College days will always be college days and they are never going to come back, well ! rightly said. And I am going to miss them more and think about it even more because I know am not going to have them again, really envy those guys walking on the streets with college sack on their back, a lovely T-Shirt which shits the world with taglines that every time really enlightens you, I mean colleges are built for us to grow wiser and get knowledge of life and deeper insights into it. Where do I really find more insights about life than on a T-shirt, I mean ‘I was born intelligent, Education ruined it’ yes definitely did.. I mean I stand by it completely or you read another line ‘I Love you, so I think I will Kill you Last’ and that’s what most of us do, come on you find so many cultural representation too on them ‘You can Piss but you can’t Kiss in Public- This is India’ what can be more culture representative than the line… And not to forget the jeans, which needs to be so long that it should go right round your shoes and sweep the road, the shabbier the jeans get the cooler you become, well that was the logic then but I really wonder now what was that, was it really me, I mean I am not like that or am I ??
Well nothing seems logical today when we think about college days, no sense in those to-and-fro bike rides on the college road streets seeing girls, and hoping them to see us and remember us. I mean even if they would remember us we would be already gone on bike before they even get a good look at us and even if they remember they would remember my bike more than me because it use to shriek more and roll less- that’s how all bikes in colleges are, and believe me if you don’t have one you are just a bunch of loosers !! How stupid we look sitting on a road-side katta, bike parked in the middle of the road and just staring girls right from the extreme left to the extreme right while they walk along or drive along the road, I really thank those admires which has really made my neck go so strong. And all girls were distributed amongst us ‘Yeah meri red wali, who teri wali blue chaavi…, who teri 7439 wali’ Now this 7439 is her scooty number on the number plate, today you ask me my fiancés phone number and my reply will be ummmmm… Well amongst all those incidences and those faces and those stupid acts and stupid logics there were some things which you donot forget, there are some memories which simply don’t die, which simply don’t fade, which simply you cannot forget…
Winters are a lot more colder and the morning breezes really freezes your nose tip in Nashik, unlike here in Mumbai where there are just two seasons one ‘rains’ and second ‘no rains’. And nothing like a Garam Chai, in the college canteen be it morning, afternoons or evenings in Nashik winter the afternoons are too cooler but atleast you get enough sunlight to stand out in the sun and get yourself warm for a moment. So most of the times we guys would move to canteen, where you can see a lot of girls and all meri walis and teri walis, and winter brings in with it good appetite too, appetite for food that’s what am talking about. So lot of samosa chaats, dahi kachoris, ragda, pohas, pakoda, French fries and lot of guys and girls coming in groups to have those in the canteen. And we guys, typical mechanical engineers who are not even blessed by even a single girl in class of 60 students and when I mean girl I just meant an average looking thik thak types girl, even if we had a girls she may be the most disastrous looking or the dumbest on the planet, or if we had a girl in the class she would be just another guy.. ‘Tom Boy’…
I remember those days when we use to sit on the next table, just sheepishly staring at a girl sitting on next table, and building castles in air about she too admiring us, I still remember those lines ‘dekh usne meri taraf dekha tha…’ well anyone will when there are 10 friends sitting on your table and putting you on a string or ‘ uske aakhon mein mujhe mere liye bohat pyaar dikh raha hai…’ thank god woh behkar bahar nahi aaya warna yeah doob jata.. or ‘who sumbdi mein same wale table par aakar baithi’ man that’s the only table vacant in the canteen.. or ‘Usnein mujhe line denekeliye jagaha badli’ its winter buddy its already cold and bugger you have put ON the fan she is just running away from it.. or ‘Who mere piche piche itna door tak akele akele chalke aayi’ man the college had only one bus stop, she need to get the bus on time she surely would.. Well and this would all be discussed on one place that we call canteen on the table across sipping tea and having lot of fried chat-pata food. We all had a few weaknesses we all had a girl whom we use to admire and we all followed her on bike, went round and round about her house till we burn all petrol in our bike and try sitting just on the next table in the canteen, even order the same as she would or try getting bikes of same colour or number as she has. Just peeping at her and when she looks back you just act as if you never looked at her, you see her somewhere u act surprised to see her when you had agreed to all demands of a friend for just one tip where she will be in the evening, and everyday promise yourself that I am going to talk to her today and as the day goes down the promises would also be postpone to the next day and same will repeat, push and encourage your friend to do something about it and when it come back to you just sheepishly blush and move around or run away… A lot of incidences and lot of running around and a lot of fooling around.
Incidences would happen as one winter evening and me along with a couple of friends were waiting in canteen for the one girl to come in as it was break time for her, and as clockwork she came to have cup of tea, as all other tables were occupied she didn’t have another option but to sit on a table right across me. She ordered a tea and we ordered out god knows 10th or 15th tea of the morning well nobody except the canteen fellow remembers the count really, and just that she takes notice of me sitting across I ordered with a firm manly voice ‘Viju Ek Plate Samosa Chaat’ and the most surprising thing happened, something happened which made me and my friends just go into dead silence for a couple of minutes, she too ordered ‘Bhaiya Ek Samosa Chaat’ the canteen fellow had a look through the glass on the trays kept inside, then he turned his head into the kitchen and again stared back at me, he knew what that girl was meri wali girl and he knew that there was just only one Samosa in the tray, he said ‘bhaiya ek hi samosa hai’ and then the most shocking thing happened the next line that came changed everything I said ‘**name** ko dedo’ she was not my classmate, neither we were friends nor we had common friends and suddenly I realized I spoke out her name, I hoped she doesn’t come to me and ask how do you know my name?? what will I do if she asks me that, what will I say.. It was cold winter and I was sweating and sweating really really bad. She looked at me then looked straight at her friends they were smiling and then she turned towards me to and talked to me for the first time, for the first time she said something to me, she said ‘Thank You !!’ and I smiled back, well I wanted to say a lot of thing but the only thing I can do is grin back. After this I always thought and I always dreamt she could have said something better like may be ‘Viju do chamach dena, we will share one plate of Samosa Chaat’ or maybe ‘next time we will go out for a samosa chaat together’ or a lot many things and that could have become a start of my long and everlasting story with her, just me and her in all facets of life, we going together for MBA, we going together to college, we going together to canteens and all those thing we could be doing together… Hmm but none of that happed, only what happened was everytime I use to see him or go to canteen I would order ‘Ek Plate Samosa Chaat’ hoping someday she finds me out eating it and joins me with another spoon.
It has been 8-9 years and may be more if not less when it happened, I really don’t know where she is or what does she do, may be even I donot remember even her name or how she looked like or maybe I still remember how she looked, but today it really doesn’t matter or may be today I really don’t care who she was or she is not significant to my life anymore and even if I come across her I won’t be able to even recognize her. But still I regularly visit my nukkadwala chaat ki dukaan and still have ‘Ek Plate Samosa Chaat’ I don’t know why I do it, is it because in college that incident made me have it so much that I have got a habit of it, or is it because I like samosa chaat, or is it because my sub-concise mind just recalls that incident, or is it because I miss my friends and all time spend with them in college days on chai and samosa chaat, or is it simply because my nukkadwala makes good samosa chaat…
Well I don’t have the answer, and honestly probably I don’t want to know the answer as well. But yes today also whenever I do visit the chaat ki dukaan I order ‘Bhaiyaan ..Ek Plate Samosa Chaat…’
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