DN8

Hey guys, a poem after a long time. Enjoy but just one thing, don't ask me to justify the title
:P

DN8

Walking once again, down the memory lane

I stumble on a page where I miss a dear friend
I found her by chance, I chose to stay
and now I miss her, when we are away.

There came a time when I had to choose
Between her and another friend, one I had to loose
she tried, in gain, to keep me near
which laid the foundations, of a friendship very dear.

Her constant chats would irritate me though
but even without them, time just wouldn’t flow
I never realized, when the talks became sweet memories
it was like a breeze, which would come and go.

My sweetest memoirs with her,
are nothing but simple walks to the bus stand together,
but even now when I go on lonely walks
my ears yearn to cherish her beautiful thoughts.

We teased each other, on small lil’ things
and derived the pleasure, such small talks bring
as if our talks had no end
And today, I miss those days, and I miss my friend.

When faced by problems, we used to share
one’s troubles, the other would bare
She showed me how much, just listening can mean
‘cause even when you cant help, you can still care.

Not that we did not make any mistake
but even with gold, some coal one does rake
but a friend is one, who can forgive easily
as bonds of trust, on frail accidents don’t break.

We had our problems, and faced them brave
and even if we fell, there was someone to save
We cheered the other up, when days seemed low
I never realized those moments, were the ones which made the bond grow.

She said I was helpful and honest
I believe her to be sweet and pure
She said one was lucky, to have me as a mate
But alas! it came to an end, my fate I regret.

Sometimes it happens, that good friends loose touch
are remembered seldom, and missed very much
sometimes you need to walk back, just to say a “hey!”
might not mean much to you, but can make someone’s day.

And so once again, I walk down memory lane
and stumble on a page, where I miss a dear friend
I found her by chance, I chose to stay
and now I miss her, when she is away.

- Vishal Gupta

Nomadic Existence - Part 3

It was another day of my life at IIT Kgp. I get up and see my curse the alarm clock waking me up. 7 AM! It stared back at me. I still have one hour and thirty minutes till classes start. I can get up at 7:15 and make it. I go back to sleep. At 7:15 the clock is again asked to wake me up at 7:30. I was living a basic IITian life. Finally at 8, I woke up, terrified. I’d wasted so much time here. I immediately sprang up from the 5’6’’ cot supporting my 5’10’’ frame. Rubbed off the dust from the clothes I was to wear. Changed. Picked up my toothbrush. Rushed to the bathroom 70 feet away from my room. When I came back I remembered. My roomie! He’d asked me to wake him up for the class today. Somehow the squeal of my alarm clock was incapable of waking him. I shook him. No effect. I kicked him, nothing. Kumbhkaran had finally taken over my roomie. I had to take the ultimate measure now. I emptied his bottle of water on him. He shook. Looked at me the same way the gatekeeper had once. Before he could say anything I gave him a Godzilla look and said, ‘attend a class at least once.’

‘You know my signature. Proxy,’ and with that Mr. Sleepyhead drifted back to neverland again. After the first week he’d announced, ‘these teachers don’t teach anything. They can’t match my speed. I can study without them.’ And he’d stopped going to classes. Now he attended labs. Only labs. Me? I accepted I’m no intelligent specie. Maybe the OMR I submitted in JEE goofed up the computer well enough to make an opposite decision for me and get me selected. I went to class. When I came back my roomie was happily playing counter strike on his laptop. The day his chachaji left, just before leaving he handed over a beautiful Del laptop for my roomie. When he left, my roomie had tears in his eyes staring at the laptop. When he turned that machine on, he magically went into a different world leaving his body behind. He never responded to me unless I’d add a few slangs to my words. I asked him if he’d go for lunch today. No reply. Another thing I found weird about my roomie. He never had lunch or dinner, never mind sleeping through the breakfast and was never hungry. But I never had the opportunity to question the body of my roomie. At 1:15 PM I left for the lab scheduled at 1:30 and I knew he’d reach at least by 1:40. He was never late by more than ten minutes. After the lab we came back and my roomie was again drifted to the world of no worries. I completed enough assignments to let the prof keep me in the class for the next day and then went off to the next room to bhaat. In case you don’t know, bhaating is THE activity of Kharagpur.Bhaating means a herd of IITians sitting down in a room and chat about everything which can matter to us. From the placements in final years to the length of the dresses of girls wear. We talked about it all. Somehow I found these bhaating sessions utterly ridiculous and couldn’t stand for more than 15 minutes but I couldn’t leave the group. But soon it all started to make sense and now, I also interacted. And I knew all there was to know, or at least as much as my wingies (neighbors) knew. When we grew tired of bhaating we turned on the ‘best’ Hollywood movie which was a must watch and which none of us had seen. By 1 AM that would end and I’d come back to my room. Say goodnight to the body of my roomie and would goto sleep.

Friends

Here's my newest. Well not exactly 'mine.' Dedicated to all my friends, specially Shubham who helped me make it and to everyone, who inspired me for it.

Nomadic Existence - Part 2

If I’d thought that was bad enough for a start, I couldn’t be more wrong. Three days into my IIT life and I was approached by this senior who asked me to shift. I had been allotted the wrong room and as they are running through a management crisis I’d have to be shifted to another room on a temporary basis till I get my final room. For all non-IITians reading my article, it should be understandable that it is not an everyday affair you shift all your luggage to another place just waiting to be shifted again. Plus, it wasn’t my fault that they were facing a crisis. You have a problem – you sort it out. Why bother me? But that’s one of the first things you learn in college. Seniors are always right. A senior’s words have to be followed by anyone willing to stay alive till he gets his degree. I did not. I went straight to the manager and told him my situation. He looked sympathetically at me, picked up his phone and called someone. Within five minutes the senior appeared inside the manager’s room. I later realized that he senior is the hall’s maintenance in charge and who goes to which room is his decision. So the manager didn’t have the ‘power’ to oppose the decision and I was given a time of 36 hours to shift. Now I had two options, either to shift as they say with all my luggage, or don’t and wait and see what happens. I went to check out the new room. It was double the size of my current room. Double the amount of dust. Both window panes broken. More graffiti and more nudity. But what left me bewildered is already some luggage was kept in that room. That room was meant for four people, not two. My immediate reaction was that four people cant live together! Its against humanity to make four people live in a cramped situation like this. Plus one roommate was bad enough for me. I don’t think I’d be able to take on more. I talked to my roomie about it. We decided to wait. The next day morning the senior came to check if we’d shifted. We had no option. We started the procedure which took five full hours. Finally, we had packed again, shifted from C-311 to C-334. This, when I was starting to get attached to C-311 which I thought will be my new home for years to come. Thankfully, the new room was on the same floor so we didn’t have to take the suitcases and bags through the stairs. None of the seniors which made us shift came to help us. As seniors, they were already helping us, by teaching that we will have to carry our loads ourselves in life. What they forgot to tell was that it is the seniors themselves who bury us with that load.

We never got to see our new roommates ‘cause as soon as we’d shifted to the new room, the senior told us that since we were so keen on getting a permanent room, we’d been finally allotted D-121. D-121! Right now I was on the 2^nd floor of C wing. Now I’d have to take all my stuff to the ground floor of another building 50 metres away. You’ve got to be kidding me. But they are seniors. And seniors don’t kid. They order and we have to obey. After 6 different hours, we were finally in our new room. D-121.

Nomadic Existence - Part 1

C-311

I liked the sound of it. 311 was the number of my previous room too and now in IIT Kgp I was again given this number. Perhaps just a coincidence. But whatever it was, I liked it. I signed the register for room allotment and asked for the keys. The gatekeeper of the hall looked at me as if I had asked for one of his lungs.

‘Your room partner has it,’ came the straight reply.

Now where did that come from? I haven’t seen my room partner (or roomie as I now call it) yet. I asked where was he supposed to be. Again I got a frown as large as the Huangpu Bridge. Something told me that this gatekeeper wasn’t very much used to questions.

‘Gone for the registration,’ another flat reply.

My IITian brain started to tick. The registration started at 9 AM. Mine was over by 10:30. Now I’d even had a small chat with some teachers (which I later realized are to be called Profs) in my department and wasted a lot of time finding this hall. For some reason, everyone who heard I was a first year and was trying to find out my hall was guiding me to a hall named triple m hall of residence though the website clearly stated I was not going there. Finally I’d found my hall. It was 12:30 PM now and this guy had gone for registration! With my keys! I knew it’d be tough to share a whole room with someone. I asked the gatekeeper if he had the phone number of this guy. He looked as if he was going to freak out now. How dare I ask such a personal question. Had I no ethics. He looked as if he would have smashed me with his palm. He lifted it up and took out another register. God he had so many registers. I wondered if the gatekeeper was on leave and the accountant had been made to sit in his place. He opened the relevant page and put his hairy finger on a line (yes his finger was hairy). I saw the name. Akshay Goenka, 09AE1034, 09747217986. I dialed the number. A voice which could have easily been personified to the Arbanian mountains replied.

‘Yes. You must be Vishal Gupta (how did he know!). Yes, you must be wanting the keys to our room. Yes, we are coming. We are just having lunch. Yes, we’ll be there in a while,’ and he hung up. I was like, ‘……’ What was I supposed to say. In all that running around I simply forgot I needed to have lunch too. Well, you are reminded of lunch only when you have your keys.

After around one hour, I was walking towards C-311 with Akshay Goenka and his chachaji who I realized had talked to me on the phone. ‘Thank God,’ I thought. Else how could one have lived with Mr. Arbania for four years! Chachaji unlocked the room. Well, he didn’t have to as the door had enough cracks and one punch would have knocked it off its hinges for good. And that’s one punch by me, I wonder if a fly would be scared when Akshay slapped the wall next to it with his skinny hands. Finally, after three attempts, the lock guarding Ali Baba’s treasure opened and we were facing… an end. The room had ended before it began. 10 feet by 6 feet, I estimated. Two beds, one chair, one table, three cemented door less racks, hanging plasters, posters of nude girls from different parts of the world, graffiti, broken window panes, dust all around and no bathroom in the vicinity. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement. I wasn’t shocked. I was traumatized and I use that word just to make you feel the gravity of my situation. So here I was. One small room, one skinny roomie, one ton of dust, one lan port without a laptop and the nation’s best engineering college. My life had begun.