Nostalgic Summers......

It’s been more than a year in Bangalore. As much as I can remember, last year the summers were not this hot. Even people who have been living here for a long time say it’s the worst summer.
Well most of you will agree that summers in general are worse only. There is no other word to describe it. But these summers have brought a bit of nostalgia with it, especially after I started writing this blog so frequently.
How can someone say that summers are bad, when we get to have Mangoes in this season only. The king of fruits spreads its taste only in this “worst” season. I don’t know about others but I still remember, the electricity used to ditch late in the evening and we used to take our cots to the rooftop, while the little ones used to carry the mattresses and pillows. Lying there under the sky we never regretted summers and sweat. The breeze used to be moderate and the sky clear with all the glittering stars. I haven’t seen that clear sky in my last 4 years where I have stayed in Delhi, Surat and Bangalore. We all remembered so many of the constellations and the way to find them using the pole star. I can’t forget my Dad’s Nanaji, who was able to predict time with 5 min error just by looking at the stars. This amazes us till date.
How can we forget to mention the ice creams and baraf gola. I still hold the record of having around 15 – 20 ice creams in a day among all my siblings.
Having grown up in a village I had the rare advantage of taking bath in the tube well. Every afternoon we used to pluck tomatoes from the farm and burry them in the sand in flowing water. They used to get chilled in no time and then we used to enjoy them. Not to mention the melon and watermelons. I don’t think any other season can furnish us with the water filled fruit and you really can’t relish as much as you can do in summers.

Talking about college life and we can never forget the hostel life of summers. I started to stay in hostel during winters but as the summers approached, it became all the more unbearable. We were on the 2nd floor and the rooms used to get sunlight from all ends. By the time we went back from college, it transformed into an oven. So we preferred staying in the corridor and playing cricket all the time. We used to sprinkle water, sorry not sprinkle but nearly flood our rooms to get some respite while sleeping.

Then came the monsoon, ruining the flavour of mangoes and making watermelons inedible. Though the rain brought some respite from the heat but for fruit lovers the party gets over. Monsoon has its own fun but I still miss the college summers.

Himanshu (Lella) Episode.......

Most of the college time, or I should say all the time went in Leg pulling, Corridor cricket and hostel room discussions on specific topics. Of this the leg pulling was a major junk. No day ended without one or the other person getting irritated of our pranks. The leader was Nandi, me the pseudo leader, chotu ready with some inputs (which usually led to a shift of focus on him), Manu usually silent and Malhotra ready with his one-liners, which became the show stealers. One such incident I recall included nearly everyone and the target was Lella (Himanshu Aggarwl).

It was some time in 3rd year I believe cause I wasn’t a hostler then, probably 5th semester, A Hostel, Perry’s (Parminder Singh) room. For a change we all went for lunch to the hostel canteen. Some lectures were free so we thought of relaxing in the hostel casino (Perry’s room). It was summer and Nandi felt thirsty. Now he needed some one to fill up the water bottle for him. Among all, only lella was one whom he thought will do and it started. I don’t know why, but he didn’t want to bring water for Nandi. Here he kicked the sleeping tiger right in his butt. Nandi started and didn’t stop humiliating him about the food he had on some hostellers account. Well it subsided, but there was no stopping for Nandi as he started it off again while returning from the hostel. This time it went a bit too far and Nandi said something that irritated Lella. To top it I laughed and the blame suddenly shifted to me. Before I could even realize, Nandi had pulled the trigger off my shoulder. Now for all that happened for 2 hrs, I was the only one responsible and till date Lella believes in it.
This is one of the many incidents where the plotter was Nandi and I the pseudo plotter. Still I don’t regret even one moment, infact I relish them till date.

The beginning.... thanks to Nandi

Yesterday I happened to catch both Nandi (Dinesh Bharadwaj) and Chotu (Nitin Mohan Gupta) on gtalk. We started to have a group chat. I sent the link of this blog to Nandi and he made me realize a major miss. I had forgotten to write anything about the most wonderful 4 years of my, sorry our life. The chat became a bit nostalgic, including some fond memories from our last 2 years… well I don’t want to mention the topic… The major breakout was that Chotu sang a Hindi song on radio. Doesn’t really sound interesting, isn’t it. Well I know the reason, its cause most of you wont be aware of chotu. A little insight, and a dive in good old times.

Nitin Mohan Gupta a.k.a. Chotu. Quite, cute, adorable, funny, a little reserved, Green card Holder (had to mention) and fattu, some used to call him this but I’ll preferably put it as confused about his emotions and so acted like one. Recently with a breaking news he confirmed to all that he is no longer a fattu. He was dearly in love (infatuation I’ll say) with one of our classmates and whenever she used to step in, he used to sing “Suraj hua madham”. I know I am very besura, but chotu ruled. He was a veteran in the field. If you don’t believe you can contact Mohnish walia (Another veteran, but in the true sense). Chotu left for US around 2 years back (remember I mentioned green card holder). He is working there for some project company as a chemical Engineer and is always on a move. He is in Brazil at the moment.

Chotu sang a Hindi song on radio. Now there seems some interest building up, especially to the fact that the radio was of Brazil. He was trying to convince us that he sings well and that is the reason he is appreciated there and we never saw the talent in him and were always involved in making fun. We all can imagine the RJ’s condition and also of the listeners. We all used to support him in class just cause we were so used to leg pulling that we couldn't imagine staying away. Nandi used to lead the attack and always provoked him to sing. Today we are happy to know that we are not the only ones in the world who have gone through that torture. Thanks to the RJ friend of Chotu who gave him (us) this chance.

We have the fondest memories together me, Nandi, chotu, pandit (Manu Sharma, I like calling him Manu), Malhotra ji (Amit Malhotra).

This one has nothing special, apart from the fact that it marks the beginning of writing about those unforgettable years. I’ll make an effort to put all those memories here and weave a memoir of the passed years. Thanks a lot Nandi for the insight.