Good morning friends…!

Yadein- Part-II:

“Our sweetest songs are those which tell us of saddest thoughts!”

• P. B. Shelley.

When the accumulation of moment, the thought and intent are stored in the gigantic catche without knowing as to when the memory recall button had to be pressed the time was the student life! The air was filled with romance influenced by innumerable and unforgettable duets on celluloid depicting the verbal and more importantly non-verbal emotions of lover-beloved relationship which had an eternal effect in the heart of a sixteen years old who was learning the ritual of shaving. The young person in that stage was in a hurry to prove to the world that he had grown up!! He realised that there existed a feeling or an emotion which was not experienced till then, but the same was beyond the scope of explanation as far the details are concerned. Even more acute that was for a “boy next door” who was shy and introverted in nature. He was interested and curious about the subject “Chemistry” or “Rashayan” ,but was ignorant about inter-personal chemistry. That was the time in life every individual needs a coterie of friends or better it is if there existed a handful of closed ones.

The aspiring technocrat was lucky to have two friends in Siddharth and Shankar, the first more in touch by letters and the second a constant companion while the substructure of the project called “life” was under construction!! The first was a dictionary of sort for reference as he was like a mobile-encyclopaedia. He was equally good in English, Sanskrit, History, Mathematics or Physics. And because of that he was always in a confusion as to what to zero on as the career was concerned. In the following years, a student who was ahead of time in regards to his skill in English chose Physics as his subject for post graduation. No doubt he excelled and because of professional need had to join as bank officer for an earning. After brief stint there, he competed the UPSC examination and true to his potential came out successful. Siddhartha was always with him although not in person physically because of geographical barrier, but if ever I write about the teachers encountered in life, he will always be there.

It was Shankar who as a constant in the world of variables in Engineering student life, as a freak hero-like character as if reminding of Shakespearean line, “either you love me or you hate me, but for God’s sake don’t ignore me!”It was by design or default he was instrumental as a catalyst in transformation of a shy and low-key personality into an expressive and to a some extent opinionated character. It is strange matter that how two odd characters became friends, perhaps to prove the physical law of “…unlike poles attract”!!

Shankar also hailed from lower middle-class background and was attractive in looks, adventurous to the hilt. In the college just before the first of ten semesters designed for the graduation course we were to appear in, the administration came up with a notice on the board derecognising a few universities of which one was our new born NEHU. The first semester results were out which was more like a joint entrance for us- in the Physics paper, Shankar scored highest and in Chemistry yours truthfully did so. The University was automatically recognised by the Burdwan counterpart.

In Humanity class we were taught a rapid reader by the name, “An adventure of Huckleberry Finn”. This friend of mine was having other idea of adventurism. He proposed that in the wintry night in the Industrial township when the night shift workers were on their commutation on cycle,we would be snatching the worker of his valuables. The dry run was duly conducted under the direction of Shankar, but the true sense prevailed at the nick of time when third of the team reported it to other friends. The plan failed then and there although the memory of that potential catastrophe would be still haunting!!!

We were in our Engg Drawing class, he was narrating about his plan to design a revolving restaurant in lake and more importantly he was fore- telling as to how that would be patented. He was more like a news channel anchor who verbalises for 50 minutes out of alloted time of an hour an yet says he was not heard. If you hear, you say… “garbage in and garbage out.” You don’t, you wonder as if what you missed that night in prime time!

Shankar was interested in everything unless one fine day someone else became interested in him. It an odd combination, the girl was the only daughter of a renowned physician of our locality. She was of another religious faith and from a we’ll placed position in society to the extent in those days they were having a telephone connection as a symbol of affluence and clout in society. The heroine in Shankar’s life was true to her name… “Shabnam”. The first meeting or a mutual glance under the subdied visual capacity of a street lamp happened when Shankar was returning with his mother with a bazar bag in hand and Shabnam was escorting her mom and was going to attend a marriage party and was in a glittering dress. She was in the final class of high school at that point of time and it was known to Shankar as both were from same locality. Two mothers were discussing about most of the contemporary subjects women talk about and yet feel so much were not told. The younger individuals were first feeling little embarrassed and then started silent surveys at mutual level- the youngest of the four was playing a stellar role all by instinct. They say, “love at first sight, I say love at insufficient light!”

Following that what followed was an affair marked by love letters. Shankar used to show the notes from her which was a fortnightly event and Shankar used to take me to Benachity market to bribe me with 50gms “laal doi”. I had to really take preparation to write reply to the letters he received. I remember the first of the letter from Shankar’s fiance ended with a poem from Tagore, “What my heart longs for, you are him, exactly him…”.

I had to go through the music album and had to retort…

“ If I had to live my life without you near me.

the days would still be empty

the night would seem so long.

With you I see forever oh so clearly

I might have been in love before.

But it never felt this strong-

Our dreams are young and we both know they will take us where we want to go.

Hold me now, touch me now

I don’t want to live without you.

Nothing’s gonna change my love for you.

You ought to know by now how I love you…!”

• George Benson