This is not a story of courage or passion or endless love; it is merely a description of the things which happened to me during my stay at IIT Roorkee. I did ‘something’ inexplicable under insane innocence. I don’t want to classify those feelings or emotions,under the influence of which I acted. They were so pure to be polluted, so beautiful to be defaced. But categorizing everything is a human tendency after all. Society always gives a name to everything and then demeans it.
I have had three crushes in my life and the last one was a girl whom I saw in second semester of my stay at Roorkee and it was the strongest and the most permanent crush, for some time. It was a fine evening, clear and bright and it was the last day of THOMSO-05. For my friends, THOMSO (IIT Roorkee’s Cultural Festival) meant dancing like crazy on dance floor and it was same for me as well. There, just right there in the middle of the dance floor there was a girl, sipping a coffee. When the world was dancing, she was not. When I looked at her, there was a girl beside her, and that is when I thought “Teen Tigaada Kaam Bigada”. So, beside that girl with a coffee, stood my third crush. I was never so stunned; it was as if the earth stood still for a few seconds. I went forward without knowing what to do. I approached her and as always I faltered at the last step and started talking to the girl with a coffee instead. When she seemed helping I inquired casually about name and college of the girl beside her. I declared about my crush to my three friends; a soon-to-be bald guy, a thin one and a smart ass. I asked them what to do now. They were unanimous and they said they had a plan.
The plan was simple and pathetic, simply pathetic (of course I realized it later). As a volunteer for Security, we had a duty to streamline the flow of people and also to check the entry passes for main events. The last day’s main event was Exhilaration. The smart ass was a poly-man (one who uses politics in everything). So, smart ass arranged our duty at girl’s entry gates. According to the plan, I would be given the ‘chance’ to stand at entry gates and when that girl comes, I could talk to her. It was like ‘a date, at an entry gate’. The thin guy was very excited since he had, yet another, crush on the thin girl. Soon-to-be-bald guy was happy as well but because of unknown reasons. The smart ass had always been a happy man. What a good plan, I must have thought and so everything went according to the plan except the fact that the girl didn’t come to see our main event. More than insult to our Cultural Festival THOMSO, it was a deadly blow to the plan. I waited at the entry gate for the whole event. Dutiful Divjot Singh. I was sad and I had never been so sad. I told my friends about this and asked for their suggestions or opinions. Smart ass confidently said, scratching his back “It will be alright. It is just a temporary hangover.” The thin man looked serious and said “Let’s watch DDLJ”. The soon-to-be bald guy was confused and anxious and so he inquired “Tomorrow we have Dharmendra Singh’s tutorial, right?”
Then we went to Bus-Tea (a hangout near Roorkee Bus-Stand) for a party thrown away to us by our seniors. In the meantime I called the tall girl who was in her hostel. Since the I knew about the college of my third cush, I inquired the tall girl about the whereabouts of the team from that college. She told me that they had left for their college in the evening itself, just before the main event started. The tall girl was concerned and asked “what happened?” “Nothing. That’s the whole point”, I replied. I learnt the lesson harder way: “Thou shalt execute first, and plan later”
The tall girl and the thin girl tried to help me by making a hoax call to the college of my third crush and somehow they managed an e-mail id. I still wonder, “How did they do it?” Whenever I emailed to that id, it would rebound back but I tried. The mail would be a blank mail with just a ‘HI’ in it. I didn’t know what to write. I didn’t know what I wanted. Things went like this with stupider methods and ways but I didn’t give up.
Anyways, after a few months, the third semester begun and on a Friday evening I decided to go to the college of my third crush. I called the thin guy and asked if he would go. He was very enthusiastic and asked “When is the train?” “8’O’Clock”, I said. “So let’s go”, he yelled.
We rushed to the station, bought two tickets and waited impatiently. We boarded. As soon as we entered, we knew it would be a tough journey. I felt a need of an oxygen cylinder. The coach was filled with the smell of cow dung. “Either there is some huge pile of cow dung or a cow”, I guessed. “I guess both”, the thin man said. After a few minutes, we found one seat. It was a large seat and it was just at the entrance, near the door. We sat on the floor with our feet on the steps of the coach. It was comfortable and I could see beneath my feet, time was moving fast, may be too fast for me. After an hour or so, there was a half empty berth. Opposite to that half empty berth, a big ass man was sleeping on another berth. The thin man saw an opportunity there, since the thin man had minimal dimensions, he sneaked into the empty space formed between that big ass man’s relatively smaller legs and the compartment wall. I occupied the half empty berth. At 4:00 in the morning we arrived at the station.
We were tired and our clothes were stinking. “I have never felt an urge to bath. Never. Not even in winters, when I skip this mere wastage of water for six days. Not even in those days. Man, I want to bath”, thin man said. He was serious when he said this. “Six days?” I asked. “I mean it is O.K to skip three-four days. It is acceptable but six days is some figure”, I explained with a Better than thou approach. We searched for a bathroom and we found a majestic one. A wall with white tiles and two taps with running water, we did hit a jackpot.
The platform was empty. There were dogs, rodents and squirrels playing their usual hide and seek games. There was a half conscious drunkard, a fully unconscious man with a rugged and torn jacket, and there were two fully conscious lads planning to take an early bath. After taking a kind of shower, we now wanted a bench so that we can rest for a while before starting the journey. We sat on a bench under one of the sheds and slept. I woke up when the sun peeped through several holes in the shed and touched my eyes and whispered “It is time for the brightness”, and I rose. We reached the gate of the station and searched for a vehicle. I was excited, nervous and my thin friend was hungry. We scouted for some hygienic food stall but compromised on the hygiene part. We ate aloo ka paratha and dahi and then went out for a vehicle. After several rounds of bargaining, we finalized a deal with a Rickshaw puller. He agreed to take us to college for Rs 250. After one hour of journey, we reached our destination; College of my third crush.
……….Contd
