Do you know of any guys who travels five hours back home just so that he can gorge on KFC chicken brought for him all the way from Bangalore , and then click pics of him enjoying the chicken and mail it to you??
Do you know of a guy who parks his behind on the sofa and stares at a cricket match all day,dissects it ball by ball , listens to the pre and post match analysis simultaneously holding a Heat transfer book in one hand and solving all the problems in the shortest possible time.
Do you know of a guy who when he gets angry throws a whole packet of snacks on you and then treats you at the canteen in the evening??
Well if you don’t….i am not surprised….because all the above crazy,lunatic guys are friends of mine.Friends made at Burla.A non descript town tucked away in the hills, yet home to such cool bunch of weirdos.
Ok I am no Jeffery Archer, so I wont bother to organize all the memories into a streamlined chronological account..I will borrow from here..add from there and then mix in a bit of my exaggerated humour to tell you a tale of four friends….Let me first start off with Prateek’s account of Lohit
Myself, Anjan ,Debashis and Chinu were doing something or laughing at someone's expense when he appeared.In all black, Agile T-shirt(That he claims was dark green once) and a three quarter pant(some ghoulish grey colored).He stood at the door like one of those beady eyed street urchins,waiting for someone to respond.I don't remember who, but one of us beckoned him inside.With those sick glasses and even more sickening smile he had me prejudiced over his nature.But the moment he opened his mouth, we knew he was one of us, the bird with the right feathers, one of the flock,From that day on, he stayed.Room -56 was his home.His roomamte would come to tell him ,"Good night" and would disappear before the words reached us.(he was another enigma altogether)He would play cards with us all day long, and in the night all 5 of us would sleep in 56.
Prateek still says that when he opened his mouth we knew he was one of us…but I distinctly remember Lohit sitting like a mute spectator as me and Prateek would ramble on and on about our past lives,about the quality of the mess food,the Girls(Lohit took no part in this discussion),about the vile language that the seniors would choose to shower us with(of course me and Prateek became masters of the language as the year progressed) And Lohit would just sit there and listen.I always used to wander..who was this guy?? Where did he suddenly land from?? When you think of it Lohit was never supposed to be there.He was an oddity, a rounding error in the scheme of perfectly ordered rooms that housed only three boarders.A guy from Manufacturing, was all I knew after two days of sitting beside him…he would pull up a chair and sit on it and listen to the conversation.Why he ventured out of his wing to come to us?? Why he left the sanctuary of his branch mates is a maystery to me…But at the end of the day I am mighty glad that he did.And I thought…heck he is a silent guy…not my types.
Yes, the guy Lohit Biswal…who would travel five hours just to feast on KFC chicken and then click photos of it and send it to me…Boy did he know the meaning of the word Schadenfreude..I felt like killing him with a corkscrew.
Standing in the middle of the wing in his purple colored shirt(a sight that would guarantee to give one sore eyes), a tall guy with a haircut that resembled a Herrings nest holding a Yellow bucket with the name Prateek Chand emblazoned on it like a coat-of-arms. Oh! The very sight made my blood simmer as I wished I could push him off the ledge.Bloody stuck up guy, I thought ..Ok ill try to avoid him the duration he stays in my wing.Stuck up guy…not my types.
The geek shall inherit the earth…Bill Gates had once proudly proclaimed. And I guess this guy Debashis just took a liking to that saying.You will die of asphyxia if his book collection manages to land on you.You may debate endlessly with him on the nuances of cricket, and a quiet smile to follow…a quiet studious guy who had zero fun ….i thought..studious guy, silent demeanor….not my types.
I still remember that dash of Yellow Reebok, the cross legged position he sat in, refusing to leave the confines of his room.That smile and the big round glasses that had NERD written all over it, coupled with his Oriya that would make you die laughing..I was just curious to find out who this guy is …the guy whom everybody said had a twin sister in our college..and I thought BIG NERD….not my types
But FATE they say has a unique way of getting to you, FATE has its own plans and regardless of your well laid out charted course, it will always find a place to stick its foot in and tweak the whole course of your life forever.
Three years later as I sit writing this blog I laugh at my own superflousness,my lack of knowledge of people and the 4 rascals who are reading this right now.Never has it felt better to be proved wrong..
The NOT MY TYPES guys went on to become the best friends that any guy could ask for…
Prateek and me recorded a music video together, the one that got him selected to be the AVC Cr in the first year.He almost broke my nose in a mock sparring event in the first year common room.The only guy who stood with me as I defended my decision to go to class.The guy to have made us the first Robotics team in team Burnout.As we worked endlessly the whole night, in his room something gelled, a spring fell into place, a lever was touched…and things sort of started to take shape…The robot worked ok that day , but what really worked out is that four guys had somehow bonded…Me Prateek , debashis and Lohit.
Well Lohit and Prateek were characters in contrast…Lohit was the slow and composed type , while Prateek was more impulsive.Prateek is flashy , but Lohit is a bit laidback….but holds them together is not only a mystery to me but to every single sane individual.
Well coming back to Debashis…they say if Harsha Bhogle would be reborn he would be reborn as Debashis…very astute, slow and steady and the glue that held the group in place…and the glue that held Prateek in place…yes this nonchalant lazy genius had that wonderful ability of being an advisor to Prateek when he needed it…and financer to me…when I needed it….:P .Peel past the layers of the quiet cricket and book lover and you would see the fun…the witty wordplay that characterize our group sessions..the keen observation and the endless legpulling that he starts when either me or Lohit are talking on the phone…people say that he had a heart of gold…24 hours before the Maths exam and he would be conducting maths classes for 15 odd people and yet still top the next day.They say he never wrestled with Mathematic…he sort of conjured Mathe”magic”. But one memory stands out..a cold dreary night just befor e the first engineering maths exam and me,Lohit and chinu were huddled by his side struggling with the Laplace equations…I read with him the whole night and I got probably one of the few ‘O’ grades that would ever grace my marksheet.
And he too shared an unusual chemistry with Lohit…the first one amongst us to tease Lohit, the first one to call him LoBlo and the guy with who he would sit and study for hours during an exam..
But the best was Prateek and Deba chemistry…both of them were so apart you would say their friendship was like that of chalk and cheese…Well what can I say somebody moved the cheese..and threw away the chalk…and they are friends ever since..Prateek relies on Deba to bail him out of trouble the night before the exams and Deba likes Prateek for his frankness and coolness..
And then this guy came into the picture…remember the big nerd I told you about…a guy from Mumbai..Nishan Gantayat…the guy grew from strength to strength be In the academic department,the looks department or in the love department..now this guy has it all…but one of the best memories of him is that winning answer in the inter hostel quiz in first year…just when we had lost hope of winning …he shot out the answer from my right…where does the Mithi river flow???....Mumbai he answered and the guy from Mumbai had announced his arrival into the realms of Quizzing..he went on to open a quiz blog with me, went on to become a photographer who clicked pics of critical acclaim,shed his big fat nerd image and turned cool by the end of second year ….
But he still was the same old idiot….confessed his love when he was drunk…drunk his way into near oblivion on Holi and seven hours later recounted us with his Christopher Nolan like experience.. still struggles with the coomon Oriya words..writes poems on coffee mugs for his love…took his dieting spree too far and ended up looking like a Jewish ghetto escapee…and if someone goes to close to him even for a handshake he reels back unconsciously…maybe the result of Prateek hitting him below the belt on a number of occasions…me and Lohit tease him about that on a number if occasions..And the best part is that behind all the idioticness is a semblance of balance..
The guy is a mentor to me when it comes to matters concerning life and love….hidden talent I say…beginners luck he counters..but hey he fell in love after confessing it when he was dead drunk..beginners luck indeed..and the idiot till today teases me the most about my love life too..
And the guy he lives with Mr Biswal..Loblo or HOBO…Homeless Boy as coined by Prateek never slept in his room till the day he joined college…in first year he was in room 56…we played cards all night long and talked in between..and after that LoBlo used to park his bottom on Dilips chair and sit in their room for hours.Well the guy sometimes I feel is off his rocker…He would be studying in silence and suddenly be prone to mad attacks of Hollywood albums and I have to kick him into place..and then there were his deadpan jokes that made us roll over and laugh our brains out..He and Prateek would recount us with the crazy things they both did in Bhubaneswar and in the trip to Pondicherry and I would be laughing there on the floor..
And then some memories still linger till today…hey HOBO , Prateek remember how we went to Burla on a open Auto standing on a bunch of pots with our heads down for fear of getting ragged..
Remember that big mutton fight??
Remember the first bot that looked like a Mars rover??
Remember Debashis frantically pacing the corridors on the India Sri Lanka final..
Remember Lohits Alif Laila shirt? The bleu formal one..
Remember how Lohit got plastered in every viva he tried to bluff
Remember Nishan’s usage of the word KAHUNA
Remember his fascination with Monica Geller from FRIENDS and is obsession with Deepika Padukone
Remember that night on the train when Prateek hollered out to an uncle…UNCLE DON’T YOU KNOW MANNERS??
Remember the beggar incident on the train where the beggar tried to give his money to Prateek
Remember how Debashis cut himself up badly before the vivas?? Looking like one of the guys who had just walked off the sets of Evil dead 2??
Remember Remember the 5th ,6th and 7th of Ocotober??
I still remember those haunting strains of the music video…I walk a lonely road…and my shadow walks besides me……….
But when I walk along the road I see 4 shadows behind me and I don’t need to turn for I already know that the 4 rascals will be the ones behind…
ADIOS AMIGOS..
