Recollecting memoirs-3

Yaadein -2, 2nd february 2007

It was our white house.

Oh !

I forgot to tell you about the early days in that house.

That house was newly built.

You’ll ask then what’s the big deal ?

The big deal and the ironic part is that the white house has a very small house at its adjacent, even not the conventional house made up of bricks and cements but the jhopadi (hut).

The landlord used to live in it.

The fellow built a huge house almost having six big rooms but himself was living miserably in that jhopadi.

Athithi devo bhav. (Guests are god).

After living in kerala for almost four years, I agree. Absolutely. Malyalis are really very sweet and very humble to guests. The kind of their Athithi- satkar(welcoming guests) definitely finds a mention here.

But our Athithi-satkar (welcoming guests) was still due.

Those four shifted there, and then Vishal joined them. And of course, we were almost 24x7 guests in that house.

The land lord used to suspect that these fellows are paying for five people and 7-8 people are always present.

What’s the matter??

Innocent fellow.

But please don’t assume so.

He was so shrewd that he used to sit at the main gate and almost every time sneaking into that house from the back door.

Bad times of Swapnil. Every time he got crucified by that landlord for the unclean bathroom, rooms full of dusts and all others messy stuffs. And every time he found himself unable to save his soul because Swapnil pleaded in English and the bouncers used to came in Malayalam.

Aha!

What a comedy.

If Swapnil was poor then Sid was poorer.

One day when we were going back after having a nice evening, Sid was caught by the landlord.

The undertaker was on our way. I got escaped from his fiery eyes but Sid couldn’t prove himself lucky enough. He got summoned.

And then started the apki adaalat. I don’t know what the fellow was saying to Sid because all his bouncers were in Malayalam. I guess he was asking about the money as we used to live there 24x7.

Portray the scene of a concert.

What ??

Yes.

It was the concert.

The drums and pianos were in Malayalam and poor Sid was playing his flute.

And you know how this concert ended ??

Sid went moron and instead of playing his flute, he started talking in signs. He put all his communication and persuading talent [of course with hands and cute face expressions] in those 20 minutes.

It was thoroughly enjoyable.

But that apki adaalat didn’t affect our visits to the white house. We brought a malyali and conveyed our message that we are friends and we would come here again, again and again. If he would sneak or bother us, we would leave the house. The voice was united and he understood our bond and never bothered us again.

And the funniest thing that happened was we lost the keys of the front door and made the back door as the entrance. Its now three years and that gate is closed like that only.

We don’t bother about it anymore.

Actually we love to enter from the back.

Please don’t try to find the other meaning. It’s all about entering in the house only.

Anyway.

One day Sharad was standing in front of the “Department of culture and heritage” and was looking on the building. We people saw him and went there and started to read something on the building. But nothing special was there.

Sharad felt we were following him like stupids.

“What are you guys doing here??” he asked.

“Trying to read something.” We said.

“What??” he asked again.

“What are you doing here standing for the last fifteen minutes??” we lost patience and asked this question in full coordinated voice as nobody was daring to ask him. (Don’t think we get afraid of Sharad, actually we all are scared of Psychos. No offenses Sharad but you do behave like Psycho sometimes.)

He told us that he wanted to join the department as he was interested in learning a foreign language. We decided there itself that we all would join also.

Sharad was in favor of learning German. Vishal, the secretary followed him. But we were not interested in learning German. Rather the French, the romantic language. So four of us opted for the French language course and Sharad with Vishal went for the German course.

Classes of languages started.

For the first two weeks the attendance in the class was at its peak. But it started decreasing exponentially.

On the first day we learned the sentence “Je’m appelle… (Means My name is…)

We got the word but we couldn’t get the accent. And in the college we were showing off speaking to everyone the same sentence.

“Are you guys learning pashtoon (tribal language of Afghanistan)??” one fellow asked.

“No, not at all, but why ??” We said.

“Actually you all are speaking as if you are afghan pathan.” He said.

What ???

No wonder, we broke the leg of French language on the first day itself.

You must be thinking about Sharad and Vishal. Sharad as usual topped in that course with distinction. Vishal couldn't become the real deutsch.

But don’t assume that we couldn’t learn the language. We three became the best in French class after that.

Three??

Yes, three.

Sid stopped attending the classes as I and Sid used to live three kilometers away from the university campus. And we didn’t have bike or any other conveyance.

Walking on foot for twelve kilometers daily was not in his reach. Returning from college at four and going again in the campus at six was an exacting task for him. He used to fall asleep after coming from the college and getting up again for the French classes, No way.

Sanjeev , Swap and I were the regular ducks.

But when he bought the bike; he still preferred to stay at home.

I don’t know why ??

That was not the Deptt of cultural and heritage case when he missed the classes. There were regular classes even the most important, the lab sessions which were missed by him.

Why?

I think only Mr.Khushwant Singh can answer that why.

Sid got the novel “The Company of Women” and started reading it. He got so much engulfed in reading the novel that whole night he read and next morning no maai ka laal could wake him up.

We had the lab sessions on that day and he missed those.

You must be thinking that Sid is a guy who sleeps a lot and tires easily.

No, no, no, no, not at all.

Because as Sid makes himself busy with orkut, yahoo chatting and other internet stuffs for whole night, so I reject him for this award.

Swap, the hero is the most eligible candidate for this honor.

He has left some classes just because he was sleeping and when we tried to get him up he told us Main khush ho raha hu (I am getting happy) so let me sleep. Damn to classes.

Sleep relaxes everyone, which I know. But makes happy ???

Wow !!!