Booze Buzz Bass

First of all. BOOZE.
Feels great. Guess why?
I rushed to Rishi’s room – “Bro, I broke my virginity.”
Shitty thing. Looks funny indeed for a guy to speak like that to another guy.
“Oh u finally did???”
“Ya yaar. U know what. It was last night. & I am very happy now.”
“Yeah u do seem like that. So when did u drink? Cause its looking like you are still in hangover.”
“No yaar. I am fine now.”
“But your eyes are red…”
“Cause I just took bath.”
“Hmm. Looks great. So what? I broke mine 2 years before you did.”
“Yeah I remember that bong party at RGP by Arijit sir.”
“But you definitely had to. The only thing is that you are late.”
“Nope. I promised my mom to never touch wine & other stuffs.”
“But now you have broken the promise.”
“Yeah. & I am very excited.”
“I broke it before twenty. You did it after twenty. So you are the looser.”

Hope you have got it all. ‘Breaking virginity’ is for breaking the restriction to touch alcohol stuffs. Not about the girlish thing about virginity. The term was used by Arijit sir & Arup sir, when they brought a McDowell’s No.1, thinking that we all will drink & I didn’t. They simply shouted at me – “You are still a virgin???” But I was still very happy that was the dear good boy of my beloved mother who is firm on his promises made to his mom.
It all finished last night, at nagpur. It was Mohit’s party. & he took us, three of us, Amit Kawalkar& myself, to a pub. I just said “no, I won’t drink.” But somehow, the feeling was to break all barriers & I wanted to get drunk like Jack Sparrow or Austin. The bartenders & bouncers were roaming here & there. & the music was at its peak. We were welcomed with the song – Apni To Aise Taise, from Housefull. I was rocked by the bass of the dj. It was simply amazing. Then came in my favorite tracks – Shakira’s Waka Waka, Justin Bieber’s Baby Baby, Akon, David Guetta & the hindi tracks, all remixed. I just wanted to pour in. In all, it was a great way to, to ‘break virginity’, by opening with a breezer first, followed by a whisky & then a vodka. & I was dancing. Kawalkar walked upto me with his glass in his hand - “lagta hai tujhe sahi me chadh gayi hai.” I just smiled back, nodded my head & back to wild stupid dance of mine.
Well. Frankly. I know not what it is to be drunk. But I still fear it. As I always feared it. & that night. Maybe it was much diluted. But I drank it. & I my head felt heavy alongwith my eyes. And I loved to dance for two hours in the lovely beats.

Next morning, we all woke up. Ran straightway to watch Step Up 3D. & what a movie it was. Totally mind blowing. Never thought hip hop dances could look that good in 3D.

The lovely unforgettable dramas are there in Mohit’s car – Indigo DLS, blue one. It was in this car that we drove off to Pench, national park near nagpur, around 80 kms from the city. The plans are always made all of a sudden. Like what they say – just pick up the vehicle, drive off to somewhere, will see after that where to go.
My ideas are a bit different, always planning everything with pen & pencil, before finally setting out. Accompanied to all these trips are the human relations between we people at the hostel. Never to give company to any hostile entity. If possible, then give them a tough clash. & to strengthen up the bonds with the existing people you have around at that very moment. But who knows the future. Relationships don’t take time to break. Neither to make a good nasty one also. Whatever the outcome is. The purpose simply is to create something you can always cherish upon in future. For instance talk about the very recent trip. I go out with Mohit. Something Steve won’t believe even on seeing us together. But we together took the bull by its horns, at the fight with some stranger while capturing the bus seats. & Mohit calls me for his birthday bash at nagpur. He was quite selective in choosing out the friends for this bash.

Few days back, call it one week back, I was onto another trip & that one was with Shridhar & rest. Just a bike trip into the unknown green fields, which turned dark with the evening rainy clouds. That time we were still discussing, as we always were doing, misgivings for this Mohit. We made him the Shoaib Khan of our group, the apparent kingmaker, who goes greedy for being himself the king, from the movie Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, portrayed by Emraan Hashmi. The things were going on my 2nd wave of friendship, until, Ankush breaks my door latch, I break his mobile, he come down crying for money, his poor money, crying that he cost me 10 rupees latch & I cost him 16,000 rupees mobile. I tell – go enjoy with my shuffle. I buy another one next day from nagpur. Probably I-ball is looking better than Apple. He reminded me of the scene from the movie 3 Idiots, where Aamir Khan calls Kareena’s financer ‘a price tag machine’, Aamir spills sauce over the guy’s shoe & he cries for the price of the shoe.

All about my brawls at college. Well I never had any. Frankly. I may have got into brawl a couple of times, but I never hurt anyone. Cause I always came out of the brawl saying – cool down, cool down. Everytime I walk into some brawl, the adrenaline level just shoots up, making my muscles tighten up, still I try to pretend with smile on face, saying – this isn’t going good. Again reminds me of Abhinav, my best buddy at school.
I, staring at the other guy, heating up myself - “what if I break down on him?”
Abhinav – “well, I am not sure about the other fellow, but one thing I am sure of about you is that you will land straight into jail. So pacify yourself. Better be a student than a murderer.”

No guy ever wants to mark himself as a looser, when it come to brawl.
Ankita tells me – “you guys always fight.”
I say – “why not? Guys are born to fight. Just the way girls are born to sit in beauty parlour or kitchen.”
The last time I fought. Yeah. That’s right. Mark my pretty words. Last time ‘I fought’. Because after that, I may have got into many fights, but practically I never fought. Except for one time, when I gave my dear friend Navneet a Pilestone Drive, the one Undertaker delivers as his finishing move. Poor guy felt giddy after that. But I picked him up, reconciliated with him saying – “come one, blow your best shot on me & finish your anger. My fault that I fought with my good friend.”
So, the last time I fought, was in Kota, 12th std. My father brings me a room partner, whom I don’t like. & the very next day after our parents leave. I just leave him with a bleeding nose. The guy was lying down totally breathless. & my land lord kicks me out of his apartment, sending me to find another room. Reminds me of my school days. Guys? Even girls too. I didn’t even spare them even. I broke one girl’s teeth. Two guy’s teeth. Face injuries, uncountable. Other injuries, too many. & yeah head injury. How can I ever forget that one. It was when I was 5 years old. I slammed the slateboard on the other guy’s head, leaving him bleeding with a crack.

One thing is sure. The outcome from this brawls may emblem you as the ultimate fighter, but what follows after that is never good. The first bad thing is that you become notorious. Mark my words again. Its ‘notorious’ & not ‘famous’. Like what the people try to picture you as, making you the scape goat, or a hired bouncer for the next fight, where they oil you & push you into the arena, where they get a show a watch.
The second thing are the complaints about you. & that is borne by your poor guardians. & I don’t have any lunatic Haryana Punjabi type of guardians, who feel proud that their son has done an awful thing. Being from a Bengali background makes you Swami Vivekananda by blood. Something we call that as ‘Babu moshai’. The picture defines itself. A fair guy, with wet combed hairs, bit resembling the Elvis Presley hair style, but shorter than that, wearing kurta pajamas, white colored mostly, carrying a book in hand, talking about literature & classical music, filled with art & philosophy from head to heels. & when it comes to fights, he runs away like hell. & not that he can run nicely also. Cause his mind is overweighed with knowledge, his belly is loaded with tons of fish he ate. & his heart is only good for appreciating beauty of something, like Rabindranath Tagore.

& the other kind of guys. Call them the Punjabi ones. Nowadays we say that in Punjab, you do only two things.
1. You train yourself physically.
2. You release a music album of your own.
Still hats off to them. They are the ones who fight for our country. The Indian Army is made by them only. Just make sure the clock doesn’t hit 12. & they are true by heart. Not like the duffy dumber rajasthani U.P or bihari bastards, who carry their brains at their knees. & when I am criticizing everyone, why am I leaving the south ones. the southern states. I haven’t interacted any of them to really talk much about them. Still. As far as what I picture them as is like an ugly Dravidian orthodox, sitting &. &. &. & doing shit. Yeah. Whatever they do is shit. They make political parties of their own, movies of their own. & they pose themselves as great. Which actually they are not. Shrunk upto their own regional believes. So what. That’s what every region does. Why blame them alone. The equatorial climate made them black, sweaty. & the other ones, who are neither victimized by equatorial climate nor the typical north Indian good-for-nothing hooligan mentality, they form groups like Shiv Sena, & dance, that they really did something. Wow.

This is all a part of BUZZ. & that is what we hear in India. Like when a swarm of bees come nearby your ears. Its when a group over populated, over educated, people, call it Indian population wakes up every morning, & then this is all you get to hear all day long, till they all go back to sleep again.

Back. Back. Back. Where was I? I wanted write about my trips. & where did I get diverted? I started with Booze, to Mohit, to brawls, to Indian states. Stupid. But this made blog look interesting. Again. After some cold topics like Midnight Blog, Lonesome Clouds, My Love. But you don’t dare call them cold. Cause they are close to my heart. So lets give a happy ending to my BRAWLS part.
My grandfather, before I was leaving for Kota, said his jewel words- “grandson, I know whatever you will do will be good. You can never get spoiled. So I don’t really need to worry about you. Except for one thing. Your mom has made you strong enough. But
control your physical strength. That’s not an advice from me. That’s what I am telling you to do. & you will have to. No matter what your opponent does. No matter what happens. You will never raise your hands on anyone. Anything goes wrong, just walk out of the scenario. But don’t fight. Keep your ideas upto yourself. No need to fight for them.”
Looks like the dialogues of Djimon Hounsou, from the movie Never Back Down – “No matter what. No matter how. No fighting outside the gym.”
“Everyone gets into fights at some or the other points of their lives.”
“This place is where young angry bloods come to fire their emotions. Some call this place gym. I am the owner of this gym.”

Move on to my trips. My first trip was to Agra. Arjun invites me to his sister’s marriage. At that time, there were bomb blasts at Delhi. So parents didn’t allow me. Yet I went there. The funniest part was in the hotel, afternoon time, my dad’s phone call woke me up-
“how are you doing? You are sleeping now?”
“am fine. Just came back from college. Felt sleepy.”
“college? Today is Sunday…”
Oops. That’s how I get caught while lying to my parents.
Second trip was to Shridi & Nashik. That was fantastic. With some fanatic friends. Total pieces of misers. They neither booked train tickets, traveled in general, nor stayed in hotel, if also, they searched for the cheapest one in nashik, & while doing so, we entered red light area,. That was one hell of an experience. First we saw something like that. Though we didn’t do anything over there.
The auto-rickshaw driver kept shouting at us – “I am not letting you here. Its illegal. We must find some other place.”
Forgive our damn innocence.
One thing I learnt from these two trips is to choose a proper group for traveling. At Agra I felt the problem of being with a bunch of drunkards. They used to get so drunk late nights, & we missed Fatehpur Sikri, just because they won’t get up early.

Third trip was to Chikaldhara, a hill station nearby. We traveled by bikes. 4 bikes. 8 people. 200kms distance. On our returning way, we came down through the jungles of Melghat division, the tiger reserve. That made our returning distance 270kms. Though the jungle was quite dense, there weren’t any signs of any tiger. Even the forest officials slumbered – “we aren’t sure if tigers are here or migrated somewhere else.” The night was great. Cards. & the Amravati highway. We were racing at 110kmph. Eyes got teary literally.

Next trip was of Pench. Plan was made all of a sudden. Mohit was the driver of the car. So he was to decide which way to go. It was noon time & we set out for Ramteke, a temple on the city outskirts. On reaching there, we decided not to return home & move forwards to Pench. We didn’t carry any extra clothes or any articles. Neither did we have money. Somehow we searched an ATM. & I was the one bearing the monetary load of everyone, till the time we reached back hostel. So my account was totally done. It got dark when we reached Pench. The feeling was like the movie Kaal. But it was Corbett National Park in it, which is better than Pench. We enjoyed the night stay. Morning. Chilling cold. & we had no warm clothes. Everyone was in t-shirts & jeans jackets. Our jaws were shuddering. We secretly carried the hotel blankets provided to us & then sat in the gypsy. All we were praying for was to catch a glimpse of the tiger. We were welcomed by a fox, which was close to the gate only. Then we got excited to see spotted-deers & bisons. & then for the next 4 hours we got pissed of watching the same deer & bison. The whole jungle was filled with them only. The guide gave nice figures, 21 tigers, 18 leopards, 35 bears, innumerable snakes, even python also. But it didn’t seem that the jungle really was having any single of them. Every now & then the guide pointed at birds. What the hell. What to do with birds. I wanted to see some action. Some real furious animal. Then we reached the green fields. Finally got the permission to step out from gypsy. & there got elephants. The whole wild field was glowing with morning sunlight. Everyone was thinking the tiger may come to warm up in the sunlight in the winters. Or it may come to drink from the river. But no. Yeah! We did find many paw marks of the tiger. But no signs of the animal. The whole jungle seemed like it really speaks to its inhabitants. The alarm calls. Every sound delivers a message. The jungle provides a warm shelter to the creatures which stay in it. I think it is the jungle only which decides who is to die when & where. Your vision actually fails in such a dense forest. Cause you can’t really look far because of the greenery around you. Its your senses which has feel of danger as well as the prey around you. All it needs is your silence. Just sit & listen. Cats & dogs do smell. The tree dwellers convey all the messages. The communication between the animals was something really worth appreciable. How the birds & monkeys made the deers & bisons aware. The foxes & wolves looked really free of tension. The vulnerable groups always had to be in caution. Cause the tiger attacks like that only. It silently waits & watches for the right opportunity. & then with one blow, it finished everything. Its one meal satisfies it for few days, after which it comes back into action.

I guess the tiger knows it very well that the people all over the world visit such sanctuaries just get the glimpse of tiger only. So the tiger is the one & only show stopper of the jungle show. There is a huge difference in watching these animals in a zoo & in such wilderness. The wildlife blooms in its actual habitat. I think zoos should be closed down, looking at the shrinking population of the wild animals. We managed to view a tiger at Pench, which we saw from the elephant’s back. The tiger was sleeping. I think it was just another rotten technique of the forest officials to tranquilize the animal for a show, from which they were earning a lot. Pench does have a big area & diversity too in its animals. On my every trip to Chindwara, which lies nearby the Pench river, I have spotted wolves on the road itself.

Tigers are getting extinct from the famous tiger reserves & moving to unexpected places. The place nearby Wardha, Chandrapur, presents a lot of such incidences. Every 2nd day, we get to read in newspapers that some big cat killed a person after entering the house. Similarly we keep listening to angry villagers killing & searching for big cat. Now the big cat is tiger or leopard or panther or puma or cheetah, that hardly matters. Panther, puma & cheetah are no more there in India. If a leopard is killed, that’s definitely for its skin, & not for safety or vengeance reasons of fucking villagers. If a tiger is killed, that can be for its teeth, may be for its skin, or even for some Chinese medicine. The king of the forest, the Lion sits at Gir Gujarat. I guess that’s the only place in India. & as far white tigers are concerned, I don’t know. I saw a white tiger at Puri. After few months, I heard it died of some mishap. The tiger at Pench reminded me a lot of the Royal Bengal Tigers. Surely feeding on fishes, & not on deers, made them reddish healthy like Bengalis. Every 2nd day at Kolkata, we too get news of people killed at Sunderbans. But there the killer is not the tiger alone, the crocodile also has its share. Looks like the tigers & crocodiles are having a competition on who can eliminate how many humans. Ofcourse Bengal has the most dense human population. The tiger & croc at Bengal are dignified with the holy tag – The Widowmaker. Before this, the one & only widowmaker known was the famous Russian submarine K 19, owing to its great capability to blow off big ships & other submarines in war. I want to visit Sunderbans. Half of the tracking is done in gypsy & other half in boat, through the innumerable small & big canals formed by Ganga delta, just like the Amazon delta, although it’s a bigger & diverse one, the home of the famous Anaconda. My father has spotted enough animals. While his stay in Narmadapur, a hill station near the Chattishgarh Bihar border, he was chased by a big bear, which came out all of a sudden through the sugarcane field. On the way to Shahdol, midway in the jungles of Mandla, the Maikal ranges, my uncles & father say they used to spot tiger, from the train only. It used to come to drink water in a lake nearby the rail track. Now that jungle hardly has any tigers left. There aren’t any tigers reserve or parks around Amarkantak, from where Narmada & Sone river arise. But when we went there, I was 7 years old, we heard the tiger growling. That locals said that tiger does come out of the jungle often. Few years later I read in newspapers, tiger being killed by villagers of same area. Now the whole big area of Mandla forests & Maikal ranges, hardly believes that any tiger can ever possibly be there. A sad story indeed. The tigers shown in Kaal, all three of them, were the same ones as in the Gladiator.

Whatever. I was supposed to talk about my trips. As usual, I am dreaming of a visit to Goa with college friends. But looking at our untimely exams, study load, permission from parents & the condition of human relations in my batch, I think its better not to expect of being able to make such a trip. Funny enough.
& BASS. Bass was there in the pub on the Friday night at Nagpur. I hope to pay another visit to such a place, but not soon. Wish to get some good girls out there. Right now playing the new song I got, from Finger Eleven, Paralyzer. Bass. My Altec Lansing speakers are doing a good job.

The Story Till Now

Hmmm. Lovely one. Sexy Salma Hayek & sex lion Antonio Banderas...

Now Read Below____

Lord help me out with all these. “These” means “studies”. I finally passed the bad bad prefinals & has been able to set my feet onto the hell bound final year mbbs. Ofcourse there is a lot to learn out here in these year. I am loving it. Inspite of the fact that the pressure of studies is simply “too much”. Anyway. It’s the back bone of being a good doctor.

Till now, my blogs. Well managed, I guess so. But if I keep myself updated online, then its surely gonna affect studies.

I was introduced to blogging by Rishi. Formulated by Pranay, as usual. It was Pranay who got me into orkut. The art of blogging was inspired from him only.

Earlier I used to wonder what the hell to write. & who the hell would read my blogs.

But now I find that there are plenty of stuffs to write, perhaps too much. Life is just like a movie, an interesting one. Or like every day of life is like every page of a big novel. The only thing you ought to know is the art of writing. Not that I am some scholar in that field. I am just telling. You want to write. There is a reason behind everything. Sometimes you want to write to keep a record of some moment. & sometimes, like writing on blogspot, you want the people to read it. Your blogs. As said by my friend Divyanshu, the editor of 21 fools, a site cum magazine, ‘if you want the people to read your articles, you should be able to attract their attention & interest.’ That’s the art. Although I find that 21 fools pretty boring, filled with childish stuffs, still well managed. Nice job, Divyanshu.

Anyway.

My story till now-

New to Blogging was the 1^st article – nothing much specific to write here. Yet short & sweet.

It’s Summer – again nothing specific to write in it. Same as 1^st one. Some incidents. Was just following the Pranay style. The Rishi style was way different. His most of the blogs bounce over my head. I hope I will never go like him.

Debts – finally got a topic. Specific enough to write.

Over The Top – description of my arm-wrestling match at Mgims boys hostel. The head pic & name derived from the Sylvester Stallone movie ‘over the top’.

The Show Off – based on the fashion show at 2010 Mgims gathering. My 2^nd best work. It was the hot topic of discussion for my batchmates, since I mentioned about every1 in it.

LOVE ACTUALLY – inspired from the movie with the same name. & probably my best work. Again the hottest topic for my batchmates. This one forced Kawalkar to join blogging. I still appreciate this article the most.

Deathblogger – name derived from cricinfo.com. They called David Hussey the deathblogger, when he whipped last ball for six, snatching the match against Pakistan, from the mouths of defeat to victory, sending Australia to to meet Engalnd in 2010 T20 world cup finals at West Indies.

The Midnight Blog – call it a depression blog. The blog showed my sad side.

My Love – 1^st poem to enter akrlife.blogspot.

Lonesome Clouds – monsoon & nostalgia made this blog. Homecoming blog.

Being Physical – a long time awaited article by me. Surely a dream coming true to be able to write this article. I think all efforts to write this article was in the boys hostel gym only.

Blogs to be written… Hoping to write something called Once Upon A Time In Mgims. Ha ha ha. Inspired from another movie – Once Upon A Time In  Mumbai, which is inspired from Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Though the Bollywood version is based on Mumbai underworld & the Hollywood version is based on simply action, no such good storyline, a sequel to my all time favourite, Desperado, bringing up Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Enrique, Johnny Depp, Mickey Rourke, which again inspired Enrique to route-in Mickey Rourke as the villain casted in the music video of Hero, with Jessica Love Hewitt. Lovely works. But my version will be based on the 2006 batch. The most controversial, contestable, controvertible, contentious, fire eating, factious, variegated, vibrant batch of Mgims. Not because that its my batch. Just because the batch had such elements. We can form Ramayana Mahabharata out of it. Coz we have won the Best Villain Award, Best Hero Award, Best Supporting Hero Award, Best Supporting Villain Award, Best Heroine Award, Best Supporting Heroine Award, Best Stuntman Award, Best Stuntwoman Award… & many more. Well for knowing the winners & nominees names, we will have to wait for another 2 years, I guess. Or even more. Maye be. Who knows what goes when, when someone takes which turn. No predictions. No prophecies.

More forthcomings will be, likely, to be, based on seasons. Like summer monsoons done. Now coming seasons. kiddish enough to write a blog on changing seasons.

& accompanying will be a lot of songs & movie themes. Coz I am a hardcore movie buff.

One more article awaited, is the article about the trips, here & there, that I made with my friends. I always try to write about it, but always ending up unable to take out time for it.

Well. When this trip with friends come, then ofcourse no one can take away the name of Goa. The favoutite destination for all friends’ groups. Everyone wants to leave a mark on best moments spent with their dear ones & close ones, specially at this place – Goa. Surely, my parents won’t be allowing me for this. & likewise again I will have to save money for this trip. Perhaps that’s one reason why I am not going to Delhi for Pulse at AIIMS. Don’t tell me that I am lacking the real reason. The juniors offered me a chance to accompany them to Delhi. & moreover Sanidhya, Atanu, Dipanshu are expecting my visit. Leave them. I was expecting to meet her. But she said she would be too busy. She isn’t sure if she can meet me or not. Bad excuse.

Whatever I just got a matter to complete my this blog.

Done for now.

Will see later.

Being Physical

It was another season of breathlessness for me. I was panting badly. But I had to make up the distance. Atleast upto the the last light post at the end of the street after which there was total darkness. The time was 9 pm. I just saw the FIFA 2010 match between Germany & England. The Klose Podolski Lahm Ozil Muller Schwienstiger team ruled literally. That was the future of the great Oliver Kahn team. Post Ballack era. The way they crashed Argentina & England by 4 goals each. Before going down fighting against the silent guns – Spain led by Villa Cassilas Torres. Felt sad for Messi Lampard Kaka Ronaldo. All these action was on tv. Myself, at Jabalpur.

I changed the track on my Ipod shuffle. Now playing Sevendust- Black. Nice beats. To thump up my left over energy for another round of jogging. I didn’t have much left. So I had to finish it. I increased the speed, finally ending it. Felt really good. The Jabalpur Nagpur express passed me byside. After few days I would be boarding that train for my way back to college. The t-shirt was totally sweat drenched. People kept staring at me. Not a new thing for me. Came back. Mom kept shouting – “don’t go under the shower now. Don’t sit under the fan.” I said Ok. Likewise, again, I went infront of the mirror. We don’t get this big bedroom like mirrors at hostel. The whole body was reflecting with sweat. I remembered my oiled body look at bare chest round. I pulled back my hairs. I am surely loosing them fast. Getting bald. Future plans – either become Vin Diesel, total shaved, or Salman Khan, get hair transplant. Leave them to dreams for now. First complete your studies. Already this body stuff is killing it.

Back when I was 12 years old, it was the same feeling even then. Every evening after the heavy cycling, I used to come back & kept looking at the mirror at myself, unclothed, full of sweat. I did have a desire to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, not realizing how much hard it is to be someone like that. It all started with a very young age. I was 5 years old. On my way to school by rickshaw, I caught the sight of this poster of Arnold from the movie Predator. I can never forget his biceps. My 2nd hero was Sylvester Stallone. Movie – Rambo. 3rd hero – Jean Claude Van Damme. Things started happening when my father took cable connection at home & I started watching WWF, inspite of my father’s continuous protests. I remember how they showed the training sessions of Rock & Brock Lesnar. After that, another thrill was to see the whole Rocky series. Rocky Balboa & his training sessions.

By then I didn’t have any idea what bodybuilding actually is. Parents kept telling me not to do weight lifting, otherwise it will affect height. & it did affect. I didn’t listen to them & I remained 5 ft 3 inches since the age of 12 years. After that my height never increased. Medically reason it as the premature ossification of the bone ends due to heavy physical exercises. I just stabbed the sledge straight into my own foot. Now I feel the very dejection of not listening to parents. I was always regular in running. Or call it jogging. When I was born, I weighed 12 pounds. That was bit more than normal. The doctor handed me over to my father congratulating everyone for having a wrestler born. I crossed 50 kgs when I was 10 years old. So overall, I was obese by birth. So I always tried to keep up with exercises to keep myself fit, right from my childhood. I only changed the track, from free hand exercises to heavy weight liftings. Remember class 7, 8, 9 & 10. I was the God of arm wrestling at my school. & back at home, I would incessantly go on with non-stop push-ups, fly kicks, high kicks, kick boxing, crunches.

I reached the milestone of weight, when I was at Kota, in 12 std. I crossed 100kgs. It was just then & there, that the control started. I cut on my diet. No breakfast. Only 2 meals a day, lunch & dinner. No non-veg. No fast foods & junk foods. As many glasses of cold lemon water, without sugar or salt. More fruits & salads & water. Less oils. Alongwith as much exercises I could possibly do. Both mornings & evenings. & finally I was down to 48 kgs after 4 months. When I came back to Bilaspur & opened my t-shirt, I could see my rib cage clearly, without expanding it. My facial bones had grown very much prominent. My waist length was below 28. I had to get new pants stitched for me. Meanwhile I continued with my exercises. During the phase of drop after 12th, I took to as much protein I could take on. Chicken, I used to eat 1 kg in day alone. I loved fish & eggs.

Then came college. I got selected. I knew I would be made nude in ragging. & so I was prepared for that. I just followed the home made exercise schedule of Van Damme. Cause my parents never allowed me gym. Enter college. Mgims is damn worse in matters of physical fitness stuffs. I remember when I reached Bapu Kuti. I reached their with bandage on my arms, legs & a scar face. So usually I never took bath until the 10th day. Every night at dormitory, Shridhar, before going to sleep, used to go shirtless & - “dekh saale, body dekh meri.” I used to simply lay down & say – “ya its good.” It was the 10th day that I went to take bath. Clothes off. Water all over. & the show starts. It was Amit Singh who caught my glimpse. Its this guy who takes the credit of making me famous with the name of Rambo.

At school, I was known as baby Rhino. We did have, not so good, yet good enough guys to go on with physicality. Its surely not everyone’s cup of tea. The temptation surely takes in every guy. Call it the adrenaline cum testosterone factor. Be it the worst geek, being physical is every guy’s dream. As much lovely it looks to be physical, that much hardcore you have to become to be something like that. Abhinav did take much interest in these stuffs, but he got down with asthama. Pranay keeps speaking of making up, but I never saw any signs of that in him. Sinoj used to be a deadly fellow. He was my worst competitor in arm wrestling at school. I heard the guy used to do pull ups on the ceiling fan nails. Sabin did try to show off a lot. But turned out to be a loose brad. I was lucky enough to get the gym at college. No 1st year student is allowed to step into gym. But I did make my start in 1st year itself. The pgs used to go crazy over me. We didn’t have much equipments earlier. Ghosh sir made good contribution before leaving as the warden by bringing some new stuffs. Though things keeps breaking & stolen everytime. Still we try to make the best use out of it.

1st time I saw gym was when I was 11 years old & used to go to the Rly. Stadium at Bilaspur. I used to go there every morning for running. Nowadays whenever I go home, I always try to take out time for a run at the stadium. I remember the tall sturdy guys used to run all over the concrete stairway steps made for sitting. Reminds me how Rock used to run over them. I could hardly do that because of my small height. It was my father who took me there & used to show me how athletes run. Oh man! Guys used keep on running non stop for hours. I used to just keep gazing at them. That was when I was 9 years old. When I reached 12 years age, I used to run a regular non stop of six kilometers. And then I would always see the people gazing at me. Surely I made one hell of a stamina. It was then a guy called me up to try some gym stuffs. The gym was attached to the stadium on its exterior alongwith lawn tennis, volleyball & basketball courts. I said – “ mom said no.”

Bodybuilding proper started at college. 1st I just went on doing whatever I could possibly do at gym, trying to do all the equipments. I would never listen to anyone. The thing didn’t actually work. 04’ batch came up with the concept of bare chest round at the fashion show on annual fest. That was the first something like that happened in MGIMS. We remember our expression. Totally awestruck. Jaws dropped all over. I myself was sitting in the audience & watching what the hell is going on-stage. They dressed as the characters from Ramayana & Mahabharat. Dhotis of different colours with armours in hand. Background music was Age of Innocence from Enigma. Overall it was really appreciable. Eventhough Borasi sir managed to cover up his pot belly with the gold plate he wore over his belly, resembling Ram. Yogendar sir & Atul sir surely looked good with 6 ft height. Mahajan sir’s abs made him the show stealer. Bagadiya was the only guy from 06 batch. Pawan sir, as usual, the model. Satyendar was the dare devil, to wear the waist line so low, as to reveal his pelvic region. It was even below the way Ranbir Kapoor did it in Saawariya.

From then on, it became the great topic of discussion every where, be it the boys hostel or the girls hostel. Borasi sir surely did a great in justice to me. Anyway. I wouldn’t have matched their heights. & no one from them would have matched my bulk. 05 gathering was like a wait being over. People just wanted to see the new faces. 04 guys had left. Bagadiya & Satyendra developed pot bellies. Pawan sir & Mahajan sir didn’t go home after their exams & joined Belle gym. Pawan sir told me from the very starting – “I want you to be ready for the show.” I thought it to be a kid’s job. But as the days came nearby, I realized the very chill for the ultimate thrill. I was fighting with my fat. My chest was surely the best of all. I went on with deadly bench presses. It was Mahajan sir who approached me & rectified my faults. 1st he used to train me over the body part exercises. But I wouldn’t listen to him. Then he offered me the great book – Encyclopedia of Modern Body Building by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though it was a Xerox copy of the original one which belonged to Tushar Prem Borkar sir of 96 batch. The guy surely had left. He completed his post graduation & now he is at Oman. I checked out his pics on orkut. I was left astonished. By that time, Batiston sir gave me You Tube video of Arnold & Ronnie Coleman. It was from then I started collecting videos & informations about body builders. Jay Cutler & Dennis Wolf became my favorites. Abs of Brent Kutlesa. The upper body of Wolf. Jay Cutler stole every show with his bulk. Lee Haney & Troy Zuccolotto’s pics were their in our gym itself. Shawn Ray, Dexter Jackson were the other ones to fascinate me. Frank Zane, Franco Columbu, Larry Scott, Dave Draper, Sergio Olivio were among my old favorites. One thing was quite sure, as time passed, bodybuilders became more massive. Lee Priest was my ultimate inspiration. His small height, yet his great arms. A total piece of wonder.

The principle was to loose as much fat you can. Cause until & unless fat is really gone, you can’t exhibit your muscles nicely. & that is how body builders get ranked. What matters is how much clearly you can define your muscle fibres, recalling each & every muscle of the body distinctly, ofcourse the superficial muscles indeed. & then comes the bulk. How big your muscle is. Arnold stole all shows with his biceps. Those were the biggest heighted biceps the world had seen. Eventhough his lower body wasn’t that appreciable. Dorian Yates was considered as the best body ever. Dennis Wolf had the highest ratio of upper body to his lower body, explicating a perfect V shape. People die for a V shape, which is as hard to achieve. It comes with a high developed latissimus dorsi alongwith big shoulders. Even the chest development was divided into upper chest, made by inclined brench presses & lower chest, made by declined bench presses. Flat bench presses for full development. Alongwith dumble flys. I loved theses exercises. You even were required to show the fibres of chest. Biceps were surely a hard to go on. Curls, be it concentration or preacher. I had a good piece of triceps, developed by years of incessant push ups. So I loved to go infront on the ramp & exhibit triceps heads with extended arms. Parallel dips was easy for me. That much tough was pull ups. I needed to do them for building up my back, which was not good. So I took to pull downs instead. Alongwith bent over barbell rows. Though it made backache & hip pain after exercises. So the waist belt was in for support. I don’t know how many times I injured my wrist while flat bench presses. I would go on lifting upto 80 kgs, & when I would reach saturation, I would be unable to put the barbells back to the knot & finally resulted to sprain. My most vulnerable parts were my shoulders. I loved doing shoulder exercises. Dumble presses, clean jerk presses, Olympic lifts, lateral raises, front raises, shrugs. Though continuous sprains & strains left them shrunk. & I would try to avoid rests as much I could. That was surely a very bad thing. Cause you need to give a muscle rest for atleast 48 hrs, to develop up. & the schedule was –
1st day – shoulder, back& abs
2nd day - chest & lower body
3rd day – biceps, triceps & abs
4th, 5th, 6th day repetitions.
7th day off.

It very hard for me to make abs. Since I had enough fat over my belly to cover up the abs muscles. I remember watching Aamir Khan exercises on tv to promote Ghajini. The Ghajini fever was there for a long time. Still I went on with crunches & leg raises.

05 gathering introduced me to the ramp. I never had a good height to lead the ramp. Only thing I could possibly excel in on-stage was the body show. Yes, it did give me a purpose for doing gym. During 05 gathering I built up like any WWE wrestler or any movie actor. Not having a well defined body. One thing was sure. Girls appreciate a lean trim body. The one having a good torso will be the show stealer. & so expectations were high on Mahajan sir. As usual the bare chest round was the last of all events. The best show. The last one, but surely not the least. It always used to be the main event of the night, kept for the end to keep the public sitted. & we reached back stage. I planned up for tattoos. Like Randy Orton. Or like Batista. Or like Sylvester in Expendables. Gajender made the Punisher Skull on my back. But the sweat alongwith body oil washed off everything.
On-stage behind the curtains, I remember Mahajan sir’s words – “see how the hooting starts. We always make the best shouts & applause. Just see the reaction of the girls.” The curtains opened. The it was as expected. But I surely panicked. I didn’t know what was going on. “Rambo, Rambo” shouts came from boys side. But “Mahajan, mahajan” shouts from girls’ side overshadowed it. I realized I was in for a competition here as well. Comparison always sets in when you place more than one bare chest on the stage. The public starts allotting marks on how good which body part looks of which bare chest. I did enjoy it very much. But I just knew, it wasn’t a good one for me. The best was yet to come. Next year. That was the 06 gathering. Our batch gathering.

& it all started over again, with my exams getting over & myself back to hardcore gym. This time it was totally hardcore. I tried to put my body to as much stress it could possibly bear. The schedules were there. So were all required tutorials for a good body. Actually I developed a perfect knowledge about body building from the book &internet. I didn’t need to go World Gym, the best gym at wardha. The gym produced champions every year. I didn’t have much money with me. One new thing I learnt by the time. To make a good body, alongwith hard exercise, what you need is ample of money also.
I did meet the world gym instructors. They also offered me guidelines. They were a lot helpful. I started with Whey proteins of British Nutrition. I didn’t need mass gainers. What I needed was pure proteins. As much protein I could pour into my body, that much better it is. Those were the words of Tushar Prem Borkar. The early reaction of proteins was truly aweful. The muscles started getting bulkier & harder. I was just loving it.
& soon I reached the very phase which bodybuilders refer to as the Plateau Stage.
No matter how hard you try, you find it very difficult to build up beyond what you have developed. It was very hard for me to get over it.

With frustration, I started creatinine. Alongwith whey. I changed the brand. This time it was Optimum, the costlier one. I was very much aware of the side effects of creatinine. Namely kidney failure. But I was prepared to take the bull by its horns. I increased my work out timings to 2-3 hrs. Increased the water intake. Avoided all junk foods. As much sprouts, chicken, eggs I could possibly take. Eggs. The worst thing about it was the yellow portion which had tremendous fat. So in the very expenses of an egg, we needed to take only the white of the egg. As time passed, I tried glutamine. I just wanted to be as heavy as I could.

On the other hand study loads were killing me. Opthal postings surely were. Morning & evening clinics. Surely not a joke to do that alongwith heavy gym work out. I needed to cut on my fat. So I took to morning running again. But the bad thing I was facing was the pain in leg due to weight liftings at gym. So knew running was going to be much helpful. I decided to take swimming instead. & thus the schedules became an absolute nightmare.
Get up early morning at 5am for gym upto 9:30. then clinics. The post lunch classes. Although I tried to bunk as much classes I could to take out time. Then back to gym at 4pm again. Then off for swimming at 5pm. From there back straight to evening clinics at 7pm. Used to come back from there by 8pm. Then dinner. & then again run for gathering practices till night 2am.

Being the fashion show in-charge was making everything even more hectic. But I loved it because I was getting to do whatever I wanted to.
As per the early plans, I was going to put a pose up like the Mr. Universe contestants –
Double biceps shot
Lats wing spread
Side triceps
Side chest
Most muscular pose
The Hulk Hogan pose down
Abs shot

The new star was Supratim Roy. He was gonna join me up on the ramp. The guy had a wonderful V shape. With his height & biceps, that guy looked like he is gonna give me a tough fight in body show. The 04 era ended out with Yogendar sir, Atul sir. The 05 batch era ended with Pawan sir & Mahajan sir. The 06 era started with Bagadiya & moved to Rambo era (myself). I had to put up a bunch of debutants who never touched the ramp before that. Girish, Ramesh, Shridhar. The real challenge was to put up Baghel for a ramp walk. Cause the guy was physically handicapped, had problem in right leg (polio). I had to create a bunch of hooligans for the success of bare chest round. Like every year, a scapegoat was required. In 05, it was Narjon sir. I brought Mahesh from 1st year. Yet he did well, inspite of the mild faults.

Overall I was looking forward to build up like a real pro bodybuilder. Like what Tushar Prem Borkar did. Ofcourse it didn’t happen in the end. People kept telling me to loose bulk & show up like Shahid Kapoor, Hrithik, Enrique, Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum, Daniel Criag. I knew it wasn’t possible for me cause I was bulky by birth. If also to do something like that would have required me to take fat burning pills, which were very much expensive. Or do liposection like Sohail Khan, Salman Khan. I was looking forward to go onto the 2nd level of proteins – the Iso saturates. That was very costly – 3000 bucks for 1kg. Pro builders go for the 3rd level – the Super saturates. That was even costlier. & taking steroids was surely out question. I didn’t want to die.

In the end, when I could not make a dream body, I just wanted to finish the gathering anyway possible. My biceps did measure 16 inches. Normally I am 14 inches. Chest measured 45 inches. Normally it is 40. Walking straight onto the end of the ramp & making it look attractive just required a good torso, which involved chest, abs & big broad shoulders & preferably a V shape made by wide dorsi. The side intercostals & triceps added sharpness to this wonderful look. Trapezius looked good except its not too big like Brock Lesnar.

Lower body wasn’t of much importance cause we were not to show an underwear. Still we boys used to love it to wear a low waist line with the branded tag peeking out. Specially Calvin Klein & Jockey.
Body oil always was a piece of excitement for us. Although we used to use a cheap coconut oil mostly. In some cases groundnut oil.
Going out with the girls & introduction of girls in bare chest round did change the idea of bare chest round as all boys only.
I had to take care of not rubbing against the girls anywhere, otherwise the oil could definitely spoil anyone’s dress. I remember during the backstage preparations prior to the Inferno round of 05 gathering, Akshay sir kept shouting – “beware of bare chest. Their oils are making our suits dirty.”
Another problem was the smell factor. Leave it.

Backstages were like, take off the shirt, do some pumpings. You stand infront of the mirror & make your hairs. Gel & water. & the other guy would take care of your body oiling. Oils drip from everywhere. But we want even more oil. We want to create hell. Making a Spartan like look did make an innovative idea. But for that what we needed were good thighs & absolutely sharp abs with marking intercostals. So that wasn’t feasible. We preferred jeans pants. & I tried to emulate the Salman Khan clothing from Veer or the Prince of Persia stuff waxed with WWE entry & style.

& who can ever forget the the hair waxing experimients. My hairs never got out by hair remover creams. I had to use blade. The body would smoothen up, build up, shine up. As if you have become a superstar the world wants to crown. That is the the ultimate feeling to stand & keep staring at the mirror, looking at yourself, shirtless. The guts. The curves. Everything is so beautiful.

The most exhausting & exaggerating thing was to take care of your belly. No food for 2 days. Atleast on the day of bare chest round. Starve as much as you can. & that is what I did. Alongwith spend as much time as you possibly can in gym before hitting the stage.
That was the reason why I was left out totally dead after the completion of the Heaven Hell round. I finished it at 10 pm & came back to hostel with all my stuffs. Had dinner at mess. & went off to a deep sleep at 11pm. Unlike others who partied after the gathering finished at 12am & returned at 2am.

I will always miss the bare chest round at the fashion show of MGIMS annual fests. For the time being that I found my batchmates, juniors & seniors cheering loud for me. Showed me the love I had. Its like speaking up like Mickey Rourke in the movie The Wrestler – “you people are everything for me.” The whole college knew me by that identity only – Rambo. No one knows the real name – Arnab Kumar Roy. I am that fellow who walks down the ramp with big bulky muscular body, short height, dark complexion, shinning brightly with the oils & water all over the bare chest body. We evolved. It gave me a reason for a hardcore gym. The way Michael Jackson jumped out from underground on-stage at the Dangerous performance at Bucharest, the way Triple H makes his entry on the track – Time to play the Game, spitting a bottle of water. Or call it Guns n Roses performing, Axel Rose & Slash going wild, Bon Jovi rocking. Stages are really a life to live. Though I created enemity with almost half of my batchmates & didn’t expect them to howl for me, I got a clear & a hearty applause from the junior most batch to the post graduates. I remember my Fmt lecturer Dr. Vishwajeet Pawar – “when is your show? We are waiting for it. After that I will take my kids home.” A silent crowd gone wild always shakes up the stage. Your performance on the stage speaks by the reaction of the public. I wish I could have lived these moments forever. The craze for being physical is never dying. It keeps asking for more & more. At one point of time, it did come to my mind to go into this field of professional bodybuilding, cause I loved to be physical & to put up all the exertions required for being something like that. But I remember, while doing the crunches for abs, it just srtuck my mind - perhaps my father chose the best line for me. Sitting on the table & chair, with ceiling fan above & lights, yearning to be a doctor, all you got to do is study books, is far more easier than working out behind your body for perfection. Being a bodybuilder is almost close to being an artist. You become the sculptor of your own body, cutting out unwanted parts like fat, adding on the required stuffs like muscle masses, through hypertrophy. There are ways easier than to be a bodybuilder, to lead a prosperous life. Bodybuilding is surely one hell of a kind. But addiction & love knows no reason. The love to see yourself built up & the addiction for more & more. I am thankful to God for making me this much & keeping praying for more. Amen

Lonesome Clouds

“Clouds heap upon clouds & it darkens

Ah, love, why dost thou let me wait

Outside at the door all alone?

In the busy moments of the noontide work

I am with the crowd, but on this dark lonely day

It is only for thee that I hope.

If thou showest me not thy face, if thou leavest me

Wholly aside, I know not how I am to pass these

long, rainy hours.

I keep gazing on the far away gloom of the sky,

And my heart wanders wailing with the restless wind.”

                                                                                        -Tagore

These are favourite lines from Gitanjali, page no.18

Have you seen how the rainbow disappears? It becomes smaller and smaller, cutting slowly over its great length of great arched bow across the sky. And when it reaches its saturation, it starts dispersing. Just like how ice melts away. Suddenly the rainbow starts screeching out sideways. Its becomes very much apparent that the rainbow wants to go off, as it has stayed up there for a long time. It may not be long, but its always an honour for those who are lucky enough to catch the pretty glimpse of the rainbow. As it comes only in rains & that also not everytime. Only when you have rains & the sun successfully peeking out of the clouds.

“But ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday.”

Sung by Bill Withers. But the versions I have is one by Cat Stevens & the other one by Kenny Rogers.

Today I saw her again. & she spoke to me. What was her intention I don’t know. But it rang the rhythm again, all of a sudden. Just because I wasn’t expecting her to speak to me.

Last night was great. It did rain again alongwith a sudden storm just at the fall of the darkness. But somehow I felt that I will be able to get my friends for a dinner outside at Gulshan. And we did. Inspite of the mild shower. And the back of my white shirt got sprinkled with muddy water splashed by the bike Ankush was driving. Rathore & Abhijeet didn’t make it. So left were just four of us. Its always heartwarming to have the Sunday night out for dinner with friends. We do get a lot to share. Ankush is surely the great one. You never feel bored to be with him. Same as of Amit. They are always able to raise the toast of spirit of the company. Unless they themselves are done with sadness.

The girls took off to nagpur. & so did the Ankush girl. It was Friendship Day yesterday. & he was ringing up all his old friends. Finally he broke out at the hotel. He was feeling deserted. Just because she left him for one day. Nitesh joined in. Joining hands with Ankush, bit consoling him, bit sharing his ones. The topic was – how you feel when distance comes between you & your lover. & left were the two of us. Shridhar & myself. Surely we didn’t have anything to say. Cause we were the single ones. If also we miss someone, we don’t have any official reason to say anything about that.

& now it has started raining again. Though a milder one. The sky is down with dark clouds. Just minutes ago I saw the rainbow. Evening time. I went to the roof to dry up the sweat after gym. & before that, I watched P.S I Love You. 

Nostalgic. Surely I am.

Lovelorn. Hell I am.

Kick off love. Lets talk about home.

The train I can see far away is the Gitanjali express. Time is 6pm. It is zooming fast through the sevagram fields gone green with the rains. The train will reach Bilaspur by midnight. Feels like take a long leap like Superman from the hostel roof straight to the train top & say goodbye to college forever singing Home by Chris Daughtery.

Home is heaven. No doubt. For me. My Bilaspur is heaven. Nothing compared to that. Not that you will find any holy place out there. Or any mountain, river & any worth sight seeing spot. Its heaven for me, just because I was born & brought up there.

My house. Not my parents’ house. They want to sell it. & though I don’t agree with them, surely I can’t help it. I will always miss that place. My house is younger than me. By few months. The tree infront of the main door is as old as me for sure. It is called Jhau Gach or the Ironwood/ Beefwood. When I was young, I used to compete with it – lets see who gets taller how fast. Cause we were of same age & height. Almost. Actually the tree was shorter than me. Time passed. As I got busy with studies & didn’t even get to notice when the tree overtook me. Now it stands 12 feet tall. & I am. 5 foot 3 inches. Great.

My bicycle. Earlier one was BSA-SLR. Light’n sporty. That was what written on it. I rode it for 4 years. Where didn’t it go with me. Just like my laptop, my bicycle would surely cry – when will this kid stop torturing me? Where didn’t I take it. Places where no vehicle can possibly go. Across the farm lands. Over to the old tank. & the river Arpa. I almost tracked the whole length of it just on my bicycle. The villagers used to stare at me, thinking – this kid must have gone crazy to come this far on cycle. & the fateful accidents. It was Wednesday morning. The sweepers were sweeping brooms on street side. Shops were still to open. 7 am. I was glancing at the temple & from nowhere this 23 yrs old guy drove his scooter into my front wheels, leaving them crescent shaped. They say he was carrying 2 kids behind him, both of them were thrown away with head injury. I didn’t see any of them. Cause all I saw after the fall was that my dear cycle was crashed & I couldn’t even stand up. It was my right knee. The doctor told my father – be thankful to your son that he is healthy enough. The fat saved the patella from fracture.

It was 10^th std that I bought Hero New Devil. Thick & strong like me. It was just the kind I needed. Although I was looking for the types shown in Pacific Blue on AXN. & then again I back on the streets to set them on fire. No vehicle can back me where there are bumpers & potholes at every step. On such streets the cycle rules. Eventhough I did meet another fateful accident. Fateful because I met it a day before leaving for college. I got up cursing the bike fellow, not realizing how much hurt I was. My new pant got torn. As usual it was elbow again. And my t-shirt got red with blood from my face.

Arpa river has got full of water. On account of the check dam built few years backs. Otherwise in school days we enjoyed playing on the sandy banks of the river. 

It has got water upto the brink now. No sand now. Trees, swamp all around. Sand will be visible nearby Chouksey engineering college. It was right from there I traced it down to where it meets Hasdeo river. Gataura station was also within my reach everytime I went cycling outside Bilaspur.

As everyone else, I too miss school days. Bharat Mata days. I didn’t like primary days much. They made me the Head Boy in 5^th std. Though I hold most negligent head boy record & the most studious head boy the school ever had. 

Middle school was surely the memorable one. 8^th std was the best of all. Allover I was the big bully guy. Always beating up someone. Breaking noses & teeth were a common thing for me. Every second day complaints used to reach my parents. 10^th was the last of my school days. Kota days weren’t bed of roses. Although they were memorable, they made memories of long hard struggles.

& I miss the television at my home. The model set was Sony Trinitron 21’. When I was in my 4^th std, my grandfather bought me Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. After that I just got addicted. David Copperfield, Tale of Two Cities, Christmas Carol, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn followed. Following them were Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Tempest, King Lear, R.L.Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, Enid Blyton series & many more. This addiction made U turn when cable connection entered my home. Then followed WWF, Cartoon Network, HBO, Star Movies, AXN etc. Most memorable times like Tomorrow Never Dies shown on new year night of 2000, Titanic on new year night of 1999, Waterworld on 2001, watching Desperados at midnight, the track from Gangs of New York – Hands that built America by U2, the WWF six man cage fight between Rock, Austin, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Triple H, batman spiderman Xmen cartoons always make me homesick. Mtv videos of Bailamos, Nsync’s Bye Bye Bye always made classroom discussions. My dad used to take me to theatres for movies like Anaconda, Jurassic Park. My mom hated them.

Another thing to miss is the Durga Puja of Bilaspur. Over 500 pandals by more than 1 lakh Bengalis & others. The sound of the dhols. The pushpanjali. The early morning chants on Mahalaya. The rush for the bhog. The crowded evening streets. The long night traffic on the lighted streets. & then the immersion in river Arpa. Then came Dushera. Dad used to take me to the stadium to see the big burning Raavan. Then came the cold nights illuminated in diwali. Following them were shivering winters. Then the spring. Spring used to be truly beautiful in Bilaspur. We used to get long Christmas vacations coz ours was a missionary school. Then holi. Then deadly summers. The noon sun of May month could kill anyone. Then came rains. 10 days of total nonstop rainfall with no view of the sun for 3weeks. & then autumn leaves fall.

The clouds of Bilaspur always made the best shapes I have ever seen till now. The western skies. I always ended the whole day gazing at it only. Reason being, mornings too busy to see the east. & the back of our house was built in a totally open space. All my dreams, wishes, frustrations would be shared by me with the western sky only. I was 12 years old, when we got the view of Saturn, Jupiter in the sky. They would shine like the brightest star ever.

My study chair & table. Actually it was the dinning chair & table & dinning room where I used to study. 

& my mom used to cook foods in the kitchen right infront, checking over me every minute. The windows on my side showed the sky straight. My surroundings used to kind off huts or cottages, u can’t exactly call it slum. They were the working class laborers. So whenever a kid was born in their community, or any occasions like marriages, they used to blast music. The chattishgariya songs mostly. Sometimes good hindi songs. I miss the spring time of class 8, when nearby some good household was celebrating by playing the indipop songs. The weather used to be mild, windy, with the songs of Adnan Sami & Sonu Nigam.

Of my friends, I miss Abhinav & Pranay the most. Though presently, my parents like the 1^st one but hate the 2^nd one. I remember, back in kota, after exams I went to meet pranay at talwandi circle without telling my guardians & all hell broke loose. The DIG of kota police leapt into action coz I went missing for 6 hrs. Back at school, me & abhinav formed the boyzone group, which the girls reffered to as bal brahmacharis. Coz our anthem was not to be in touch with any girl. The guy breaking the rule would be put out of the group. & surely the group worked well coz we had the most powerful ones, physically & in studies as well. After we left school, surely the teenage excitement set in. That was one hell of a thing we missed in kota.

Days have gone. Everyone has undergone unexpected changes. May be more changes are yet to come. Till the time life is, we keep growing & aging, & things keep happening. Nothing is static for sure.

So. Its still raining here. I guess it will rain whole night.

Lets stop here. Will write again later. Gotta study now.