lost into her magnificent blue eyes. 

They continued to chat on their lower side berth and they kept both the windows open. The cool breezes and the deep blue eyes close by, just created some kind of a hypnotizing environment for my friend. They talked about hell lot of things, right from Engineering to Bollywood, from music to feminism and a little bit of atheism as well. All the passengers were sleeping and Sab was simply enjoying the moment. All of a sudden he asked her about the guy who came in the morning to see her off.  She didn’t hesitate and said that he was her boy friend.  Sab was little hurt with her response, but they continued to chat. From her conversation Sab assumed that her relationship with her boy friend was not very serious and felt a little good about that. It was already 1 AM and the girl said that her destination would arrive within an hour.  The train slowed down a little and she was quite excited and wanted to have a glimpse of a temple. She said that there’s a famous temple nearby and GOD fulfills everyone’s wishes, if they wish from their heart in that temple. Sab asked her whether GOD would fulfill his wish, if he would have wished from his heart right that time, from inside the train. She had a cute smile and replied "Yes of course, GOD would fulfill your wish"

All of a sudden she almost screamed "Here it is, the temple"

Sab couldn’t notice anything, but she's being a local girl, she might have recognized the place.  She asked "So, what did you wish?"

Sab was little shy, but in a mischievous way he replied "Well, I wished if I could have kissed you"

It seemed the girl didn’t like the joke at all and looked quite serious. She didn’t talk with him and simply looked outside the window. Sab felt very bad and thought he shouldn’t have said like that. He didn’t even asked sorry and might have waited for her response. After a while she collected her luggage and placed it nearby. Well, she already prepared herself to get down from that train. Sab asked "So, you will get down now?"

She replied "Yes, very soon"

Sab asked for her email id and she replied "What you would do with my email id?"

Sab preferred to remain silent that moment. After a while the train got little slower and Sab could see a hell lot of tiny lights far across, through the window. The lady struggled a bit with her heavy luggage, as she moved towards the door. Sab immediately went to help her and said “Please allow me”

They both went near the door and Sab opened it little wider. It seemed to be a small town outside and the platform didn’t arrive yet. They both were quite close and they had an eye contact and the intimate kind of stares continued for a while. All of a sudden the girl approached much closer and pressed her lips against his. There was complete silence all around, as if suddenly everything else stopped. Their breathing accelerated and it was quite louder as well. Slowly and passionately, as her tongue entered inside his mouth, it got filled with some kind of an ecstasy. Sab’s blood pressure increased exponentially like hell and his eyes busted with few teardrops as well. Some unusual kind of chemical reactions occurred inside his body, that produced some kind of exceptional emotions. That was the best moment of his life, but then all of a sudden the train stopped and she whispered her email id into his ears. She got down and Sab helped with her luggage. Within no time the train started to move all over again and they both kept looking at each others faces. Sab even continued to stare at her, even after she's completely lost to his view. Later, Sab couldn’t sleep the remaining night.

Well, that was for the first and last time, Sab had any sort of communication with that lady. Even though, after he came back to hostel, he emailed her on many occasions, but he never received any reply. 

How I met Anjali - 5

How I Met Anjali - 4

The phone calls continued on a regular basis and it took a little effort to convince her for our next encounter. With time I was already kind of comfortable with her, at least over the phone. When the time arrived for our second rendezvous, to be honest I didn’t have any expectation. We decided to meet on a Sunday afternoon, somewhere near the Guwahati University. Even though the place was quite near to our college campus, but gradually even I too, somehow became kind of used to such a situation, at least I was mentally prepared enough. Without much of an anxiety, I stepped inside the college bus just near our hostel gate and went to meet Anjali. I had to get down near the University, but I wasn't sure what was going back of my mind and I didn’t get down there and instead went little further. I got down at Maligaon and went inside our regular "Ritz Bar and Restaurant". Without wasting much time I quickly gulped two 60 ml's.  I didn’t have my regular stuffs though, as I was kind of worried about the smell.

After a while I took a bus and got down near the University gate. I was pretty cool and confident that time. Well, I always used to feel like that after a considerable amount of dose and on top of that, my tongue used to shift gears quite rapidly. I saw Anjali coming from the other side, in her kurti and Jeans. She looked quite different that moment and in fact, she looked pretty charming in her casuals. We talked for a while and within a couple of minutes she acted little suspiciously, as she sensed some kind of smell.  She started to breathe fast and moved her nose here and there. She asked “by any chance, are you boozed up?" 

I replied "why the hell I would do that in broad day light?"

She cooled down a bit and once again we started to chat. We both connected quite well, but she must have got a dog's nose, as after a while she looked little cautious and said "seriously, you must have been little loaded and I could very well smell it"

I said "yeah, I had a 30 ml and that too vodka. Actually I had a long wait for the bus and the damn bar was so close to the bus stop"

She replied "it’s OK, you don’t have to lie to me. I don't have any problem, as long as you could behave properly"

I smiled and said "you don't have to worry, I am much more gracious once I'am loaded"

We continued to chat nearby the University hospital and all of a sudden it started to rain. Anjali opened her small and fancy kind of umbrella. The umbrella was not big enough for two of us and on top of that, I was little shy and maintained some extra space under the umbrella. We took shelter under a big tree and even though it was such a mesmeric moment, I was also a bit worried, as I already noticed two of my college friends passed nearby us. I was fortunate enough, as they didn't paid much attention to us and couldn't recognize me or else they would have given me a hard time. I had abundant amount of blessing from Mother rain that day, as the mist continued to perform for a long time. We just talked and talked on several different topics and I was so much delighted and wondered "even guys like us could very well connect to girls".

I had a wonderful time and then it started to get a little darker. We decided to go back to our respective hostels. Her hostel was quite near from that place, but I had to go  a little further. Once I reached hostel, everything seemed to be so perfect. I smiled at situations where it was neither necessary nor appropriate for me to smile. Well, I was on a totally different world that night.

Next->

Aman and Kishore

My good old friend Ratul, met Kishore through some common friends in Bangalore and I think, later they even shared the same house for few months, along with some other friends. Kishore was very shy kind of guy and usually used to talk on special occasions. He was still single that time and he was in that phase of life, when people are usually well prepared to literally screw up their life and ready to tie the knot. During those days our school friend Aman, was in town and she joined a software company as a technical writer. One day Ratul thought to meet Aman and he took Kishore along with him.

From that day onward  Kishore was a changed guy and he started to give little more time and attention to Ratul. Few times he even discussed about Aman and every time he talked about her, he had a lovingly praise for her. Being a high level expert in the concerned field, Ratul immediately realized that Kishore in fact, was a "Chupa Rustam", kind of hidden warrior. He was sure that Kishore had developed a soft corner for Aman. As Ratul knew both the parties quite well, he thought they might be a perfect match for each other or he might have smelled 2 "Bakras" :)

So, Ratul created few more opportunities, so that Kishore and Aman could meet each other. As expected, Ratul always used to praise Kishore when he's with Aman and used to praise Aman when he's with Kishore.  After a couple of months Kishore proposed Aman for marriage, but Aman wanted some more time to decide.  Kishore was much tensed that time and his anxiety simply climbed the ladder. Ratul was also little disturbed, as he seriously wanted that relationship to amplify. One night Ratul noticed that Kishore looked little different and he had an unusual kind of smile on his face. Kishore said to Ratul that Aman accepted his marriage proposal. Ratul felt very happy that moment and congratulated Kishore for his new relationship. Being a childhood friend, Ratul expected Aman to give him the good news, but she didn't call.

Ratul wanted to call her, but thought it would be better to wait for her call, instead. Two days passed and Ratul didn’t receive any call from Aman. Finally on 3rd day, Ratul received a call from her and before coming to the point, she simply chatted with him for a while. After a couple of minutes she started to talk about Kishore. 

Ratul immediately interrupted and said "Please don’t talk about Kishore"

Aman was little shocked and asked "Why? What happened?"

Ratul replied "He is the most shellfish guy I ever met"

Aman was silent for a while and didn’t know what to say. She simply said "But you only said that Kishore is a very nice guy"

Ratul said "Yeah, but I was wrong. He is actually an ass hole and a very mean kind of guy"

Aman asked "What happened? Please tell me in detail. Why you are saying such things about Kishore?"

Ratul said "Forget it, I just don't want to talk about him"

Aman was speechless and Ratul could hear her deep and nervous breath over the phone. Ratul realized that he had enough fun and the mobile phones came alive with Ratul’s blustering laughs. Aman also started to laugh and said to him that she was almost killed by his sense of humor.

Aman and Kishore are now enjoying their life, along with their beautiful four year old sweetheart, Tia. 

How I met Anjali - 4

How I Met Anjali - 3

Even though I was quite happy, but was also little confused. Since it would have been a disaster for me, if I would have met Anjali within the college campus, so we decided to meet near the University post office, far enough from the college premises. The previous night I thought to discuss with someone, who was little experienced with girls. My intention was just to get some tips out of him. The immediate name that came to my head was Sabine, who was actually a veteran in the concerned field. By that time, Sabine already knew about my secret phone calls and I said to him casually that the next day I would meet her. Like some of my other friends who knew about that, Sabine was not very excited to hear that. It seemed, it was kind of normal thing for him and he said to me "Oh! that’s great, all the best and have fun dude"

I said to him "actually I am telling you so that you could give me some tips"

Sabine smiled and said “You don’t need any tips dude and on the contrary, you should give us some tips”

But I still remember, Sabine advised me on one thing and said "Since you are going to meet her for the first time, you shouldn't take any risk and be little cautious"

"What kind of risk are you talking about?"

Sabine said "Nothing yaar. You don't know, girls are really smart these days. You never know, she might come along with her gang and it could be a kind of enjoyment for them, as you would be waiting like a cow out there. They could even plan something more mischievous."

Sabine suggested me not to wait exactly at the same place, instead he advised me to wait somewhere nearby, so that I could watch her their moves. I was totally confused and wondered “Aisa bhi hota hai?" as such things were beyond my imagination, but considering his experience, I couldn't have completely neglected Sabine's advice.

I and Anjali, planned to meet in the afternoon and I went to that place a bit earlier. She was supposed to wear a blue shirt and as already discussed, I was wearing a black T-shirt with a big dragon printed on it. I didn't have lunch yet, as it was quite early for me to have lunch that time. I took Sabine's advice a little seriously and waited at a different place but close to the post office. I was on the other side of the main road and constantly looked for her. I was little nervous and already finished a couple of cigarettes. Finally the clock ticked but she was still not anywhere within my visibility range. I waited for another 10-15 minutes but I couldn't see any girl with a blue shirt, near the post office. I thought, she must be somewhere nearby and constantly starring at the post office gate, in the same way I was doing. I was so much thankful to Sabine that moment and wondered about the consequences, if  I wouldn't have discussed with him, the previous night.

I felt so bad but was little happy too and thought "at least I didn't fall into her trick" All that was going through my head and then all of a sudden I saw a girl with a blue shirt, in a rickshaw. The rickshaw stopped near the post office and the girl got down there. She waited there and I constantly watched her moves. After a few minutes, I crossed the main road and approached towards her. She was wearing specs, with a chain attached to it and she had braces fixed to her teeth. She looked pretty cute in her typical specs chain and I could breathe a little easily, as she didn't look taller than me.

I asked her "Anjali?"

She replied "Yes, you are Jahid?" 

I smiled and said "yes" She started to laugh and  screamed "where the hell were you?"

We talked for a while and I just wanted to disappear from that place, as I had noticed  few familiar faces out there. I asked her if we could go to the city, may be to a restaurant. She was OK with the idea and we entered inside a bus. Here I would like to write the Anjali's version of the incident and she narrated this to many of her, as well as my friends. She used to say that as soon as I entered that bus, I looked for a seat and when I noticed a window seat, I pushed her a bit to take the window seat for myself and then asked her to sit beside me. Even though, I always enjoyed window seat but I seriously doubt that I did something like that.

We headed towards the city , but unfortunately we entered the wrong kind of bus. It was the kind of bus where there was separate seating arrangement for ladies. Very soon the bus got crowded and the conductor asked Anjali to better occupy a lady's seat and all of a sudden, she changed her seat and was no longer seated beside me. After almost an hour, we reached Silpukhuri and we got down there. We went to a restaurant, but she said that she already had her lunch. Actually they used to have early lunch at their hostel. I ordered some food for me and a juice for her.She said to me "You talk so much over the phone, but now you seem to be little different" After food, we came out of the restaurant and I lighted a cigarette. Even now a days, Anjali used to say to my friends that I intentionally passed my cigarette smoke towards her, that moment. Now, why the hell I would do that? Poor smoke, would simply go wherever the mighty wind would take her to.

She said she is tired and would like to go back to her hostel. We took a bus from there and on the way we didn't talk much. After an hour, the bus stopped near her hostel and she got down. We didn't say anything special that moment, except for the usual goodbye.After sometime, I reached my hostel and went inside my room. I lied down in my bed and was very restless and kind of confused. I was happy and also quite upset, may be I had too much expectation for the day. I thought, she must have found me quite boring and would never meet me again. First time, she met me only because I wanted to meet her once. Why the hell she would meet me again? All that was going through my head and I had no idea when I went to sleep. In the evening when I woke up, I was not in a very good mood and was quite upset.

I called Anjali in the evening and said "It must be a real boring day for You?"

She said "No. In fact, it was quite interesting"

I said "You don't have to lie to me. It's OK"

She said "It's not like that, I am quite open and always speak the truth. You are a very interesting person"

Immediately I replied "OK, if I am so interesting, then definitely we can meet again"

She laughed on that and asked me not to play with her words, but some how she couldn't deny our next encounter. Everyone remember their first date or whatever we name it, but my second experience with Anjali is much more memorable.

Next Part

How I met Anjali - 3

How I Met Anjali - 1

How I Met Anjali - 2

The phone calls continued for over a month and on few occasions I asked her if we could meet face to face? She used to reply “Why we have to meet? We are just phone friends” Social Networking sites came much later after we passed out of college and in those days we had only one cyber cafe in the entire campus and usually most of the time it was occupied. Most of us were not very much used to internet that time. After talking to her over the phone for almost a month, I was little curious to know how she looked like? Even though it was little embarrassing for me to get such information out of her, but on few occasions our point of discussion somehow went in that direction.  The only thing she revealed about herself is that she used to wear specs and whenever I asked anything more, she used to reply that she looked horribly ugly in her specs.

I remember once I asked her “OK, just tell me one thing, whether you are fair or dark or something in between?”

She replied with a laugh “Why you would like to know that? It seems you give too much importance to skin color?”

I said to her “It’s not like that yaar, actually now a days, sometimes I go to the market nearby your hostel and every time I visit there, I usually stare at every girl who got specks and wonder "this one might be her or that one...?”

She couldn't stop her laugh and said “I think it would be better if we could meet sometime?”

In the mean time, few of my close hostel buddies were already aware of the fact that I was talking to someone at Ayurvedic Girls Hostel and fortunately they didn't blow it out of proportion that time. I had few options to call Anjali those days and one of the option was the PCO nearby our college, which always had a big queue. Our college girl’s hostel and 3 more boy’s hostel was very near to the college. Using that option was completely out of the question for me, as it would have only meant “shooting at my own feet”

Second option was the PCO near to our hostel which was inside the APRO campus. APRO is Assam Police Radio Organization.  Most of our hostel guys used to visit that PCO, as it was comparatively  less crowded out there.  One more reason for many of us to visit that place was because of the Aunty who used to sit there. Now what to say about that lady? It has been a long time, but honestly speaking, she was damn hot. But sometimes, when APRO had their training sessions, we used to meet guys from all over India out there. During those training days, Auntie’s PCO was flooded with the men in uniform. In Auntie’s PCO I faced a different kind of problem. Aunty was more interested in STD calls and whenever my local call used to get a little longer, Aunty would politely say to me with her typical sweet smile “Bro, please wait for some time, this guy has one important STD call to make. Please don't mind, you can talk comfortably once he's done”

Sometimes we used to go out of the college campus for boozing eating and every time we went out, I used to look for a PCO which had the luxury of a little privacy and not those open ones. That was my 3rd option and undoubtedly that was the best option I had, as I could talk a little freely and comfortably out there. Later when our call duration increased exponentially and I started to get bankrupt much more earlier, I discovered the 4th option, our hostel telephone. Even though the keypad of the hostel phone was always locked but I learned the trick and eventually became an expert in “How to make call from a telephone whose keypad is locked?” I would definitely write about the trick, in a later post. So, ultimately I and Anjali decided to meet face to face and we even finalized the day, time and place to meet. I was very happy but a little anxious too, as I never went out to meet any girl before. I was little confused "What we would do? What we would talk?"  The previous night I was also a little concerned on a different matter, not sure whether it really matters much? But I was little anxious and wondered "as I am a guy of little below average height, what if she's taller than me?"

Next Part

How I Met Anjali - 2

How I Met Anjali - 1


Next day I again dialed  her hostel number, but someone else received the call. I asked her "can you please call Poonam?"

She replied "Poonam is not at hostel, she already left for home"

I asked "oh, she must have left today itself?"

She replied "No, she went 3 days back"

I said "But last night she was there, as I talked to her over the phone for quite some time"  

She replied "You must have talked to someone else then"

I asked "Is there any girl from Shillong out there,  now?"

She asked me to wait and after sometime my ear could perceive some familiar kind of voice. She told me "Oh! Rajiv, you have called again? Actually I have many friends from your engineering college, so I named  myself as Poonam. By the way, I am Anjali and please keep it only to yourself. I know your engineering guys, they really  enjoy blowing things a little out of proportion."

I laughed a bit and said "By the way, I am Jahid and not Rajiv" She also started to laugh and requested me to introduce myself as Rajiv, in case anyone else would have received my call at her hostel.

The holidays were nearly over and one by one, my friends started to come back to hostel, but still most of the guys were yet to come. One afternoon, I was in my room and all of a sudden I heard Nair, shouting at me "Jahid, Phone, phone, you have a phone call' As soon as I opened the door, Nair was in front of my eyes. I asked him "Who's on the phone, dude?"

Nair was little confused and replied "It's a girl and her name is Poonam. "abbe ye Poonam kaun hai?" Who's this Poonam yaar?"

That time, My parents recently shifted to Chandrapur, a place situated at the outskirts of Guwahati and I replied to Nair that she might be my parent's new neighbor.  But Nair had hell lot of doubt, as her voice over the phone sounded little familiar to him. As he was my room mate and also one of my closest buddy, he knew me quite well. A phone call from an unknown girl  for me, was so confusing for him and his confusion was pretty clear on his expression. I felt very happy that moment, as I never expected any  call back from Anjali. We talked for a while and she said that they went for a movie. They had to wait for half an hour before their show supposed to start, so she thought of calling me from a PCO.

I said to her "cool, you went for movie! must be lot of fun. You are with your friends or with your boy friend?"

She replied "You stupid, If I would be with my boy friend, I would have called you or what? "

After talking to her I came back to my room. As soon as I entered the room, Nair asked me "Who was she?" I replied "As I said earlier, she's my parents's neighbor. Our home phone is not working and she just called to give some information" Even though Nair was not satisfied with my reply, he remained silent that moment.

The kind of guy I was at hostel, or the kind of image I had, or the kind of guy I always pretended to be, I was quite sure that it could be a kind of shocker for some of my friends,  if I would have told them the actual fact that time. I never wanted to reveal that to anyone, as unnecessarily it would have given my friends an opportunity  to make fun of me. To be honest during my college days I had a very different impression for guys who used to mingle around with girls. I thought their mindset was completely different from us. We were quite busy, doing literally nothing other than those usual  "chill out, hang out, meaningless gossips, listening to those heavy metal songs and the frequent booze." I was totally on a different world. But then, something very unusual and quite exciting started to happen with me. It was becoming almost some kind of addiction for me to call her and I used to call her almost daily.

Next Part

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

One sad goodbye

After passing out of AEC I stayed at Guwahati for 3-4 months and then went to Delhi with my friends. In Delhi first few months passed just like that. My mechanical friends were at least getting some calls. Job market was at a pathetic condition that time. Every one among us had some plan except me. Some wanted to do MBA, some wanted to do M Tech and some were searching jobs. I was not able to decide what to do? Sometime my friends went outside to register themselves with the consultancies. Everyone knew that 90 % of the consultancies are fake but still they would pay them just with the hope that they might give one call. One day I also went to Nehru Place along with Tutul. A hell lot of consultancies were there. We went to one of them and discussed about our profiles. I asked whether there are any fresher’s jobs in software. She replied "Lot of jobs is there." I asked which companies have requirements for fresher. She replied "you first register with us and then you see how many calls we will give you". Registration fee was Rs 200 and I had only 50 Rs with me. I said to the lady "it's OK  We just come to inquire and we will come some other time to register." She replied "If you guys came so far why don't you register it now itself?"  Finally I said "actually I haven't brought money with me". She said "It's OK  you pay 100 now and remaining you can pay later". I replied "Actually I have only 50 Rs with me" she said "OK, you pay 50 Rs and remaining you can pay later" I asked "If I pay you 50 Rs then how I will go home? It will take minimum 20 Rs for me to go home." Listening to this she replied "At least you pay us 20 Rs and remaining you can pay later". We just ran away from there.

That day I thought that nothing can happen like this? For the first time I experienced some kind of depression. One more month passed just like that. One day I saw one advertisement in newspaper regarding admission for CDAC, Noida. I had some knowledge about CDAC but CDAC, Noida was recently opened. They mentioned that in entrance exam they would be asking c language and aptitude questions. I felt happy as I knew only those things that time. I made up my mind that I will go for it. Actually that decision gave me some direction in life that time.  I filled the form and prepared hard for the test for almost a month. One month after the test they declared the result. In the test my rank was among the top 10. This actually built my confidence that time.

Now there was not much time left for the formalities as classes were supposed to start within next 10 days. Somehow I convinced my father that it's a good course and definitely I will get a good job after completing it. I knew it would be a hectic 6 month course and after the course I will have to manage a job and after I join I will have to concentrate on my work. Actually I was little worried that for a long time I will not be able to visit home. To be honest I was missing Anjali. I missed her very badly that time and decided to visit Guwahati. Somehow I was able to manage a railway ticket. I was in Guwahati for 3-4 days and every day I used to meet Anjali. On the last day she gifted me a formal shirt. I asked her "why do u have to give me a shirt? Any way I don't wear formals" She said "I bought it from my first stipend. You will be facing interviews now and I know that you don't have even a single formal shirt" I told her that tomorrow morning I will be going and don't know next time when I will come? She told that she will be coming to Ghy railway station to see me off. I told her that my father would come to see me off and it would be little embarrassing, it will be better if you could come to Maligaon Rly station(Kamakhya). Also it would have been nearer from her hostel. I didn't have any money left with me to gift her anything. I told her that I will give her some pickles made by my mom tomorrow when you will come to see me. She loved my Mom's pickle. My mom didn't like her much though, may be because she is a Hindu. As expected my parents were not in favor of this relation. They didn't knew much about us that time but certainly they had some doubts. 

My train was at around 9:30 next morning. Next day after going to the station along with my father, we came to know that the train is 1 hour delayed. During that time neither I nor Anjali had mobile phone. I felt bad thinking Anjali also waiting there in Maligaon station alone. After half an hour it was announced that my train is delayed by another 3 hours. This time I was little tense. I told my father “you better go home? Why you have to wait unnecessarily? “I thought after my father go, I will catch a city bus or an auto and will go to Maligaon station.  But my father replied “Why should I go? What you will do alone here?” We waited just like that. I thought I will not be able to see her today. Finally the train arrived and I kept my luggage. My father also was bored of waiting and he wished me happy journey and left. The train was still at the platform and I just lighted a cigarette. Suddenly a policeman came and took me to concerned authority.  I argued a lot but I had to pay 100 Rs fine. 


Finally the train started to move. I was 90% sure that Anjali will not be there at Maligaon station, waiting for me that long. But still I was standing at the train door and was looking for her. To my surprise I saw her there. I immediately took the pickle bottle from my bag and got down. I had to go a little distance to meet her. I just said sorry, the train was so late. She replied “Yeah, I got to know”. I gave her the pickle bottle and as soon as I hold her arms the train started to move. She told me “Please don’t go”. The train already gained some momentum. Without saying much I just ran to catch the train. I was just waving my arms in the air till she lost to view. I was very upset and after several hours when the train reached New Jalpaiguri station, I called her hostel from a PCO in the platform. But she was not there in the hostel, may be she was in hospital. She was from Ayurvedic College and was doing her internship that time.