Paanch Pandav

In the Mahabharata, a Hindu epic text, the Pandavas are the five acknowledged sons of Pandu, by his two wives Kunti and Madri. Their names are Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. The Mahabharata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written". These 5 brothers are the life and soul of this epic. Yudhishthira was the eldest of them, and the other four respected him a lot. All the five brothers always remained together, loved each other, they shared everything among themselves. Later, all five brothers were married to the same woman, Draupadi. But all of them also had multiple other wives.

Due to some unavoidable circumstances the Five brothers had to leave their kingdom and lived in the forest for many years. They got to know from some travelers that a big Swayanvara (kind of contest) was to be held in the kingdom of Panchaal. The winner of the competition was to be offered the princess Draupadi's hand in marriage. It turned out that the winner was to be decided on the skills of archery. Arjuna was extraordinarily talented with shooting arrows. He entered the competition and won. The brothers took Draupadi and introduced to their mother, Kunti. They told mother that they had own a competition and received priceless alms. Mother Kunti was busy with something, and without looking at Draupadi she just casually ordered their sons to equally share the alms among the Five brothers. Their mother's order was supreme for the Pandavas, and they all agreed to share princess Draupadi among themselves.

The "Paanch Pandav" name was quite famous within our school, perhaps beyond the school boundaries as well. "Paanch Pandav" was the name given to a group of girls, all of them our classmates. They were very good friends, so called true friends. Friendship takes time, to know each other well, to share secrets without the worry that it could be leaked. They grew up together right from the start. Everyone admired their friendship. It was difficult to spot any of them individually, they would always be in group. During the breaks they would be together, gossiping, playing eating, everything together. They even visited the bathroom together. Even after school hours people used to see them together. They shared everything among themselves. Fortunately none of then had boyfriend that time, or things could have been different. Even after so many years, not only our classmates, but the juniors, seniors, everyone who passed out of KV BRPL still remembers the "Paanch Pandav". 

I don't know why but our "Paanch Pandav" always reminded me of The Spice Girls. Well, Spice Girls are an English pop girl group formed in 1994. That was the time when they were becoming very popular. Spice Girls were also a group of Five girls, all gorgeous, just like the Paanch Pandav.

The "Paanch Pandav" :

Arundhati

Pallabita

Neena

Anurupa

Anusuya 

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.

Michael Learns to Rock

Michael Learns to Rock (also known as MLTR) was one of the most popular band during our schooldays. It is a Danish pop/soft rock band. Formed in 1988 and they have sold more than 11 million records over the course of their career. With romantic lyrics and melodious tunes all of their songs were very popular in India. Not only romantic people, even the heartbroken ones also loved MLTR songs. Recently they had a very successful concert in 4 cities in India. Fans in Gurgaon, Guwahati, Dimapur and Kolkata had the opportunity to hear MLTR's melodious tunes as part of their 25th anniversary tour.

I have an interesting memory about one of their songs titled “That's Why You Go Away”. It’s a beautiful song, and the lyric too catchy.

"

Baby won't you tell me why there is sadness in your eyes

I don't wanna say goodbye to you

Love is one big illusion I should try to forget

But there is something left in my head

You're the one who set it up now you're the one to make it stop

I'm the one who's feeling lost right now

Now you want me to forget every little thing you said

But there is something left in my head

I won't forget the way you're kissing

The feeling's so strong were lasting for so long

But I'm not the man your heart is missing

That's why you go away I know

You were never satisfied no matter how I tried

Now you wanna say goodbye to me

Love is one big illusion I should try to forget

But there is something left in my head

I won't forget the way you're kissing

The feeling's… 

"

We were in grade eleven. Our senior batch was about to leave school. It was farewell time. Like everywhere else in our case also it was the immediate junior’s responsibility to organize the farewell party. It was an emotional moment. We knew that now our seniors would move ahead in life. Next year we would be in their place. It was fun time. Lot of music, dance and some laughter mingled with tears. I and my friends were eagerly waiting for a chorus song to be performed by the girls of our grade.  The song was none other than MLTR’s "That's Why You Go Away". We heard the girls practicing for the last one week. The particular song was selected by our English ma'am. We were very confused. 

"The song is just too romantic. How does it fit for a school farewell event? I mean just look at the lyrics – "I won't forget the way you're kissing"

But our English ma’am was just too intelligent. A simple amendment to the lyrics made it a perfect farewell song. She simply manipulated three words and the song just turned into an exclusive dedication from the immediate junior girls to the senior boys. 

"

Baby  Brother won't you tell me why there is sadness in your eyes

I don't wanna say goodbye to you

Love is one big illusion I should try to forget

But there is something left in my head

You're the one who set it up now you're the one to make it stop

I'm the one who's feeling lost right now

Now you want me to forget every little thing you said

But there is something left in my head

I won't forget the way you're kissing blessing

The feeling's so strong were lasting for so long

But I'm not the man sister your heart is missing

That's why you go away I know

You were never satisfied no matter how I tried

Now you wanna say goodbye to me

Love is one big illusion I should try to forget

But there is something left in my head

I won't forget the way you're kissing blessing

The feeling's… 

"

The girls performed really well on stage, and some of them were laughing too.

Now listen to this wonderful song:

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.

My Association With Yoga

Yoga came into my life quite early. I did my schooling in a private school till my seventh grade and later moved to Kendriya Vidyalaya. My old school was popularly known as "Menon School". It was originally started by a Malayali couple. They lived a major part of their life in Bongaigaon, my hometown in Assam, before they returned to their native place in Kerala. The school was run by Mrs Menon. Everyone called her Head Madam; she was quite well known for her strictness and discipline. Yoga was preached seriously in Menon school, the credit definitely would go to our Praveer sir, the yoga teacher. He used to live a disciplined life, was prompt in helping others, always greeted people with his charming smile. Praveer sir also had his own yoga school and all his students showed him great respect.

I also remember those Sunday morning yoga classes, all thanks to the Mahila Samiti of that time, of which my mother was an active member. The all women organization took the initiative of starting Sunday morning Art and Yoga classes for enhancing extra curricular activities of children. It was quite annoying to wake up early morning even on Sundays. But we didn’t have a choice, particularly few of us whose mothers were the key members of the organization. After the Art school we rushed to our home, riding bicycles to watch the Mahabharata serial on TV, which used to come at 9 am.

When I joined Kendriya Vidyalaya, my association with yoga turned slightly different. Yoga was still a part of school curriculum. That was the time when we were little surprised at the school authorities, as they started encouraging our classmate girls to wear slightly longer skirts rather than knee-length/above knee-length ones. Also, Salwar Kameez was mandatory, part of school uniform for the girls on yoga days, which was weekly once or twice. But many of the girls often violated the not-so-strictly-followed rule. The boys enjoyed some eye candies during the yoga class, particularly while the law breakers performed Chakrasana. 

But soon these things turned embarrassing for us. I remember one incident; few of the senior girls were practicing long jump for the upcoming Annual sports. We were waiting for our school bus. Our friend Santosh was very interested to have a closer look at their practice session. One after another the seniors ran towards us with full speed, strength, and then jumped to leap as far as possible. We enjoyed every jump, particularly for those who were wearing skirts. We clapped on every occasion to cheer them up. Everything seemed to be fine but then all of a sudden a couple of girls approached us.

"Dudes, what are you guys doing here?" one of them asked.

"Nothing, our bus hasn’t come yet. We are simply watching your performance. You girls jump really well," we replied nervously.

"You boys can watch us, no problem with that, but just look at the position you guys are sitting at. You can watch us from a different place; common, you boys are no longer kids, you’re quite grownup now"

I think yoga was compulsory till our Eight or Ninth grade, I don’t remember exactly. In the later phase I often bunked the yoga classes along with few other friends. I couldn’t realize how yoga got disassociated from my life. The recent development is more about political yoga; I mean the kind of promotion, the kind of debates going on. Whatever the reason maybe, it’s nice to see yoga becoming a brand; nice to see yoga getting an international recognition. I think we should take it as an opportunity, it’s high time we start practicing yoga. After all, everyone knows the benefits of it, and our own health comes first before anything.

Wishing you all a very happy International Yoga Day, specially to all yoga teachers and the passionate yoga practitioners. 

Picture courtesy: Google Images


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. 

Morning School Assembly

After my 10th grade, I always tried my best to avoid the school assembly in the morning. But every time it wasn’t possible though, and sometimes I was present there physically. It was so boring. I could never understand the Morning Prayer, neither I could memorize it. Our Morning Prayer was so damn complicated, but I always managed to sustain the illusion that I was praying. Then, somebody had to read the news as well. On top of all these, I remember one time our Principal Sir introduced something new in the morning assembly. He randomly called a student on stage, particularly from the senior grades and asked to reveal publicly what he/she had prayed to God. Being a true atheist, I was always tensed that by mistake our Principal Sir shouldn’t call me on stage. Fortunately I was never a victim of that. Every day, someone or the other, more or less used to say the same thing like, 'I prayed to God that I come first in class', 'I prayed to God, I asked him to give me admission in an IIT', 'I prayed that God makes me the best doctor’ Bla Bla Bla. It was so boring. 

One morning, Sir called someone on stage. I was waiting to hear the same old craps. But then, she said, 'I prayed to God to give me strength, so that I can work hard and fulfill my dreams' I was kind of stunned and wondered, 'what the hell was that?' I repeated those words several times in my mind. Well, sometimes some words get stored in our memory forever!!

Saurav Maheshwari

Our school KV BRPL was located inside the township premises. Till 10th standard, our class used to have two sections A and B. As our school only had science stream for the higher secondary education, so in our 11th and 12th standard the number of students got reduced and both Sec-A and Sec-B were merged. Saurav Maheshwari was basically from Sec-A and earlier, I didn’t have much opportunity to interact with him, apart from those Hi-Hello kind of talks during the cricket matches we used to play on some Sundays. Later when we started to share the same classroom, I got to know Saurav more and he was gem of a person. I think many of the Sec-A guys were able to clear their Biology concepts because of Saurav. Well, those days during 8th and 9th standard, guys used to have hell lot of doubts regarding the reproductive system of human beings. Saurav’s dad owned a VCR and sometimes when his parents were not at home, Saurav and his close friends liked to utilize the opportunity and used to bring those reproductive kinds of movie cassettes on rent, to further enhance their biological concepts.

Saurav was quite a fun loving and an extremely friendly kind of guy. I even had the opportunity to had lunch at his house on few occasions. Wow! His mom used to make such yummy Alu Parathas. Almost 80% of the students of our school were from the township itself, well, I was from the minority group though. Earlier everyone including the teachers used to go home for lunch and on few rare occasions,  some sincere students used to bunk their afternoon lectures. Later the school authorities became strict enough and changed the rule. The township students didn't enjoy the new rule at all, as according to it no one was allowed to go home for lunch. So, everyone started to bring lunchboxes and that really created hell lot of opportunities for some of the foodie guys and trust me, they were quite plenty in numbers. Everyone had to somehow protect their foodstuffs till lunch time from those anonymous food stealers. I think the girls must have had a real hard time to protect their lunchboxes. Aha! Their mom used to prepare such mouth watering and tempting foods for them. As soon as we opened those boxes, oh! The aroma was so pleasing and I was really impressed with all those Mithais they used to bring. I must say, girls are very choosy and demanding with the stuffs they shallow, as long as they don’t have to prepare them. 

Not only girls and even some of the guys were also quite pissed off with those food thieves. That was the time when I and some of my backbencher friends used to empty our lunchboxes by 2nd period itself. Well, that minimized our risks to a great extent and also gave us the opportunity to enjoy some extra bites later. Apart from the girls, also few guys who used to bring good quality lunch, complained about those anonymous Tiffin Chors. Now Saurav often used to complain and then one day, he was so irritated that he came up with an extreme, yet very innovative idea. He along with few of his friends consulted with a pharmacist and one day, he mixed plenty of jamalgota seeds to not only his food, but also few other lunchboxes as well. Jamalgota is one of the best known laxatives and mainly used for severe constipation. I was not part of the conspiracy at all and they executed their plan in the first period itself. 

Fortunately I didn’t consume any of the damn thing from any of those boxes, on that particular day. But many of my friends were not fortunate enough. OMG! That day I realized the power of jamalgota. Actually, it's very much capable to convert serious constipation into ultimate loose motion. But under normal condition and specially on that particular day, it performed little differently. For most of the offenders, something unusual kind of chemical reaction occurred inside their stomach. Within no time, the food inside the stomach took an alternate path and poor guys started to eject from their mouth. Some of the guys puked 6-7 times that day and few guys even complained to the principal Sir. But the principal only said "why you guys had to steal lunch from others?" After that day, it became quite a daring task to steal foodstuffs from others lunchboxes. 

When we were in our 12th standard, Saurav’s father got a very good job offer and he had to resign from BRPL and joined a company in Saudi. Saurav also had a younger brother named Gaurav Maheshwari and he was 2 years junior to us. Both the brothers had to leave our school and got transferred to some school in either Delhi or Mumbai, I’m not very sure about that.  Once they left, I didn’t have much contact with him. Few months before our final 12th exams, most of us were little tensed, as well as confused about our career. During that time, on Nov 12 1996 the tragic Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred over the village of Charkhi Dadri, to the west of New Delhi. The aircraft involved were a Saudi Arabian Airlines flying from New Delhi to Saudi and a Kazakhstan Airlines flying from Kazakhstan to New Delhi. All 349 people on board both flights were killed, making it the world's one of the most deadliest mid-air collision. It was so difficult to believe that 2 planes had a head on collision up in the sky, I mean there’s so much space out there and how could 2 tiny things collide just like that? 

Next day at school, we heard some rumor that one Saurav Maheshwari was in the passenger's list of one of the flight that crashed the previous evening. Everyone was so much tensed that moment, but I was cool enough and wondered, how the hell that could have been possible? But after sometime our school principal made the official announcement that both the brothers, Saurav and Gaurav Maheshwari was on board flight "Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B".  The entire classroom went silent and we simply started to stare each other's faces. Even though our principal Sir didn't declare a holiday on that day, but our entire batch simply couldn't attend any of the lectures. After sometime most of us went back home. It was so difficult for me to digest the fact and just couldn't have imagined the pain, Saurav's parents went through after they lost both their grownup kids.

Without considering the security measures involved, according to the researchers the probability of such kind of a head on collision of flight up in the sky, at an altitude of 15000 feet is one in 100 million. Well, the probability is much lower than someone getting killed by a coconut, falling from a height of 80 feet above the ground. But yet it occurred and after that incident, aviation authorities across the world no longer relied on the theory of probability and developed the ACAS (Airborne Collision Avoidance System) to a great extent. 

Happy Teacher's Day

I don’t know why but whenever I think about “Teacher”, usually image of Bishwajeet Sir, comes to my mind. He was our class teacher during our primary schooldays. He taught us mathematics. Our school was the only private English medium school in Bongaigaon, a well known town in Assam, those days. It was founded by a Mallu couple and even today, it’s popularly known as “Menon School”, even though both of them are no longer  associated with the school anymore. They returned to their native state Kerala, almost a couple of decades ago. Mrs. Menon, popularly known as Head Madam was the principal those days. Well, she was a tigress and was quite well known for her strictness and discipline. Mathematics was always my favorite subject, till I spoiled myself in Engineering college. Even today, I feel proud that I was one of the favorite students of Bishwajeet Sir.

When I was in my 7th grade, my father admitted me in Kendriya Vidyalaya, BRPL. KV was a different experience, I got lot of exposure. KV BRPL was like a mini India and I had the opportunity to interact with all sorts of people. Unlike Menon School, the new one had a big library and the image of our librarian, Pandey Sir, flashes in my head. He was a true entertainer and an amazing story teller. We had few opportunities to listen to his stories, usually when other teachers remained absent or when the library was occupied by other students. Pandey Sir used to tell us Indian mythological stories, especially kind of stuffs like "If anybody steals something then in next life, he would be born as a rat"

We had one more entertaining teacher, Hotilal Sir, our Hindi teacher.  I always felt literature subjects, both English and Hindi quite easy, but every time  my teachers deducted almost 50% of the marks in spelling and grammatical errors. I remember Shivlal, younger brother of Hotilal Sir. He was our class mate. Hotilal Sir tried to make his lectures interesting by his self appraisal kind of stories. I remember one instance when he told us he did his schooling with Kapil Dev. 

During my 11th and 12th grade, Mishra Sir was our Maths teacher. He tried his best to improve our mathematical concepts, but somehow we guys couldn’t follow him. He used to pass the entire lecture in solving one problem on the black board and quite often he got confused. We last benchers, tried our best to confuse him. His eldest son studied with us in the same classroom. Poor guy was very polite and quite innocent kind of, and was a soft target for guys who used to take great pleasure in pulling other’s leg. I remember one incident when our Mishra Sir once again became a proud father, while his eldest son was in 12th class with us. We asked for a party to junior Mishra and it seemed he felt shy about that. Even though it was quite unusual, but we felt proud about our Mishra Sir’s capabilities.

I remember one instance when our physics teacher, Mr Solanki Sir was quite upset with someone. I don’t exactly remember why he was so upset that moment but I do remember his precious words, even though those were out of anger. He said "Don’t ever compare yourselves with your teacher. No matter how much hard we try, but we have very limited growth, now. You guys have no limitation, no one can stop you from reaching anywhere and it’s all up to you how you go forward. We teachers are only there to guide you, that's all"

When we entered our 9th grade, suddenly Science became quite tougher and interesting. That was the time when we interacted with John Sir for the first time. Well, John Sir was a typical south Indian and was a man of principle. He used to teach us chemistry and was quite well known for his teaching skills. Most of the parents knew quite well that we needed a much better understanding of chemistry concepts for our career and some of them approached John Sir for private tuition. John Sir was not in favor of private tuition and gently denied them. Well, some other teacher got the opportunity instead. Next day, John Sir said to us “Yesterday, few of your parents came to me for private tuition. I don’t know why you guys need extra classes. If you have any doubt then please approach me any time, not only during school time but whenever you feel free.” But unfortunately John Sir couldn't be with us for a long, as in next few months he got transferred to his native place. 

During our 12th grade, just few months before our final board exams, our English teacher got transferred to her native place as well. A new teacher replaced her temporarily.  He was quite young, probably 24 or 25 years old. Unlike other teachers, he was different. One specialty about him was that he could easily connect with guys like us, I mean little Bigra kind of. He was more like a friend than teacher to us. He used to say "there's no difference between you guys and me. Even I also think in the same way as you do".  During our farewell many of our teachers gave speeches and it was quite monotonous and boring. But all of a sudden that guy arrived on stage, kind of shy and simply said few words.

"Well, all of you are very nice and intelligent people. There's no doubt that all you guys will do very well in life. Few might do a little better than others, but no one would die of hunger and everyone will do something in life. But whatever you do, always try to be a good human being, a good citizen of this country and always love your parents". 

While writing this post images of many teacher flashed in my head.

Happy Teacher's Day !

Forbidden

Cable Television was already introduced, but it was still the luxury of limited wealthy section of the society and the remaining people were pretty much satisfied with our very own Doordarshan. During our schooldays, we noticed those huge dish antenna's in some wealthy colonies and even at the terrace of some fat cats of our town. I think I was in my 7th or 8th standard, when cable connection came to a colony very near to our house. Well, it was a good business opportunity for some of the unemployed youths of our locality. We were pretty much excited with that, but the cable guys were not ready to extend their business to our territory. They said that there were very few houses  in our area and they had to pull a huge cable. The installation cost would be much more and also it would have been very difficult for them to maintain. But most of the people didn’t want to miss that opportunity, especially grownup kids like us, the house wives and particularly few young uncles. Ultimately it was being decided that the cable connection would come to our region and everyone supposed to share the installation cost.

But there was a slight problem, we had a lawyer neighbor and he was not at all interested for the cable connection. He used to say "Watching TV is HARAM", but he already had a TV at his house and his entire family enjoyed Chitrahaar and the Sunday evening movies on Doordarshan. 

When the cable guys tried to pressurize him he said "Bro, first of all I shouldn't have kept TV at my house, but unfortunately my wife and kids can’t live without it. Now you guys asking me to take cable connection? Aur kitna paap karwawoge mujhse? how many more sins you guys would ask me to do?

Later, somehow they were able to convince the lawyer and finally he took the cable connection. After few days, their business progressed and they were blessed with many more new connections. In order to continue their good quality of service, the cable guys needed to put some amplifiers. After some research, they identified that the lawyer’s house was the best place to put an amplifier. The guys discussed that with the lawyer, but he was not at all interested with the idea. He was quite upset that out of so many houses, they targeted his house only. He said that the amplifier would require power and that would have increased his electricity bill. The guys said that it’s just an amplifier and it wouldn’t have consumed more power than a transistor. They tried to convince him that his electricity bill wouldn’t have increased, even by 10-15 rupees per month for that amplifier. 

But the lawyer was adamant and said "Aree Bhai, watching TV is HARAM and on top of that, I already took cable connection. I am doing a big sin by watching cable TV and now you guys want me to put an amplifier at my house. That would only mean, indirectly I would be spreading this sin far and wide. I’m already a Paapi and you guys are determined to make me Maha Paapi."

The cable guys had a hard time for few more days and later they came up with a proposal. They asked the lawyer "Please allow us to put an amplifier at your residence and we would give you a discount of Rs 25 on your cable bill for every month."

Even though the lawyer initially hesitated, but ultimately he agreed on that.

The Story of Our First TV

We have a very wonderful and quite hilarious memory of our first television set. I was born and brought up in Bongaigaon, a town in Assam. I don’t remember exactly how old I was that time, maybe I was in 3rd or 4th grade. My father decided to buy a color TV. That time 21 inch color TV was more costlier than today's  price J. During those days we had only one TV in our entire locality and it was a portable Black & White television. The news spread far and wide that my father would buy a new color television and people in the neighborhood was very much excited. People started to give suggestions and one uncle suggested my father not to buy a TV with a remote control, as those were not of good quality. He said that if the remote is damaged or lost then the entire TV would be useless. That was the time when remote control color TV was launched for the first time, at least in our hometown and there were only one or two TV dealers. My father decided not to buy a remote control one, may be because it would be little over budget for him.

My father knew one of the TV dealers quite well and decided to buy from there. Coincidentally on that day one engineer from the Beltek company visited that dealer's shop. The guy somehow convinced my father to buy a “Beltek Color TV” with a remote control. We, including many of our neighbors simply waited for my father to return home. Now installing a TV was not any child’s play that time as it required to fix the big antenna's with the booster. The antenna had to be fixed in a particular direction, else it would not be able to capture the desired signal.  Everyone believed that the picture quality was directly proportional to the height of the antenna. People usually used metallic pipe to fix their antenna's and to support the tall pipe it required digging up the ground and hell lot of strong wires to support it from at least 3 different directions, each 120 degree apart.

The next day was almost like a festival and some 8 to 10 people worked really  hard to fix the antenna. It was a very difficult job as the pipe was too tall and quite heavy, also there were electric wires nearby and made the task more difficult. It took almost 3 to 4 hours to fix the antenna. Everyone was desperate to watch some moving pictures on the TV screen.  Many people, including my father tried a lot but nothing was visible on the tv screen. My mom was quite busy preparing and serving tea/snacks to all of us. Someone suggested that the direction of the antenna was not proper and few guys tried to rotate the pipe. All of a sudden someone screamed “it’s came, it’s came!” Out of excitement everyone rushed to the TV room. But nothing was visible on the screen and the guy tried to justify and said “just now I saw some moving pictures”. The drama continued the whole day and finally everyone left with a heavy heart.

Next day my father went to the dealer and explained everything to them. One mechanic came along with my father to help us installing the TV. The guy analyzed everything and said that the position of the antenna was wrong, as just at a distance of half a KM there was a tall and big tower of the Indian Oil Corporation. He explained to us that the tower interfered with our share of the TV signal. So, people started to work again and fixed the antenna at a different position.  Many people worked hard for the whole day and at the end nothing was visible on the screen. The mechanic was adamant on his point that the IOC tower interfered with the TV signal.On that evening some people came to watch Chitrahaar and they were highly disappointed to go back empty handed. Next day people took our TV to an entirely different location, to the house which already had a TV in our locality. People tried many things, from rotating the antenna to adjusting the booster, but still nothing was visible on the screen. The drama continued for almost a week and not only us but the entire locality was literally irritated as well as very much frustrated. One uncle  said my father “see, I already told you not to buy a remote control TV”.

My father decided to replace the TV with a non remote control one. One evening my father and one neighbor uncle went to the dealer to replace the TV. After so much of drama somehow the excitement was gone and I already went to sleep as my father returned home very late that night. As soon as I woke up in the morning I heard some kind of sound. I saw a TV in the drawing room and cricket match between India vs New Zealand was going on. The picture was very clear and the cricket field looked so green. It was like a dream to me and I just screamed “wow, the new TV is so nice” My father smiled  and said that it’s the same TV we bought few days back. My father actually went to replace the TV but fortunately the same engineer from the Beltek Company visited the dealer's shop that evening. He did some simple setting in the remote control and almost like a magic my father could see clear picture on the TV screen.

It was really a very nice TV and my father had an emotional attachment with it. It had 12 channels and initially we watched only DD1 but few years later we could also watch DD2. Later when we grew up and took cable connection, we argued a lot with our father to buy a new TV as there were lot of better option in the market but my father never exchanged it. I think more than the money part, he was quite attached with that TV. When I was in my engineering college, our TV was at a very pathetic condition and finally my father had to buy a new one. 

The TB6 Era

We've grown up without any internet, computers or video games. On the Sunday’s we used to play cricket match and we literally played at each and every corner of our hometown and with  every possible kid in town, right from rubber ball to leather deuce ball. Everything was perfectly fine, but that time late teenagers were deprived of some basic entertainment. Most of them had no other options, except for those Sunday morning shows and after experiencing few shows, everyone felt little cheap and didn't like to continue further. The pathetic situation was not only limited to the young adults, but also to the elders as well. I think the middle aged people got some sort of consolation in the form of Friday late night movies on Doordarshan.  The censor board must had been little generous that time, as I can recollect few glimpses of the Friday night movies. But those stuffs will definitely be considered as peanuts by today's generation. 

After the introduction of cable television, guys tried their luck on some programs like Santa Barbara, MTV Grind, etc, but soon it got boring. Few people had the luxury to keep VCR at home and they rented video cassettes whenever they wanted. Sometimes grown up kids used to rent VCR on special occasions like “Saraswati Pooja”, as the Pooja is specially for students, so parents usually didn't argue much if their kids stayed out of home, even during the night for the Pooja preparation and celebration. Guys usually used to rent VCR along with 5 or 6 cassettes for 24 hours. The list usually included one Bruce Lee kind of movie, one Hollywood action movie, 2 Bollywood blockbusters and 2 entertaining movies for the night. But thanks to the electricity department, few of the movies always remained unseen. 

Now in  those dry days, there came an Avatar in the form of “TB6” channel to enliven not only the late teenagers, but also the middle-aged, as well as the older people. The channel was of Russian origin and was broadcast-ed by cable operator in many areas across India, for almost over half a decade. The channel had given immense entertainment and spread love and happiness among the common man and beyond any doubt must have contributed a lot to India’s population boost.

TB6’s main attraction was Playboy branded movies on Saturday nights. In our locality the cable operators broadcast-ed it very late and people there could enjoy the magnificent channel just for couple of years, before the government decided to ban it. Although the channel was live only after midnight, but it had enormous viewership. TB6 had an intoxicating effect on many of us, as it was the only source for the kind of entertainment we looked for those days. I knew about TB6 much before I had actually watched it. The channel was telecast-ed in BRPL Township much earlier. I was able to “Darshan” it very late, only when it started to broadcast in our locality.

During those days, we usually used to play cricket match with one team or the other on Sundays. Earlier we used to start our match by 9 AM, but later, as few of our seniors became so much addicted to Saturday late night TB6, we could have started our match only after 10 AM. Most of us knew about TB6 and about the Saturday night playboy, but it was extremely difficult for us to have had watched it late night. Few of our friends were extremely lucky, as they used to sleep in the TV room itself. Michael was one such lucky fella and he never used to miss the Saturday late night erotica. Quite often he used to narrate us the exotic stories he used to watch. Padu was so excited, that on few occasions, he secretly used to go to Michael’s house in the middle of the night, to experience the Saturday night sensual magic.

A Memorable Diwali

It was Diwali time and we wanted to celebrate it in a little different way. We were in 11th grade (class 11) that time and were enjoying our school days in KV BRPL. We thought of celebrating Diwali in BRPL township with our friends. It was little difficult for some of us who stayed quite far from township but finally I and Ratul decided to go for it. My house was in the mid way between town ship and Ratul’s house and from my place to township it was 15-20 minutes bicycle ride. Our plan was to enjoy the evening and return home by 9 PM.We wanted to enjoy that evening in a more adventurous way by throwing crackers inside people’s house and we also had a few targets in our mind, some teachers and few of our female class mates. I, Ratul, Ajay and Padu were the main culprits, although there were few more guys.  Padu was riding the bicycle and I sat at the front, Ratul and Ajay were on another bicycle. First we went near our Mishra sir’s house and threw few crackers inside his house and then we immediately disappeared from there. Wow! It was so much fun and we all just loved the thrill. But there was a little problem as it was quite windy and we struggled to light the crackers.

Considering the amount of fun we were having and also the risk involved we thought of some another alternative to light the crackers. Immediately Padu came up with an idea and it really worked. We bought some agarbatti’s, lighted few of them and fixed them at the front of our bicycle. It was very effective and we were able to light the crackers very comfortably even thought it was very windy.We threw crackers in few more houses and felt very happy and satisfied. Now Padu badly wanted to throw crackers in one of our female class mate’s house.  As soon as we reached near her house we saw her father standing in front of the gate in his Lungi, lighting Diya’s near the gate. We waited for a while but her father stood at the same place for a long time, as if he was testing our patience  There was a Maruti van parked just in front of the gate. All of a sudden Padu started his Bicycle and tried to hide beside the van. I was little tensed that time as her father was just standing on the other side of the van. Without wasting much time Padu lighted a cracker and threw it. The uncle was simply jolted with that act and he tried to go inside the house, he had no idea what just happened? Immediately we lighted 2 more crackers and threw at him but that time he saw us and shouted “who’s there? you bloody fool… who’s there?” Padu started his bicycle and tried to disappear from there. To our surprise the uncle started to chase us and screamed from behind. It was quite funny as described by some of our friends later who were hiding nearby at that moment. The uncle in his Lungi chased us for quite a distance but ultimately he gave up.

It was so much fun and we were having a wonderful time. We gained some confidence and started to throw crackers at random houses. I threw a cracker inside one house without consulting anyone and immediately 2-3 guys started to chase us. All my friends shouted “run, run just disappear from here”.  Unknowingly I threw a cracker inside SP’s (Superintendent of Police) house.  Those guys, not in their uniform though, were not like the earlier uncle and they literally chased us for a long time and finally caught us near the infamous township pond. We had an argument with them and as soon as we got some opportunity everyone just disappeared in the dark. I and Padu were together and hid somewhere near the pond. But Ratul was left alone and poor guy was very much tensed and he tried to hide in someone’s garden. Suddenly one of the security guard asked him “What’s up? Who are you?” Ratul was very tensed but his major advantage was that he looked quite decent and he decently replied to the security guard, but obviously  a different name. The guard asked “what is your father’s name?” Ratul was very confused and one name came to his mind that moment “Mr R.M. Hazarika “, coincidentally he was the CEO of BRPL that time. The guard was very impressed and asked him “oh! when did you come?” Ratul replied “just few days back”. Again the guard asked “so, you will be staying for few more days” Ratul replied that he would be staying few more days and tried to avoid that guy and left from there.

After around half an hour we all met at some place and it was time for us to go home as it was already 9 PM. But Padu and Ajay suggested us not to go home that time as the security people at the main gate might catch us. It was quite a good advice, so I and Ratul stayed the night at Padu’s place.

Wish You all a Very Happy Diwali

How many babies can a man make?

After reading my post Confessions of an Adolescent Mind, my dear friend Satya told me a very funny thing about the same confusion they had. Somehow I couldn't stop myself from sharing his experience J. When Satya was in class 7, he and his friends also had the same confusion on “How babies are made?” One of their friends had a very weird kind of theory. His theory not only explained “How babies are made?” but also explained “How many babies can a man make in his whole lifetime?”

According to the theory the number of babies a man can make in his whole lifetime is actually the number of balls he has. He said that earlier men used to have many balls. In order to have a baby men have to cut one of their ball and women usually prepare it with vegetables or meat and just eat it. 

Confessions of an Adolescent Mind

Every one of us will definitely have some stories of our adolescence.  The early adolescence was really confusing for us.  I remember when I was in 7th standard some of my friends including me had a big confusion “How babies are made?”  I think now days children of this age group are much smarter, may be because access to any kind of information is just a click away.During that time many of us had different theories of our own. Many of us believed that when people get married they will have babies. Someone asked “but what exactly happens after marriage?” Someone replied “if they sleep together in the same bed then they would have baby” It seems some theories were highly influenced by the Bollywood movies. Our discussion on this topic almost lasted over a year. No one had proper logical answer and every one’s theory was questionable. We haven’t accepted the “sleeping together” theory as one of our friend argued that he always used to sleep with his sister.  Someone came up with one more theory “if girl and a boy eat in same plate and drink milk/water in same glass then baby will be made” this theory was also logically not acceptable as the same brother-sister funda made the theory too weak. There were few more weak theories and I don’t exactly remember them. We used to discuss and argue on the topic among our close friends. Now there was a guy named Tapan Sarkar, he was actually one or two years elder to us. His academics was little weak but his theory was strong enough, in fact only he had the exact theory among our friends that time. 

Few of us believed his theory that time but there was a little problem.Now there was a group who completely discarded Tapan's theory considering it to be absurd. When some of the guys tried to defend Tapan’s theory, someone questioned “That means your parents have done exactly the same thing before you guys were born?” Hearing this some of us became completely red. one guy replied “No, never, my parents never did something like that” he was almost about to cry. After this how could anyone accept that controversial theory?

So time passed quickly and we were in our 8th standard. Our school was KV BRPL but now our school doesn't exist. Physically it still exists but now it’s no longer a KV, it’s DPS Dhaligaon now. There was a very nice girl in our class and she actually was our topper that time. many of us used to copy notes from her and she never minded even if we take her class notes home. In the beginning of our 8th standard suddenly she stopped coming to school. During school days it was very unusual for any student specially topper kind of students to remain absent continuously for few days. We were little worried about her. We asked one of her close friend “what happened to her? Is she all right?” She replied “yeah, she is fine” We asked “then why she is not coming to school?” She replied “Actually she is grown up now and become matured, so she will not come to school for few more days” She was little shy in her reply. This stupid reason was kind of bouncer for us and it went over our heads. Now one of her notebook was with Babul. The topper girl sent Babul a message through someone that she need that notebook. So one day during lunch time Babul went to her house to return her notebook. To his surprise she was perfectly fine and was smiling and was talking to everyone. Babul saw that there was some kind of ceremony going on. Her mom gave him some food to eat and after eating Babul returned to school. Actually in our Assamese culture when any girl experiences her first cycle it is taken as a positive aspect of her life. Neighbors and close relatives used to give presents to her, actually elders used to celebrate considering it as a special occasion.  

Time passed very fast and we were in the middle of our 8th standard. In 8th standard our Science subject included physics, chemistry and biology. Now in biology we had one chapter on reproduction in animals and human beings. The chapter was actually among the last chapters but out of curiosity everyone read that chapter much earlier. After reading that chapter few times, our concepts became much clear and many of us started to believe Tapan’s theory,  but definitely with some doubts and confusion in mind. Everything became crystal clear when we watched the reproduction kind of movie for the first time in the beginning of our 9th standard. 

Dedicated to all my KV friends Ratul, Ashish, Alomgir, Vivek, Ajay, Partho, Tapan, Babul, Michael, Riddhi, Rajiv,Hemanta and the list goes on.