Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai?

I think we were in 8th grade when that classic super hit song came up. Seriously, what an outstanding choreography, simply out of the world and it has become some kind of a milestone in Bollywood. With the amazingly magnificent dance beats and with it's sizzling lyrics, the video song was capable enough to mesmerize any normal human being on earth that time to a great extent. Beyond any doubt it's the master of all item numbers ever. During those days the song created some kind of a hypnotizing affect on the people irrespective of any age, sex or color and the "Ku Ku Ku Ku Ku" tune continued to come out of everyone’s lips for a long long time. During every private functions and in all those Pooja celebrations,  the loudspeakers just loved to play “Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai?” in extra loud volume.

Even though I studied in Kendriya Vidlaya, but to be honest initially I was little confused with the term Choli. After I cleared my confusion with the term, I was quite amazed that how could Bollywood be so open minded? Well, the introductory part of the song sounded little vulgar those days, but the answer to the question "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai?" is there in the song itself and after listening to the answer people felt that it’s actually not that embarrassing. That time I just wondered "Choli is not a very common term and sounds very technical. Even after studying in KV, if many of us were confused with the term, how other guys and people who don’t have the opportunity to communicate in Hindi would understand it?"

One day I was at one of my friends house and we were simply watching TV. All of a sudden that great song appeared on the TV screen. My friend’s father was also sitting along with us and he’s a typical Assamese man with very limited knowledge of Hindi. He asked us "Acha baba, what do you mean by Choli?"

Our level of awkwardness increased significantly and I and my friend started to stare each other. We were totally confused with how to deal with the situation. I preferred to remain silent that moment and gave the opportunity to my friend to handle it. With little shyness my friend replied "It actually means some kind of an ornament"

His dad again asked "Ornament? What kind of ornament?"

My friend replied "Like Necklace or a Mangalsutra kind of"

Even though, his dad got his answer but he looked even more confused and commented "Acha! it’s a very popular song and people play it repeatedly and in all occasions everywhere"

Bhaskar Recovery Bank

Today morning something very unusual happened. I received a call from an unknown person and he said he's from the legal department. According to him one of my friends Tridip, took a personal loan from axis bank few years ago and he didn't pay the entire amount and is absconding. Now, Tridip is my hostel junior and a very good friend. The legal guy said that Tridip gave my reference while applying for his loan. He asked for my address and also asked me to pay the remaining loan amount (Rs. 60,000), else I may get into trouble. I said "why the hell I should pay the amount? Tridip left Bangalore last year and joined a new company in Kolkata. At present he's in Australia and he called me just a few days back. So, I called to bash him up a bit, but what the hell? He said that he never ever took any personal loan from any bank and I thought it must be a different Tridip.

So, I called Girish, the guy from the legal department and asked for my friend's full name who took the loan. Aha! The surname didn't match with junior Tridip and the actual guy is a senior friend from our college. I was totally stunned, as there’s no way senior Tridip would have given my name as reference. As far as I know, he’s one of the wealthiest guy of our college and he’s a damn metal freak. He worked in Bangalore for several years and now he’s settled in his hometown in Assam. In Bangalore I met him on couple of occasions that too in some metal concerts. I messaged him in FB and a little later called him. He said he took a personal loan in 2002 and cleared it within next two years. He was even more surprised than me and said "Why the hell I will give your reference?" We both had a great laugh and then I called the legal guy once again and clarified everything. He said "You work for Onmobile Global Ltd right?" 

I replied "Yes, how the hell you know about that?"

He said "Why your name and also your company details are there in our database? Why anyone would give your reference for taking a loan? Now you will only have to repay the remaining loan amount"

My heart beats started to accelerate and then the guy asked "Do you know Jayashree?"

I asked "Now, who the hell is she?"

The guy replied "She is Tridip’s sister?"

I said "I have no idea about that"

Immediately after our conversation, I again called Tridip da to clarify. He said "Yes, Jayashree is my sister. Now, how she came into the picture?"

I said "I’ve no idea, but how the guy have all these information?"

Tridip da was very much confused and shocked. He even suggested me to put a police complaint. A little later I opened my FB profile and my company detail is clearly visible out there. Then I checked Tridip da’s profile, well his sister name is also there. But how the guy from the legal department managed to get my number? Later in the afternoon junior Tridip called me from Australia and asked for the legal guy’s numbers. The guy initially called me from a landline phone(080-43569991) and then he gave me his mobile number(9448559053) as well. Now Tridip works in telecom industry and he has good connection with all major operators. It’s not difficult for him to trace any number and within a few minutes he got the details. Well Girish, the guy from the legal department is using a BSNL number that is registered under the name "Bhaskar Recovery Bank" That sounded really interesting and we wanted to gather some more information and decided to have a conference call with the legal department. Tridip initiated the call using a WebEx number and asked the legal guy some basic legal questions. The guy got confused and he kept on asking the same question “Who are you?"

Tridip said that he works in cyber security department, Government of India and asked "What is your real name Girish or Bhaskar? Are you an authorized bank recovery agent? Are you a bank employee? You are using a BSNL number and I have top connection in BSNL. Say me everything or I will escalate it to very higher level" Tridip even told him about his exact location in Bangalore at that moment. The legal guy sounded very much confused and after sometime he disconnected the call. 

A little later Tridip again initiated the conference call and the guy said "Who are you sir? Please tell me your name and I will check if you have already paid you entire loan amount?" Well, that time he started to talk in Hindi instead of his manageable English.

Tridip said "Today morning you called my friend at Onmobile and you must remember my name"

The guy replied "Daily I call 100 people and how can I remember all the names?"

Tridip again asked "How many people from Onmobile you called today?"

The legal guy said "Please ask your friend to call me" and then he disconnected the call. We kept trying his number, but it was switched off for almost next 15 minutes and then we gave up. Now, I’m not sure whether I will receive any such call from the legal guy again? If anything interesting turns out then I will surely update on this.

Entrance Exams Ke Side Effects

Uff! Those days were so much hectic and full of tension as well. During entrance exam seasons, usually most of the parents unintentionally use to add fuel to the fire, I mean the fire of stress and anxiety of the youngsters. During our days also many of the parents simply tried to make their offspring's life little more miserable and pathetic. Well, some of the entrance exam scenes still flashes inside my head sometimes. Few of the parents continuously used to wait outside the examination centre. As soon as their kids finished with their test or even during the middle of their test, when they used go outside, OMG! Their parents looked much more tensed and they used to ask them to eat apples, grapes, etc which they used to bring along with them. I don't know much about the latest trend, but during our time most of the parents were pretty much obsessed with either engineering or a medical career. They wanted us to appear for every possible engineering and medical entrance tests. Even though, the world was free from any sort of social media those days, but still somehow parents had all the information. 

In some cases, the guys even tried to clarify their parents "Why you need to waste money in applying for the form? I don't have any interest and also my preparation is not good enough. I’m damn sure I will not be able to score"

But the parents usually used to reply "You don't have to worry about the money, just prepare nicely and appear in the entrance test. You never know and you may get selected"

I remember one incident during one of those entrance tests. Only 10 minutes had passed after the question papers were distributed and all of a sudden one guy shouted "Sir, excuse me"

One of the invigilators went near to him and asked "Yes, what happened?"

The guy replied "Sir, I want to submit my answer sheet"

The invigilator was very much surprised and said "But you haven’t written anything, it’s completely blank"

The guy replied "Actually Sir, I have a very important work to do and I will have to leave now"

"What important work? How can any other work be more important than your entrance test?"

With little embarrassment the guy kind of murmured "Sir, I’ve some personal work"

Again the invigilator asked in a little weird manner "Personal work? At this age what kind of personal work one can have?"

The guy preferred to remain silent that moment and after a while the invigilator again asked him "If you have other important work then why you came for the test?"

He replied "Actually sir, just now remember about that"

Sir replied "But according to rule, candidates can only leave the examination hall after one and half hour"

The guy remained at his seat for that long and he looked very frustrated. All other candidates seated nearby, kept starring glances at him at frequent intervals. He didn’t write even a single word on his answer sheet and ultimately he submitted and went outside.  

My association with biology was extremely horrific and on top of that my parents wanted me to write the medical entrance test. I tried to convince them a lot, but they always used to say "It’s OK, just write the test and you never know how luck can turn your way"

Well, those statements actually made me more apprehensive and I used to wonder "What if I really get selected? Holy shit! How would I ever pass those medical exams? Even if I clear them, I would only turn up to be the most horrible doctor on earth" Those thoughts used to scare me and I never appeared in any of the medical entrance tests. One of my friend’s conditions was pretty much similar, but he couldn’t convince his parents and had to appear in one medical entrance exam. His biology knowledge was also quite terrific, but he had a very solid knowledge about the human heart. He knew everything about the heart and how it pumps blood throughout the blood vessels to various parts of the body by repeated, rhythmic contractions. During the entrance test he had written everything he knew about heart with neat and clean diagrams. After the restricted time period he felt that he had written enough and submitted his answer sheet. The interesting fact is that not even a single heart related question was asked in that entrance test.

One more interesting story about one of my good old friend and his father himself was a doctor. My friend didn’t have any interest for a career in medicine. One evening I visited him and he looked little worried. I got to know from him that the very next day he was going to appear for one of the most prestigious medical entrance tests. That particular test used to ask all multiple choice questions and they even had negative markings. My friend was not at all concerned about the outcome of his exam and his main worry was how he would have passed his time during the test?  So, my friend came up with a very innovative idea and he started to work on that. After an hour of hard work, he created a beautiful dice out of an abandoned piece of wood. He said he would use that in order to write his test.

I asked him "But each question will have 4 options, so what will you answer if 5 or 6 would be the outcome?"

He laughed and said "Very simple, I will roll the dice again"

Well, he did exactly the same thing during the entrance test the next day.

Let's Have a Tea Break

Tea is one of the most traditional drinks and it’s extremely popular across the world. I think tea is the second most popular drink on earth, next only to water. There are many varieties of tea available in the market. Even though, the basic concept remains the same, but across the world people prepares it little differently. I’m pretty much used to two types of preparation, with milk and without milk. Without milk it looks so glamorous and not only the looks, but it tastes quite awesome as well. Particularly early morning, few sips of Black tea is capable enough to refresh us instantly. It feels like consuming the Caffeine in its purest form. It goes quite well with few drops of lemon juice and many people calls it by the name “Lemon Tea” Oh! The aroma is just magnificent. Actually Black tea goes quite well with many other flavors, like ginger, black pepper, mint, etc. So it can be kind of compared with vodka, as far as the mixing is concerned. Black tea is extremely popular in the North East states of India and particularly Assam.  Well, to be honest I never ever had Black tea in my entire life and whatever I had all these years was purely Red in color and in our state it's popularly known as "Laal Saa" I’ve no idea why the hell people call it Black tea? Black coffee is understandable, but black tea is confusing, as it’s no way black.

I remember those train journeys during my engineering days. There’s a train, popularly known as BG Passenger which starts at 5 AM from our hometown and reaches Guwahati by 9 AM. The same train used to return from Guwahati at 5 PM. Those were memorable journeys, as we used to travel in groups and we even used to taste almost every possible eateries that passed by our compartment. After the holidays were over, most of the time we usually used to travel by the 5 AM local train. Even though, it was quite painful to wake up so early, but the train was very convenient and specially the timing, as we could have attended our lectures on the same day. Many people working in the government sector usually travel by that train on a regular basis. The very first thing I used to do, as soon as I used to get into the train was to have a "Laal Saa" There used to be so many Chai Walas all around with different flavors of tea. While travelling early morning, I was not very much tempted with all those yummy foods. Actually in local trains people usually use to avoid the washrooms and use it only in case of emergencies. Well, I just tried to avoid any sort of emergency situation while travelling, as early morning I'm very much vulnerable in that case.

Once I moved out of Assam, I always kind of missed the tea culture out there. In our place one can find a tea stall in almost every nook and corner and in almost every stall they also serve Black tea, as well. I still remember my 1st day in Bangalore, when in the evening I just wanted to have a cup of tea. I kept on searching and couldn’t find any tea stall nearby. I was very much frustrated and then later, one of my friend told me that tea’s available in any of the bakeries in Bangalore. Even though, the tea tastes quite good out here, but the fun and luxury of having tea in a tea stall, is very different. In some of the bakeries they even serve black tea and many people calls it "Sulaimani tea" here in Bangalore

A couple of months back, a new caterer was introduced at out office cafeteria and I was very much delighted to see “Laal Saa” out there in the counter. I asked the guy "Boss, ek Red tea dena"  "Please get me one Red tea"

The guy replied "Sorry Sir, no Red tea. Only Black tea and Lemon tea"

They use to serve tea in small and transparent glasses. I asked him "It’s purely red in color, but why you call it Black tea?"

The guy smiled and said "I don’t know Sir. People call it Black tea so we also call the same"

Again I asked "What about lemon tea? How it is different from Black tea?"

They guy replied "Both are same Sir and we only put few drops of lemon it it"

Now days, every morning I regularly have lemon tea at our cafeteria. But in the afternoon by around 4 PM, I usually have craving for a normal cup of tea, I mean tea prepared with milk. Tea is a research topic since centuries and over the years many doctors and scientists claimed tea to have health benefits. Some research suggests that drinking tea without milk is good for a healthy heart and cardiovascular system.

Just a Thank You Post

I was always a typical backbencher right from my childhood days. Throughout my entire life I always shied away from extracurricular activities. Well, particularly those competitions for which we required to perform on stage, were really nightmare for me. Oh! I seriously suffered from stage phobia. But the school authority was strict enough and on few occasions, guys like us couldn’t have avoided and had to participate in some of the competitions. I remember those tensed expression of my friends, whenever the results were being declared. Sometimes, even few of my backbencher friends also became little anxious and someone usually used to ask "Why you are taking tension? Anyway you are not going to win any prize" Even though they might have felt little bad, but usually they used to smile and the tension immediately used to disappear from their faces.  But I just can’t deny one thing. Well, I always loved those consolation prizes. Those were some kind of sensitive moments for me whenever the consolations prizes were being declared, usually at the end. 

My stage phobia and the repulsive reflexes for any kind of competitions continued beyond my school days. When I joined Engineering College I was so happy to meet all different kind of backbenchers. Life was so cool that time and unlike school days, college authorities never forced us to take part in competitions. Those days, I was only fascinated by Old Monk and many other friends used to share their friendship with 8 PM, as well. During school days I was so active. Our school was at a distance of about 10 KM from our house and I used to go by riding my bicycle. After returning from school, I used to play cricket/football in the nearby playground. Later in evening, I used to go for tuition and after dinner even used to study for a couple of hours. After joining Engineering College my life started to revolve in a circular loop “Sleep -> Old Monk -> Gossip” But no regrets, it was damn fun and definitely those were the best days of my life.

I’ve been blogging since more than a year and life is quite different after I entered into the blogging world. I like to thank everyone for reading my posts. I get immense pleasure whenever I see any comment on my blog. Well, those comments always inspired me to write new posts. It feels good and sometimes I even take a little pride, as I feel myself as a writer (sigh). I also had the opportunity to make so many new friends. I still remember my first Leibster award way back in January this year. Later, I received few more Leibsters and some Versatile awards as well. Whenever I received any such award, I always tried to bookmark the link and like a lazy man, I used to think that someday I would write about it. Seriously, I never got so many awards in my entire school life and what to say about my college days?

Well, it’s too late, but as people say "better late than never" This post is especially dedicated to all those awesome bloggers who like my blog so much and awarded me with Leibsters and Versatiles. Just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I just hope I haven't missed any of the names!

Deepak Kripal, The Original Poetry

Meera, A Rat's Nibble

Soborowsky, Author's Thought – SLS Oborowsky

Preethi, A BIT OF THIS AND THAT

Sreesha, Petrichor and Clouds

Farzad Minoo Damania, Career Nurturer

guspazha, guspazhachinar (It seems the blog doesn't exist now)

A Novel Idea, A Novel Idea

Kranti Maheshwari, An Enlightening Thought

Diana Pinto, Diana's Musings

Garima Nag, Sweet Sharing

Shanknaad, Shankhnaad

Eli, Expatliv - In Exotic India

Preethi, Tulips and Me

Stallion, The Daily Life

Shwetabh Mathur, Memories

Karan Sampat, The K-Factor

Shilpa Jadhav, Being Mommee

Imli, The Tamarind

Well, it’s a pod like fruit and is used very extensively in cuisines across the world. Oh! I love those tamarind chutnies and pickle so much. Out here in India, people usually know it by the name Imli. Tamarinds are generally very sour and when people put it inside their mouth, their face grimace from the sour taste. When ripe, it tastes unusually sweet as well. The sweet and sour taste of Imli can mesmerize anyone, especially people who are addicted to sour things. It looks so damn tempting whenever someone uncovers it by removing the protected shell, especially when it’s totally ripe. Some people find it so attractive that they feel like eating plenty of them, but as soon as they put the first piece inside their mouth, it horribly stimulates almost all the organs. One piece of Imli is capable enough to make our teeth extremely sensitive towards every possible eatables for the next couple of days, especially those hard stuffs which we have to crunch. But whenever people look at any ripe Imli, particularly in it's half nude state inside the pod, they get very much tempted. 

Now, Imli got a very special significance in Bollywood since a long time. As a child, I was very much influenced by the true Imli knowledge. Last weekend after lunch, I simply browsed through the TV channels. I stopped at an 80’s Bollywood movie and enjoyed a relaxing moment for a while. After sometime, one typical scene appeared. Well, the daughter in law showed some extra interest in having Imli and in no time I understood that's actually a happy moment for the family. During my childhood days, I was such an expert in those kind of Bollywood facts, that I couldn’t stop my mouth and always used to showcase my talents. While sharing my knowledge, I never bothered about the kind of guests and quite often my parents had to feel the embarrassment. I still remember that on few occasions, my Mom didn't even allow me to watch TV along with some of the guests. Well, the Imli theory doesn't always bring happiness and particularly when the concerned lady is an unmarried one. In that case, her obsession towards Imli could be very vulgar and parents wouldn’t hesitate to change the channel in front of the kids.

I remember one incident when I was in my 6th standard. We went for a family picnic at the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra, along with several other families. Most of the kids were very much interested about the big tamarind tree nearby. We could see a plenty of attractive looking pod-like fruits hanging all over the tree. Few of the girls simply went crazy and they even tried many desperate attempts by throwing stones at the goodies. I and few of my friends were older enough and already started to feel the North Pole - South Pole attraction. We thought that was a great opportunity to show our talent and immediately climbed up the tree. Oh! as a child I just loved to climb trees, but also as I climbed higher and higher, my heartbeats used to accelerate as well. That was a big damn tamarind tree and we plucked hell lot of pods. Later, people enjoyed those fresh tamarinds with salt and green chilies. It was so tempting and also the smell was simply magical, but I was so much influenced with the great Bollywood Imli story that I didn’t dare to taste it. 

Time passed by and several years later when my wife Anjali gave me that good news, I was so much happy. But I was also little confused, as I never noticed her eating Imli. One day, as I was about to go to the market, I asked her "Should I bring some Imli for you?"

She replied "What will I do with Imli?"

I said "I think you would feel better if you have Imli"

"Are you mad? Go and come back soon"

Well, Anjali had craving for so many things those days, like Ice cream, fish, etc. But I really missed those Imli. I remember one day when she was kind of determined to have Ilish fish(Hilsa). We went to a fish market but couldn’t find any Ilish there and then we visited a different market. That was a tough day and even after few hours of extensive search, we couldn’t find even a single piece of Ilish fish anywhere. Later we went to a well known mall where they still sell wide varieties of fish. But, what the hell? We didn’t get it there as well. Anjali was so upset that moment and she even discussed about the tragedy with few of the customer care executive out there. They politely apologized for the unavailability of Ilish fish and said that the supply was inadequate for the last few weeks. They took her number and said they would call her as soon as the very next Ilish supply comes. After a few days, they actually called her and Anjali prepared the typical and yummy Ilish fish recipe with mustard, that day.  

I Love Guests

I very well remember how I used to get excited whenever any guest visited us, during my childhood days. Well technically, those were the days when landline phones were the only mode of communication. But majority of the people couldn’t afford such kind of luxury, as the call rates almost touched the sky. I think I was in my 8th standard when my father installed the landline phone for the very first time in our house. So, with very limited options available, guest usually used to visit without any prior intimation. Now, some people might wonder “What if there’s no one in the house and all of a sudden guest arrive?” Well, we have encountered such situations many times and those minor issues were easily sorted out. Wow! It was so much fun whenever cousins of our similar age group visited us. But, guests used to come only for few days and their departure was so much painful. For some special guests, I tried my best so that they could have stayed for few more days. I remember how I played an effective trick, when those special guests used to say “Sorry dear, we can’t stay more and tomorrow we will have to leave” Well, just before an hour of their departure, I used to put most of their cloths inside a bucket filled with water. As simple as that and the guest had to stay for another day. Well, I played that trick quite a few times.

Like many other things, my strong affection for guests, is also very convincingly inherited by our little angel Jia. She feels so happy whenever our door bell uses to ring and on every such occasion, she’s extremely delighted. Be it our maid or any delivery guy or any neighbor, she likes to play with each and every person who use to visit our house. Her excitement level is at peak whenever any of our close friends visit us and she loves to play with them till late midnight. About a couple of months ago, Edwin and Apee visited us and Jia loves them so much, particularly Edwin. That evening we ordered some food from outside. As we prepared ourselves to have our dinner, all of a sudden we heard something out of Jia’s mouth. Well, she was saying “Forty, Forty” in her own cute and sweet voice. She was also holding a piece of paper with her hand. It was actually the bill of those stuffs we ordered. Apee was little surprised and she immediately took the bill from her hand and had a look at it. Apee started to scream out of excitement "Aree! How could she recognize 40? She is not even 2 years old"

We asked "What happened?"

Apee showed the bill to us and said “Look here, its written 40 out here”

Actually, out of the few food items which we had ordered, price of one of the item was 40 and it was clearly mentioned in the bill. Apee’s excitement continued further and she praised Jia "Wow! Jia is such an intelligent baby" According to my knowledge, Jia could say one to ten continuously. Even though I had a little doubt about the 40 thing, but still I felt very proud that moment. After few minutes, I smelled something. Well, the smell was quite different from those yummy food in front of us. I immediately checked Jia’s pampers from her back side. Oh! She had done potty and it took us a while to understand the mystery. Well, forty and potty sounds so similar and especially from Jia’s mouth.  That moment, everyone had a good laugh.                         

                                                                  One recent video of Jia talking

The Insusceptible

Everyone looks so happy and people are talking to each other in groups. It’s such a luxurious hotel and also so close to the beach. Well, Goa always fascinate tourists and people at the balcony could hear the soothing sea sounds. Dr Surekha Gupta is talking to some Europeans at the moment. Well, she’s a very renowned Indian scientist and a couple of years ago, she was hired by the world's largest Ayurvedic medicine & food manufacturing company. Presently she is working as the head of their R&D unit. She is also quite well known in abroad and even though the western world still doesn't believe much in the power of Ayurveda, but Dr Surekha always tries her best to spread her Ayurvedic knowledge world across. The world’s biggest conference on medicines and organic food products went very well. Most of the world's top companies in the concerned sector, participated in the two days conference. Aha! they have chosen such an exotic location for the conference and the participants must be wondering if it could have continued for few more days. But tomorrow morning everyone will just leave after their breakfast.

Most of them already had their dinner and they are now simply gossiping and enjoying their drink. I wonder if those are organic drinks? But the way people are talking, it doesn't seems like that. Some of the guest wants to go to the beach, but Dr. Surekha is very tired and asks them to carry on. She then goes inside her room and prepares for some sleep. It's already midnight and the breeze is so magnificent. These guys are enjoying some wonderful time out there at the beach. All of a sudden they hear some unusual kind of sound and they could also see a small ball of fire up above the sky and in no time it touches the sea. It's no longer visible now, perhaps it went deep inside the sea. The guys are simply wondering and starring each other’s faces.

Someone asks "What the hell was that?"

Another guy replies "Might be a falling star"

"Falling star, are you nuts?"

They gossip for few more minutes and it’s already started to get little chill and they decide to go inside the hotel. 

After her shower, Dr Surekha is ready to go to sleep and switched off the lights. The big window is open and she's loving the cool breezes and the relaxing sea sounds. All of a sudden she hears something. Well, she could also see some sparks of light near the window. The sound and the sparks are becoming more horrific and Dr. Surekha immediately jumps out of her bed and screams “What the hell is that?” She’s about to go outside her room and then suddenly she notices something on the wall. It seems someone is projecting something on the wall and she reads “Please don’t panic Dr. Surekha, we are not here to harm you. We just came to know every details about your innovative immune product. It seems your product is the best immunity product the world has ever produced. We want to know about the ingredients, formula and the detailed manufacturing procedure of it"

Dr. Surekha totally loses her mind and simply asks "What is this? Who are U guys? Why I can’t see you people"

Again she hears some kind of un-tuned radio noise and also notices a glitter. It seems someone is trying to communicate with her. She thinks "Could it be ghosts or spirits? That’s crap, I shouldn’t think in that angle"

Again she's reading some texts on the wall "Dr. Surekha, we really don’t have much time to explain much. We don’t know how you will react and really don’t want to panic you. Believe it or not, but we came all the way from future, from the year 2093. The chemical food and medicines have taken over the entire world out there. The immune system of human beings is deteriorating day by day and particularly for children, the situation is much more pathetic. More than 50% of the kids couldn’t survive beyond 10 years. Well, it starts with simple cough and cold and then it gets chronic. Within a few years they start to suffer from severe asthma, pneumonia, anemia, tuberculosis, bronchiolitis and cancer, as well. We are on a mission to take the exact formula and about all the ingredient details of your Chyawanprash and our scientists would try to reproduce it."

Dr. Surekha is totally speechless and simply asks "But how I can give it to you guys? It’s in my laptop"

Again she reads some projections on the wall "Just keep your laptop on the bed"

She does exactly the same and immediately notices a bright light flashing on her bed. She reads yet another text on the wall "Thanks a lot Dr. Surekha, we’re done and we will have to leave now. We wish you a great life and take care"

Just like a thunder and with those typical cosmic sounds, something moved like a flash through the window. Dr Surekha is simply looking outside and could see a blurred vision of the sea. All of a sudden she notices a bright ball of light at the surface of the sea and it’s moving upwards now. Within no time, it already moved up in the sky and looks like a star now. She's continuously starring at that mysterious thing and in a few seconds it completely lost to her view. Dr Surekha is in a state of shock and is thinking "Was it a dream? No, it can’t be simply a dream. I just hope the future of our kids, I mean the future kids, OMG! 2093! was that damn incident real? Whatever, I just wish for their healthy and secure future"

Image courtesy: google images



This post is written for Indiblogger’s "An Immune India" contest, in association with Dabur Chyawanprash. But unfortunately couldn't submit my entry before the closing time.

Dabur Chyawanprash helps us in fighting against germs, viruses and helps protect against infections, making us free to take on the outdoors, unhygienic surroundings, weather changes, pollution etc.  It is prepared according to ancient Ayurvedic recipes. It includes 49 components, including gold and silver, herbs, honey, amla, pearls, minerals, fruits, etc. Since the immune system of children is still developing, they have much lower immunity and hence are more vulnerable to falling ill, as compared to adults. Chyawanprash, If used consistently, normalizes metabolic processes in the body, enhances immunity and improves digestion.

                                      Since ancient times, it is called the balm of immortality in India.

                                  

Ssshhhh... It's Her !

Initially when I arrived in Bangalore to start a career, I stayed at a hostel in J. P. Nagar 6th phase. Life was pretty hard for me that time. The food was so much expensive and I had to plan a bit in order to have managed my breakfast, lunch and dinner. That time I just wished if I could have stayed at an independent house, so that we could have cooked our own food. But, "Uff Ye Bangalore!" One need to pay 10 months rent in advance in the name of security deposit to rent a house. After a couple of months, few more of my close friends decided to come to Bangalore. Well, the market was slowly recovering from the recession phase that time. 

Mukha already arrived and stayed with me for a couple of days at the hostel. Dhiru and Lami were about to come within next few days. Mukha had some friends in Bangalore and somehow he had information about a house and the landlord was ready for merely 2 months advance as security deposit. Without wasting anytime we both went to have a look at the house and immediately booked it by paying some token amount. But there was a minor problem though. The landlord seemed to be very strict and he clearly said to us that maximum 3 guys could have stayed in his house. Well, we were 4 of us and I believed that to be a very minor issue, as the landlord used to stay quite far from there and I thought to sort it out later. It was a one BHK house at a place named R. T. Nagar, in northern part of Bangalore. It’s a fascinating place and the ill effects of IT were not pretty much visible out there those days. Prices of most of the things were much reasonable and particularly chicken, as compared to other main parts of Bangalore. I still remember how we used to have chicken on a regular basis, as the cost of vegetables seemed to almost the same or in fact, could have been a little more.

Life was much better after we shifted to that house and also our tummies/tongue were kind of  satisfied. We had such a great opportunity of reunion of old buddies and really enjoyed some good time. On few occasions our landlord thrilled us with his surprise visits and on every such occasion, Lami used to hide himself inside the washroom. Actually Lami never existed for the landlord and the remaining guys had to submit our Photo IDs to him. I remember one incident when Lami had to remain locked in the washroom for almost an hour. On that particular day, the landlord seemed to be under some kind of serious Fevicol(Well known adhesive brand) effect, as he remain attached to that chair for so long. We simply wondered "What if he would have wanted to use the washroom?" Time passed by and after about a month we made some good friends nearby. They were also "Bekaar" jobless engineers like us and looked for opportunities. They also used to stay in a group and Particularly, Kamal and Debo became quite close to us. Sometimes we used to enjoy lunch/dinner together and not to mention about our love and respect for the Old Monk.

Their house was at a market kind of place, just beside the busy street. One afternoon after lunch, we visited them and were enjoying a cool and relaxing gossip session. Everyone was on the bed and seated close by. The room was alive with those careless talks and laughter. All of a sudden there was a BANG on the main door. What the hell was that? It almost felt that as if someone wanted to break the door. There was complete silence inside the room, as if someone pressed the mute button. One rough and tough looking, and quite daring kind of middle aged lady entered the house. She didn’t talk to anyone and came inside the house. We started to stare at each other’s faces out of confusion and after sometime I heard the sound of washroom flush. The lady closed the washroom door with another BANG. No one in the house dared to talk to her and she left the house through the main door like a storm, with yet another BANG. 

I was kind of shocked and asked "Who the hell was she?"

Kamal replied "Ssshhhh... wait. Did she left?"

After a while the room came alive yet again with their laughter and they revealed the mystery. Actually the lady and her husband had a chips stall just below their house on the main street. They used to come in the afternoon and used to prepare/sell chips till 9 PM. About 6 months ago, the chips couple came to them and asked for a small help. It seemed the lady had some form of sugar problem and asked them if she could have used their washroom sometimes? It started that time and somehow became a part and parcel of their daily life. My poor friends didn't even used to lock the main door from inside, as the lady was pretty much unpredictable and could have BANGED the door any moment. They got habituated with those abrupt blasts at their door, daily on an average 4-5 times. On every such occasion, their mute button worked perfectly fine inside the house and someone would usually whisper "Ssshhhh... It's Her !"

Via Pune

Shrini is waiting at the airport along with one of his colleagues, Mr. Sushil. Well, they both work for a software company in Bangalore and are about to fly to Mumbai to attend some client meeting. As Shrini is from technical team and Sushil is from the business team, they doesn't know each other quite well and interacted  only on few occasions. It's been an hour they checked in and their flight is already delayed by couple of hours. The monsoon is in its extreme form and it seems rain God is much more interested in Mumbai this time. Functioning of most of the flights to Mumbai have been affected.  It’s quite irritating to wait like that and on top of that, all of a sudden the airline authorities is making a bizarre kind of announcement now. Oh! shit, what the hell? Due to bad weather their flight will land at Pune airport instead of Mumbai. They haven't clarified anything about the accommodation of the passengers yet and only announced about the departure from Pune to Mumbai, the next morning.  Shrini looks terribly confused and is starring at Sushil. But why Sushil looks so happy? In fact he’s smiling at the moment. 

Shrini asks Sushil "Should we ask our Travel Desk guys to cancel our tickets and book a different one?"

Sushil replies with a smile "It’s OK dude. Actually the announcement came as a blessing for me. Well, I’m from Pune and my parents stay out there along with my sister. Our house is also quite near to the airport and we can stay the night out there and can fly to Mumbai tomorrow morning"

It seems Shrini doesn't know what to say, also he doesn't have any other option either and says "That would be cool and I hope your parents wouldn’t mind our surprise visit?"

Sushil replies "What are you saying dude? Everyone will just love to meet you"

They reached Pune by 7:50 PM. It’s raining cats and dogs out here. Sushil’s house is just few minutes drive from the airport. Wow! They got such an wonderful house. Sushil’s parents look so happy to meet his son. His father is a retired army officer and looks like a true gentleman. They are enjoying a wonderful gossip and Sushil’s mom serves them very yummy and tempting "garmagaram pakodas", along with hot cups of tea. Sushil’s only sister Shruti, is doing her PHD in Micro Biology and it seems, Shruti’s friend Anindita is also staying with them since almost a year. Well, they both are very close friends since their college days and Anindita is also doing her PHD in the same subject. Both the girls went to attend some function at their institute and will return home only by 11 PM. Sushil wants to have dinner together and he's very eager to meet his childhood friend in their neighborhood. Shrini wants to have some rest and Sushil’s  father takes him to the guestroom and asks him to rest out there. After changing his cloths, he's now simply sitting on the bed. He’s little uncomfortable in an unknown house and is looking all around the room. His eyes pauses at a nearby wardrobe which is half open. He could see some books and goes nearby to have a closer look at them. Wow! She’s got a good collection of novels. He could also see a photo album and it seems, he’s more interested in it now. As he opens the album, the first random photograph he looks, started to accelerate his heartbeats a little. He’s losing his mind and it’s saying loud and clear "She looks like Anni, his school mate since their nursery days" He could also remember her real name, Anindita Chatterjee.

Shrini is very curious now and is looking at other photographs inquisitively. She looks so different from her childhood days. Is she really Anni? And then, he finds his own school day photographs on the album, including a couple of his single photos as well, taken at their final school picnic day. Instantly Shrini is losing all his control and the goose bumps started to erupt all over his body. His heart seems to be little heavier and even his eyes started to get kind of moist. Some of his school day images flashing randomly deep inside his mind. He could also see Anni’s childhood photographs and is really excited about how she would react once she enters the house, possibly in another hour. He's extremely happy, but very confused. One question is disturbing him a lot, why the hell she kept his photographs on her album and that too in a serial order? It's been so long, almost 10 to 12 years and they didn't have any sort of contact after they left school. Also he couldn’t find any of his guy schoolmate’s photographs out there on the album.

Shrini could recollect his school day memories and especially about Anni.  Well, she used to be a cute looking girl and had limited interaction with the guys. He could remember how his friends used to tease him about Anni. Many believed that Anni had a soft corner for him, but then there was nothing official about that. Shrini could also remember one picnic incident where her friends pulled her legs, while they were enjoying their meals along with some mouth watering fish curry. They teased her as "Dear Anni, you should forget fish and start to eat Sambar, as in future you would have to eat sambar regularly"

Well, Shrini’s actual name is Srinivasa Narayanaswamy and unlike him, both his parents used to be typical South Indian. All of a sudden Shrini could hear some sound at the main door and he's puts the album back inside the wardrobe. Well, the girls already arrived and Shrini could hear Sushil’s voice, as he's calling and asking him to come to the hall. Shrini goes to the hall and could see the ladies. As Sushil introduces him to his sister Shruti, Anni is terribly confused and continues to stare at him. Now Shruti is introducing him to Anindita. Shrini says "You look quite similar to one of my school mate and her name is also Anindita, but we used to call her Anni" 

Anni's mouth is wide open and she starts to scream "OMG!" she covers her mouth with both her hands. She is trying hard to hide her excitement and after a while she says "Shrini, it’s you. Never thought we would meet again. So how you doing?"

Shruti is also very excited and comments "Wow!  So you are Shrini. What a pleasant surprise. I have heard so much about you from Anindita, right from my college days"

Shrini is feeling little shy at the moment, but he’s extremely delighted to know that even Shruti also knows about him. Well, they chatted for some time and then had their dinner. After dinner, Sushil went to sleep and Shrini, Shruti and Anni continued to gossip. After about an hour Shruti also went to sleep. But Shrini and Anni continued to chat and in fact, they gossiped the entire night. They really cherished their school day memories that night and then early morning after breakfast, Shrini and Sushil left for the airport.

Few days later, after returning to Bangalore, Shrini starts to call Anni quite regularly and use to talk for hours. He thinks about Anni all the time and also likes to chat with her during the office hours as well. Sometimes, when she doesn't reply to his texts for a long time, he becomes little anxious and kind of depress. He wants to be somehow connected with Anni all the time, but sometimes also feel little shy about his frequent phone calls. Well, Shrini have no idea what's going on inside Anni's head? He feels little embarrass about it sometimes and even though it's quite painful for him, but he doesn't call her for a couple of days on such occasions. But then after few days of silence, Shrini usually receives a call from Anni and  she would say "What's up Shrini? You didn't call since so many days" After talking for few minutes, Anni usually use to interrupt and say "Shrini, now you please call me back. My balance is very low and I haven't received this month's stipend yet"

Shrini even use to visit Pune almost every month and whenever Anni asks him about the purpose of his visit, he always say that it’s official. They came quite close to each other and it seems they even understand each other very well. They both enjoy each other's company so much. Even though, they have a very friendly kind of relation, but Shrini considers her much more than a friend. Anni is such a beautiful looking girl and Shrini is so shy and confused. He thinks that Anni consider him only as a good friend and nothing more than that.

But then, one evening Shrini takes her to a mesmerizing candle light dinner. It’s such a romantic place and the calm and melodious violin music at the background is making the environment so charmingly pleasant. Anni is feeling little uncomfortable and asks "Shrini, what kind of place is this?"

After a few sips of wine, Shrini puts a tiny gift-wrapped box on the table. He’s little nervous and says to her "Well Anni, I don’t know how to say? I also don’t know how you would react? I want to gift you something"

Anni is very curious and approaches her hand towards the box. As she touches the box, Shrini holds her arm soft and calmly. Anni looks into his face and they both are starring at each other’s eyes. Anni asks "What happened Shrini? You sound so different tonight"

Shrini replies "Accept this gift only if.. Only if..."

"Only what Shrini?"

Shrini builds his confidence and says "I will be the happiest man on this planet, if I could be able to marry you"

Anni is going kind of crazy and says "What? What are you saying?"

Shrini replies "Yes Anni, I don’t know what to say? But I’m very much in love with you and want to stay with you for my entire life. Will you marry me?"

Anni calmly grasps the box and as soon as she opens it, she’s delighted to see a beautiful ring inside. She starts to laugh and what the hell? She is laughing much louder now, but unable to hide her emotions, as her eyes already filled with water. She holds his arm tightly and replies "I'm so happy to accept this gift from you Shrini"

Image courtesy: google images

This post is written for Indiblogger’s "Platinum Day of Love" contest, in association with Platinum Guild International.


                                            "Platinum, precious metal for those treasured moments"

Tuku The Funda, Part-1

My dear friend Tuku, used to be quite a famous personality at hostel. He’s from one of the most famous town in Assam named Jorhat. People from Jorhat usually are very decent and they speak very sweet as well. The place can be kind of compared with Lucknow with it's sweet and Sudh Hindi, along with the traditional “Pehle Aap, Pehle Aap" decent kind of attitude of the people out there. It seemed Tuku was popular with the name Shiva in his home town before he joined the engineering college. But unfortunately Shiva name couldn’t become that popular in our college and he became famous with the name Tuku. There’s an interesting story behind the name Shiva. Actually Shiva is the name of one of the most famous Ram Gopal Varma  action movie, which was released when we were kids. The movie is based on college politics and is one of the best Indian action movies I’ve ever watched. In the movie the hero Shiva, use to ride his bicycle and in one of the scene, the goons wait for him with their hockey sticks and all. For all those who watched the movie might remember the famous cycle chain scene, where Siva use to pull his cycle chain in the very first attempt and roll it within his arm to take on the goons. Well, our Tuku was very much influenced with the movie and particularly with the chain scene. It seemed, once they had a fight at school and Tuku tried to pull the chain of his bicycle. He tried several times, but he just couldn’t pull the chain out of it completely. Well, from that day onward his school friends started to call him Shiva.

We were fortunate enough to have witnessed several interesting Tuku incidents at hostel. One day I was inside his room and was discussing about one of our batch mates and his extreme form of smoking habit. I commented about that guy and said "He’s such a chain smoker and how could he smoke two cigarettes consecutively, one after another?"

Tuku started to laugh with his typical and little weird kind of expression and replied "Hmm Hmm… Did you ever tried yourself or watched anyone in the hostel to have 5 cigarettes consecutively one after another?"

I replied "My goodness! No, never and I don’t know anyone who do like that. I mean, why the hell anyone would do that?"

Tuku started to smile with his trademark expression, with a little bit of proud self-esteem.

Well, guys usually enjoy to take pride about their consumption of heavenly spirits and the proud factor is directly proportional to the intake capacity. In one similar kind of incident, as some friends were inside a room and gossiped about the previous night party. One of the friends commented on a different friend "He's a damn tanky man and can consume hell lot of fluids"

It seemed Tuku didn't like those words much and asked everyone "What's the maximum number of pegs you guys ever had?"

Everyone got little confused and some replied as 5,6,8 etc. Few of them replied that they never counted as such. 

Then Tuku asked "Did anyone ever tried 20 pegs?"

Everyone was surprised and said "20 pegs? How could anyone have 20 pegs?"

Tuku started to smile with his trademark expression, along with those similar kind  of proud self-esteem.

In yet another incident that occurred during our first semester, some of our friends along with few of the seniors were enjoying their usual kind of spirit session in one of the rooms. I didn't have the opportunity to have experienced the delightful incident live and only got to know about that the next day. Tuku was narrating some of his heroic performances during his school days. The other guys listened to his stories with full concentration and enjoyed every bits of it. Tuku said that they used to have quite an infamous and notorious gang in his home town. Not only the common people, but even some of the policemen and local media as well, were disturbed with their activities. He continued to narrate his interesting stories and then he told about one of his best friends. It seemed his friend’s father was very much annoyed with him because of his daring activities and one day his father simply asked him to leave the house. So his friend went to Mumbai and had to struggle for a few months out there. But true talent never gets waste and one day his friend came in touch with the great D company. Within a few days after he joined the company, it seemed the D was very much impressed with him. Well, D used to be a decent guy those days and almost lived like the king of Mumbai. 

Tuku continued his thrilling story and said that one evening his friend was enjoying his drink with the D. 

D said to his friend "You are doing a wonderful job and I’m really impressed with your work. I really need more talented guys like you"

It was such a proud moment for his friend, but he was also very shy and replied "Aree Sir, Who am I? I’ve one very close friend from my home town and if you meet him and see his performance, you would simply go crazy"

D was very impressed and said "Aree Wah! Please bring your friend out here and I would love to meet such an individual"

Everyone in the room was pretty much excited and also sounded little curious. Some of them asked "Actually your friend was mentioning about whom?"

Tuku started to smile with his trademark expression and his self-respect was clearly visible on his face that moment.

Immediately the room jolted with all those applauds and someone asked Tuku "So did get any offer from the D company?"

Tuku replied "Yeah, last time I went home during Durga Pooja vacation, my friend was in town and he conveyed me with their offer. He tried to convince me a lot so that I could have worked with him"

Other guys replied "Wow! That’s really great. So did you accept the offer?"

With his usual smile Tuku replied “Are you guys mad? How could I join D company just like that? I mean its fine (little shy) Come on! I don’t want to join them”

A Sweet Barber

I was born and brought up in Bongaigaon, a quite well known town in Assam. Oh! It’s such a fascinating place and I’ve hell lot of memories about that place, stored in my brain’s hard disk drive. My parents stayed there for almost two decades and only when I was in my 4th semester of engineering, my father got transferred to Guwahati. Once they shifted to Guwahati, I always looked for some opportunity to visit Bongaigaon, but unfortunately I didn’t have much of them though. Once my parents left our home town, somehow their visit to Bongaigaon was also became kind of limited. My father already sold our nostalgic old house long time back and after his retirement about a couple of years ago, my parents preferred to settle out in Guwahati itself.

Life in Bongaigaon was quite different as compared to our present life. That was the time when there was no internet and perhaps, wireless mobile communication was a hot research topic those days. For us, our social networking was limited to schools, Sunday cricket matches and those regular kinds of evening sports at any damn playground. Our entire neighborhood was like a big family and every evening our house was blessed with one guest or the other. Quite often, even guests were also fortunate enough, as they had the opportunity to meet other guests as well, at the same time. Well, not only for our house, but it was the same story for almost every house out there. Being a house wife, it wasn't easy for my mother to have managed the house and the frequent guests. But like us, even our parents also enjoyed a lot those days.  Life was simple without much desires and people felt so much united within the neighborhood, despite those minor disputes among some of the mommies. I still remember how we used to wait for the evening load shedding. Well, the power cut gave us the opportunity for hell lot of fun, specially during summer, as everyone in the locality used to come outside their houses and strolled on that narrow road and used to gossip. Wow! That was such a wonderful moment. 

When I was in my 7th standard, my mom started to involve herself with an Woman Organization, popularly known as Mahila Samiti in town. Actually they worked mainly for the welfare and development of the children by organizing all sorts of competitions and cultural programs. That time my mom had the opportunity to interact with different sorts of people and one day, she interacted with one gorgeous looking and quite a fascinating lady. Well we used to call her Mazumdar aunty and she was gem of a person. Her husband was also quite friendly and they were blessed with two cute daughters. Maunder aunty was a very smart and modern kind of lady and she owned a famous beauty Parlor in Bongaigaon. Pretty soon, my mom got quite close to her. Well, they were kind of best friends that time and gradually both the families started to interact more frequently.  Once we left for our school, my mom regularly used to visit her parlor and stayed there for hours. she’s very much impressed, as well as inspired with the awesome art of making someone look much prettier. 

Mazumdar aunty always encouraged my mom and even used to teach her and kind of, prepared her as a beautician. It went on like that for almost a year and my mom already started to experiment with her haircuts and facials, whenever any authentic guest used to visit us. Well, some of my cousin sisters were extremely happy with that. Mazumdar aunty asked her to do a course, so that she could have become a certified beautician. She even promised her to help with the certification, but then one day, Mazumdar uncle got transferred to a different town and their entire family was about to have moved there. It was a well established parlor and Mazumdar aunty requested my mom if she could have taken the responsibility of the parlor? My mom was pretty much interested and also was kind of confident. But the only problem was that she wasn't certified for the job yet. But then, aunty said that she would take care of that and within next 6 months my mom could have done with her certification. Mom was so happy that time, but the real problem was something different. 

Quite opposite to me, my father was always a very religious person. Even though, he use to pray 5 times a day, but he always had a much broader outlook and he didn't have any problem with my mom's decision. But many of our well wishers, both within the locality and far across, were not very comfortable with that. They tried to influence my mom, as well as my father, so that they could have backed off from the idea. It was too much pressure for my mom and I could remember one evening, when many people, including men and women, visited our house and tried hard to have had convinced my mom. I asked them "What is the problem? What’s big deal if she runs a beauty parlor?"

One  of the uncles out there, started to laugh loudly and replied "Aree Baba, people will start to call your mom as BARBER. Would you like that?" Even though, I was in my 7th standard that time, but was matured enough to understand that was actually a big piece of shit.

Ultimately my mom had to back off and she couldn’t fulfill her dream. Well, after all, society also have it's own importance and Mazumdar aunty had to sell her parlor to someone else. Without her support, somehow my mom’s ambition gradually died out. But it seemed the aspiration was always there, somewhere deep within some corner of her soul. Time passed by and after almost 2 decades, my mom’s aspiration came out alive once again and that time it was much stronger. 3 years ago, when my father was about to have retired, my mom completed all the damn courses which was required for her certification. About two years back, she started her own parlor in Guwahati. Even though, it’s not a very big parlor, but my mom is happy and she also hired a beautician to assist her. 

From our childhood, we've noticed our mom to be extremely hard working and energetic. Even now days, she manage her parlor and also the house, almost single-handedly. Well, there’s not much age difference between my mom and dad, but comparatively dad looks much older. Mom is perfectly fit and quite healthy and all thanks to her activeness. Well, to have started a parlor of her own was indeed a very bold decision for her at such an older age. But as people say "Better late than never" Even though, my mom usually have a tiring day, but she keeps herself occupied and the pleasant feeling of financial independence, boosted her confidence a lot. She is actually quite happy now and I'm really proud of my BARBER mom. 

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.