the 'paneer' syndrome..

Living a ‘hostler’ life is the best a student can get in his lifetime. Everything is so relaxed, full of randomness, without any orders, do-whatever-you-can types, the way we all like. But the only pain in the ‘arse’ during this honeymoon period is the time when your tifffin-wala without any pre-notice do not get your low quality, low hygiene food and you feel so helpless as if you have been deprived of something very precious . So, after a giving a round of “heavenly” curses, we all thought of checking out a new restaurant, Suraj. It was located at the basement of the hotel, so we jumped the steps and in hurry, Minku almost missed the glass door and banged on it. It almost cracked, oh not the door but probably some part of Minku’s brain but he religiously hid from us acting as if nothing happened.

The ambience of the restaurant was soothing and looked like a perfect place for candle light dinner. The later thought was originated by Rinku, the only stud of the group as rest all were dudes. We were already feeling the hunger thunder but a restaurant would take its own course on supplying the necessary food delicacies that would pacify your aggravating trouble. Sunny as usual the first do go when it comes to giving ORDERS called one of the persons standing at the counter. That person first ignored him but on continuous yell by Sunny, he came across and at his highest pitch which almost made us deaf told that he was not the restaurant staff but a customer. Buoy!!! That was gross.  We ordered the Special Suraj thali for each of us because of the unlimited amount of food you can have at a nominal price of INR 45. There was still some time before we have our food items cruised onto our table, so we started our usual leg pulling. Raju was the chosen one as he was constantly messaging some girl.

Raju, dude I also want to meet her, she is so pretty, shouted Sunny.

Dude, I think I’m in love with her. Rinku shyly spoke but his pitch was very high and almost every other person in the restaurant heard him.

Guys chuck it, let’s discuss something else. Last night, it was an awesome match and Nehra, dude, single handed demolished English batsmen.

Abe oye!  cricket k alawa bhi kuch dikhta hai kya, Raju spoke while typing something stupid for sure on his Nokia 1100.

Yeah, I can see your stupidity all around me. I came up with an instant shot and everybody started giggling so loud that we became the centre of attraction. And then the most awaited moment came, the food was right in front of us. Aroma as if straight from the heavenly kitchens and then there was no stopping. Paneer Butter masala was the best among the lot and was supposedly the speciality of that restaurant.  It came on and on and there was piling up of the dishes in front of all of us. 6-7 for each and it kept on increasing. It was as if the beast had come to party. Manager, Waiters and the customers were staring us and I am sure it was with disgust only. But we were enjoying feeding our ever hungry stomachs.

That’s 12^th one gone down the drain, one more please. Rinku beamed as if it was one of the proud moments for him.  Anyone game? By this time, we four had finished our dinner and were looking at him with full anxiety.

What is he upto today? Saala kitne dino se bhukha hai...I started the convo

Yes buddy, you can do it, atleast 15 should be the target. Minku was quick to add his stupidity

Oh shit!! Was there any competition? Nobody told me? I had a pao-bhaji plate with Babu before landing up here. Oh! Else I would have easily eaten 20 dishes of paneer. Sunny spoke in a depressing tone

While we three were discussing about the no. of dishes Rinku should have for today’s dinner, Raju had started texting someone again. Hey guys! Catch ya later. Got to go. Have some urgent work and there he ran.

Dude! I think he is checking out a chic of his branch. Why doesn’t our branch have some nice girl? Rinku spoke while finishing his 13^th dish.

Coz, they can’t handle guys who eat 13 dishes of butter paneer at one time. I remarked sheepishly.

Oh is that!! Bhaiya bas aur nahi chahiye. And there we finished our sumptuous dinner at Suraj

 At night, I felt a bit uneasy, maybe it was due to over-eating. I went to terrace and decided to walk for some time, the cool breeze made me felt a bit better.  It was around 11.45pm, through my room window, at a distance, I saw, a few low intensity bulbs shining right across and some ghostly figures out there on a terrace right across my room. I was terrified as I had heard that there was some accident near that area and the according to people living there, there were some haunted souls. The sight was so dangerous and then I saw these people lifting some-one and beating him up. Oh that might be someone who had been caught by these evil souls.I was highly perturbed by that act of inhumanely figures. After some time, they stopped throwing the body of that poor person and they started dancing. This was too much for me and at one go, I switched on all the lights of my room, threw water on Raju and Rinku to wake them up.

Kya hai be?? Raju groaned.

Shhh..see something is going on that terrace.

Wait let me switch off the lights.

And when I switched them off, there was nothing. What? Where are they? Have they evaporated or what?

I swear buddy, I saw ghosts out their dancing and throwing a body in air.

Shut up and sleep!

For the complete night, I tossed on my bed from one side to another with the thought of those deadly creatures dancing right in front of me. It was giving me real goosebumps and the acidity which was making me feel uncomfortable was taken over by these more radical and burning thoughts.  Next morning, I told everyone but no one believed. But I am pretty sure there was something happening that night but to be very frank, I am still clueless about it ;)

the ph(r)ase

On one of the chilliest winter night, while returning to his flat, Rajat got a call from his old school friend, Sunny who told him about his engagement with his girl friend.  He thanked Rajat because of whom the couple met some 3years ago. The two old friends talked for about an hour or so. It was quite late, next day being a Saturday, Rajat thought of watching some movie. He took out some old DVDs of animated movies, but somehow picked one of his all time favorite romantic movie, PS I Love You. He went to the kitchen to get some snacks and then played the disc. While the DVD player took time to load the disc, he stared at the cover of the disc. The title made him nostalgic as the phrase had a lot in particular with his life.

He dived into the memory lane which took him into his engineering times. It was his last year as a teenager and like all others; he wanted to get the most out of it. It’s not as if that was supposed to be the end of his fun times but then he would enter his twenties, meaning to be a lil more sane. But saneness came pretty soon to him and in form of something which he din’t think of in his wild imaginations. As a young lad, he never believed in so called love and always thought of it as something that would never cross his way. But then there was something that was destined for him and it came in the form of a girl who lived across his home. There was something in her which caught his attention. For the initial period, he thought that it was an infatuation. Later, he became so much engrossed with her that his life changed dramatically. He now started relating to typical bollywood romantic numbers, liked solitude, talked randomly for hours with ‘her’, talked non-sense most of the times, etc. The infatuation became more and more intense and it gripped him so much that now he started observing her daily routine; the time she wakes up in the morning and come outside her house, the time she worships the tulsi plant, the time she leaves for her college, when she comes back and the list continued.

He was dying to talk to her but there was no way out. Then one fine day, he mustered courage and called at her home. Luckily, she was the one who picked up. He blurted out everything on the first go and made his intentions very clear of befriending her.

Though at start she was reluctant but on constant pursuance, she decided that it would be only talks, may be on phone or chat and nothing else. For him, it was more than enough as he could atleast talk to someone he liked the most. While the frequency of talks increased with time, she became a good friend; atleast he believed that. Memories were afresh once again. He remembered how he used to call her and they used to talk at length. Discussing good and the bad times, laughing, mocking others around them but then it was never the same. The movie once again reminded him of the patience, the love, the dedication; the two souls in love had. Even after one of them died, the other kept on waiting and kept the love alive in Memories. He too had the same feeling for that girl to the fact that he didn’t think for anyone else for so many years though she never asked so and it was all one sided affair. And he always vied for saying this phrase to her and he did multiple times but she was unmoved. She was more of a practical girl who din’t believe in all this; he on the other hand, believed that one day she would.

It was almost 6 months he had last talked with her and that too when she wished him on his b’day. He searched her number on phone but then there was something which bothered him from inside. He stopped himself from dialing the number though it was right on his mobile screen. It was also very late and he had no reason to call her at this time. Their present relationship had many constraints and from starting it was based on some rules and regulations which were set by her. He decided to call her in the morning and with a light smile; went to sleep.

Almost a fortnight passed since that night and he almost forgot to call her. But then the day came when he finally decided to call her. He dialed the number but it didn’t connect. It seemed that she has changed the number but she dint ever bother to tell him. He had been talking on phone with her since last so many years, there were occasional fights over certain things and then for couple of months, no talks. But he used to break the ice by calling her again and rhyming his words with Sorry, and even that made him felt good. He went to terrace and with a sudden breeze, a sense of realization occurred to him that this is the longest time they had not talked since the day he approached her for the first time; almost 7 months. Owing to his very busy schedule, he didn’t get time to call. But she could have called him or atleast could have sent a simple message to say Hi!! Why can’t she break the ice for once?  It slowly occurred to him that off-late she used to call him only when she required something or the other done. He loved her once so he dint give much heed to these thoughts but still he had his concerns over her inconsistent behavior. Rajat was still on a dilemma whether he should call her or rather wait for some more time to check whether she is concerned for him or not. He was not sure about the duration of this wait but this time he was ready to take his chances.