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

Bangalore To Goa

In 2006 we visited Goa during Christmas time. It was a memorable trip as it was a great get together of our old college buddies. There were two gangs, one headed from Bangalore and another from Pune, both the gangs united in Goa. From Bangalore we were some 8 guys and we booked a qualis for our travel. It was a long journey and we started at around 9 PM. It took almost two hours to pick everyone from their residence and by 11:30 PM we touched the highway. Our driver seemed to be little arrogant and damn care kind of. He strictly told us not to have cigarettes and alcohol inside the vehicle. We were little surprised with the kind of attitude from a driver.

Now, as soon as we touched the highway we realized that we were going at a speed of around 40-50 kph and sometimes the speed came down to 20 kph and suddenly it would gain some momentum and after sometime became steady at 40-50 kph. We discussed in our own language “what the hell is happening?” It continued like that for half an hour and out of frustration someone said to the driver “I think you can drive a little faster” The driver was silent on that and without any reaction he continued to drive. After sometime the vehicle almost stopped at one place and at that moment we all started to argue with him “what happened to you? Why are you driving like that?” He replied “actually I am feeling very sleepy as I didn't sleep last night” One of my friend said to him “It’s OK, you can sleep for some time and for the time being let me drive” He replied “No, I can’t let you drive, I will not take that risk” We started to lose our patience and said to him “if you are going to drive like this, you will definitely hit some vehicle” Our driver got angry and replied in some high-tone “What are you saying? It’s my vehicle and how can I just hit someone like that? “That moment we realized that he was actually the owner of that qualis. He started his engine and the same drama continued for another half an hour.

We stopped at one Dhaba for tea; our main intention was to let our driver sleep for some time. It was around 1 AM and it was quite cold outside, after tea we simply waited for an hour. We came back to our car and found him sound sleep. We had a hard time to wake him up. He was not ready to drive and said he needs to sleep for few more hours. We had to struggle a lot to convince him that one of us can drive the night and he could continue from morning. For few minutes he anxiously watched my friend driving his vehicle. Once he was convinced about his driving skills, he went to deep sleep.

Next day morning after breakfast our driver took charge and we really experienced some of his good driving skills.


Everything was going fine and all of a sudden in the middle of a forest we encountered a minor accident with a bike. There was a minor scratch on the headlight of the qualis. Our driver was not in any mood to forgive the biker just like that and asked money for the damage. Even we also supported him and asked the biker to pay him some money. But the biker literally had no money with him, he opened his purse and he had only 30-40 Rs with him. Our driver wanted to make a police complaint. We asked him “where the hell you will find a police station in the middle of this forest?” But he was determined to launch a police complaint. Now there must be someone to look after the biker as he might escape, also we couldn't send our driver alone to look for a police station. So, few of us went with him to find a police station and few waited in the middle of that forest.

The biker looked very tense and was looking into the sky; he must have wondered “what the hell?”

We waited almost an hour in that forest and finally the qualis came but our driver couldn't find any police station there.  Their argument continued and one of our friends came up with a solution. He said “It’s OK, each of us will pay 100 RS to you for the damage. Now just leave the biker and move on” Our driver agreed to that and we were on our way to Goa.

Our Pune gang already booked some lodge near Anjuna beach.  Once we reached Goa, it took us almost an hour to locate the lodge. For the first time when we inquired to a pedestrian about the lodge, he replied “you will have to go straight on this same road, the lodge is around 3 km from here” After going about 3 km from there, again we asked someone else about the lodge and he replied “you came in the wrong direction, you guys will have to go back on this same road, the lodge is about 3 km from here” We had to repeat that to and fro motion quite a number of times that day and everyone was literally frustrated. Finally we were able to locate our lodge and all our frustration was gone when we met our Pune gang after such a long time.

We stayed in Goa for 3 days and enjoyed a lot. Goa is just amazing during Christmas and New Year time, although it's quite expensive. There’s music, light, carnival and beer all around the place.

One can simply lie down at the Baga beach and relax the whole day.

One day we wanted to visit the “Dil Chahta Hai” fort, to be honest we didn't know the actual name of the fort. So we asked people about the “Dil Chahta Hai” fort and they showed us the direction. When we reached near the fort, we saw a signboard where it was actually written “Dil Chahta Ha Fort”. The view is just stunning from there.



One can visit Goa every year and definitely won’t feel bored at all.

A Few Good Men

After attending a farewell party I was on my way to home.  We all were pretty high that night; some of my friends also enjoyed joints.  Out of excitement even I also had a few drags and it kicked instantly as I had it after many years. After the party and after saying good bye to my friends I took an auto and was on my way home. It was little late, around 12:30 AM and I was looking for a shop to buy a few cigarettes, but unfortunately all the shops were closed. All of a sudden I noticed one person selling cigarettes and tea in his bicycle; this is quite common in Bangalore. I asked the auto driver to stop and I had to walk back a little distance to buy my stuffs. My bill was 50 Rs and I gave that person a 100 Rs note and lighted a cigarette.  As soon as he returned my 50 Rs change, I immediately left from there and went back to my auto. The auto started and was about to take some momentum, suddenly the driver stopped and said "someone is following us and waving his hand" It was the same person from whom I bought my cigarettes. He came to me and said “what sir? You are so careless. You had given me 500 Rs note” he returned me the remaining 400 Rs.

One of my friend and his wife planned to attend their close friend’s Griha Pravesh (House Warming Ceremony). They wanted to gift something unique and within their budget. They visited few malls but they couldn't find anything interesting. Finally they found something cool as well as authentic stuff in one small shop. They gift wrapped their stuffs they bought and took an auto just outside the shop. From there they went to a market as they had to buy some other things as well. They were quite busy shopping and only after half an hour they realized that they had left the gift in the auto itself. The wife was almost about to cry and she even tried her luck to find the auto in the place where they got down. Her husband tried to console her and after a few minutes she said to him “lucky auto driver, he must be a happy person tonight. 2000 Rs is not a small amount, also we spent so much time to find the kind of gift we wanted” Her husband replied “It’s OK, what can we do now?  Tomorrow we will go to the same shop and will buy the same gift again.” So, next day they went to the same shop and described the shopkeeper about the same product they bought the previous day. The shopkeeper recognized their faces and gave them a gift wrapped parcel and said “last night an auto driver came to our shop and gave me this parcel. He said that someone left the parcel in his auto. As soon as he realized that he immediately went back to the same place where he dropped you guys, he even waited there for 15 minutes but unfortunately he couldn't find you guys. So he came to my shop and said to me that they must have bought this from here as they boarded the auto from here.  He requested me to hand over the parcel to the right person if in case they visit here next time”