Tuku The Funda, Part-1

My dear friend Tuku, used to be quite a famous personality at hostel. He’s from one of the most famous town in Assam named Jorhat. People from Jorhat usually are very decent and they speak very sweet as well. The place can be kind of compared with Lucknow with it's sweet and Sudh Hindi, along with the traditional “Pehle Aap, Pehle Aap" decent kind of attitude of the people out there. It seemed Tuku was popular with the name Shiva in his home town before he joined the engineering college. But unfortunately Shiva name couldn’t become that popular in our college and he became famous with the name Tuku. There’s an interesting story behind the name Shiva. Actually Shiva is the name of one of the most famous Ram Gopal Varma  action movie, which was released when we were kids. The movie is based on college politics and is one of the best Indian action movies I’ve ever watched. In the movie the hero Shiva, use to ride his bicycle and in one of the scene, the goons wait for him with their hockey sticks and all. For all those who watched the movie might remember the famous cycle chain scene, where Siva use to pull his cycle chain in the very first attempt and roll it within his arm to take on the goons. Well, our Tuku was very much influenced with the movie and particularly with the chain scene. It seemed, once they had a fight at school and Tuku tried to pull the chain of his bicycle. He tried several times, but he just couldn’t pull the chain out of it completely. Well, from that day onward his school friends started to call him Shiva.

We were fortunate enough to have witnessed several interesting Tuku incidents at hostel. One day I was inside his room and was discussing about one of our batch mates and his extreme form of smoking habit. I commented about that guy and said "He’s such a chain smoker and how could he smoke two cigarettes consecutively, one after another?"

Tuku started to laugh with his typical and little weird kind of expression and replied "Hmm Hmm… Did you ever tried yourself or watched anyone in the hostel to have 5 cigarettes consecutively one after another?"

I replied "My goodness! No, never and I don’t know anyone who do like that. I mean, why the hell anyone would do that?"

Tuku started to smile with his trademark expression, with a little bit of proud self-esteem.

Well, guys usually enjoy to take pride about their consumption of heavenly spirits and the proud factor is directly proportional to the intake capacity. In one similar kind of incident, as some friends were inside a room and gossiped about the previous night party. One of the friends commented on a different friend "He's a damn tanky man and can consume hell lot of fluids"

It seemed Tuku didn't like those words much and asked everyone "What's the maximum number of pegs you guys ever had?"

Everyone got little confused and some replied as 5,6,8 etc. Few of them replied that they never counted as such. 

Then Tuku asked "Did anyone ever tried 20 pegs?"

Everyone was surprised and said "20 pegs? How could anyone have 20 pegs?"

Tuku started to smile with his trademark expression, along with those similar kind  of proud self-esteem.

In yet another incident that occurred during our first semester, some of our friends along with few of the seniors were enjoying their usual kind of spirit session in one of the rooms. I didn't have the opportunity to have experienced the delightful incident live and only got to know about that the next day. Tuku was narrating some of his heroic performances during his school days. The other guys listened to his stories with full concentration and enjoyed every bits of it. Tuku said that they used to have quite an infamous and notorious gang in his home town. Not only the common people, but even some of the policemen and local media as well, were disturbed with their activities. He continued to narrate his interesting stories and then he told about one of his best friends. It seemed his friend’s father was very much annoyed with him because of his daring activities and one day his father simply asked him to leave the house. So his friend went to Mumbai and had to struggle for a few months out there. But true talent never gets waste and one day his friend came in touch with the great D company. Within a few days after he joined the company, it seemed the D was very much impressed with him. Well, D used to be a decent guy those days and almost lived like the king of Mumbai. 

Tuku continued his thrilling story and said that one evening his friend was enjoying his drink with the D. 

D said to his friend "You are doing a wonderful job and I’m really impressed with your work. I really need more talented guys like you"

It was such a proud moment for his friend, but he was also very shy and replied "Aree Sir, Who am I? I’ve one very close friend from my home town and if you meet him and see his performance, you would simply go crazy"

D was very impressed and said "Aree Wah! Please bring your friend out here and I would love to meet such an individual"

Everyone in the room was pretty much excited and also sounded little curious. Some of them asked "Actually your friend was mentioning about whom?"

Tuku started to smile with his trademark expression and his self-respect was clearly visible on his face that moment.

Immediately the room jolted with all those applauds and someone asked Tuku "So did get any offer from the D company?"

Tuku replied "Yeah, last time I went home during Durga Pooja vacation, my friend was in town and he conveyed me with their offer. He tried to convince me a lot so that I could have worked with him"

Other guys replied "Wow! That’s really great. So did you accept the offer?"

With his usual smile Tuku replied “Are you guys mad? How could I join D company just like that? I mean its fine (little shy) Come on! I don’t want to join them”

A Sweet Barber

I was born and brought up in Bongaigaon, a quite well known town in Assam. Oh! It’s such a fascinating place and I’ve hell lot of memories about that place, stored in my brain’s hard disk drive. My parents stayed there for almost two decades and only when I was in my 4th semester of engineering, my father got transferred to Guwahati. Once they shifted to Guwahati, I always looked for some opportunity to visit Bongaigaon, but unfortunately I didn’t have much of them though. Once my parents left our home town, somehow their visit to Bongaigaon was also became kind of limited. My father already sold our nostalgic old house long time back and after his retirement about a couple of years ago, my parents preferred to settle out in Guwahati itself.

Life in Bongaigaon was quite different as compared to our present life. That was the time when there was no internet and perhaps, wireless mobile communication was a hot research topic those days. For us, our social networking was limited to schools, Sunday cricket matches and those regular kinds of evening sports at any damn playground. Our entire neighborhood was like a big family and every evening our house was blessed with one guest or the other. Quite often, even guests were also fortunate enough, as they had the opportunity to meet other guests as well, at the same time. Well, not only for our house, but it was the same story for almost every house out there. Being a house wife, it wasn't easy for my mother to have managed the house and the frequent guests. But like us, even our parents also enjoyed a lot those days.  Life was simple without much desires and people felt so much united within the neighborhood, despite those minor disputes among some of the mommies. I still remember how we used to wait for the evening load shedding. Well, the power cut gave us the opportunity for hell lot of fun, specially during summer, as everyone in the locality used to come outside their houses and strolled on that narrow road and used to gossip. Wow! That was such a wonderful moment. 

When I was in my 7th standard, my mom started to involve herself with an Woman Organization, popularly known as Mahila Samiti in town. Actually they worked mainly for the welfare and development of the children by organizing all sorts of competitions and cultural programs. That time my mom had the opportunity to interact with different sorts of people and one day, she interacted with one gorgeous looking and quite a fascinating lady. Well we used to call her Mazumdar aunty and she was gem of a person. Her husband was also quite friendly and they were blessed with two cute daughters. Maunder aunty was a very smart and modern kind of lady and she owned a famous beauty Parlor in Bongaigaon. Pretty soon, my mom got quite close to her. Well, they were kind of best friends that time and gradually both the families started to interact more frequently.  Once we left for our school, my mom regularly used to visit her parlor and stayed there for hours. she’s very much impressed, as well as inspired with the awesome art of making someone look much prettier. 

Mazumdar aunty always encouraged my mom and even used to teach her and kind of, prepared her as a beautician. It went on like that for almost a year and my mom already started to experiment with her haircuts and facials, whenever any authentic guest used to visit us. Well, some of my cousin sisters were extremely happy with that. Mazumdar aunty asked her to do a course, so that she could have become a certified beautician. She even promised her to help with the certification, but then one day, Mazumdar uncle got transferred to a different town and their entire family was about to have moved there. It was a well established parlor and Mazumdar aunty requested my mom if she could have taken the responsibility of the parlor? My mom was pretty much interested and also was kind of confident. But the only problem was that she wasn't certified for the job yet. But then, aunty said that she would take care of that and within next 6 months my mom could have done with her certification. Mom was so happy that time, but the real problem was something different. 

Quite opposite to me, my father was always a very religious person. Even though, he use to pray 5 times a day, but he always had a much broader outlook and he didn't have any problem with my mom's decision. But many of our well wishers, both within the locality and far across, were not very comfortable with that. They tried to influence my mom, as well as my father, so that they could have backed off from the idea. It was too much pressure for my mom and I could remember one evening, when many people, including men and women, visited our house and tried hard to have had convinced my mom. I asked them "What is the problem? What’s big deal if she runs a beauty parlor?"

One  of the uncles out there, started to laugh loudly and replied "Aree Baba, people will start to call your mom as BARBER. Would you like that?" Even though, I was in my 7th standard that time, but was matured enough to understand that was actually a big piece of shit.

Ultimately my mom had to back off and she couldn’t fulfill her dream. Well, after all, society also have it's own importance and Mazumdar aunty had to sell her parlor to someone else. Without her support, somehow my mom’s ambition gradually died out. But it seemed the aspiration was always there, somewhere deep within some corner of her soul. Time passed by and after almost 2 decades, my mom’s aspiration came out alive once again and that time it was much stronger. 3 years ago, when my father was about to have retired, my mom completed all the damn courses which was required for her certification. About two years back, she started her own parlor in Guwahati. Even though, it’s not a very big parlor, but my mom is happy and she also hired a beautician to assist her. 

From our childhood, we've noticed our mom to be extremely hard working and energetic. Even now days, she manage her parlor and also the house, almost single-handedly. Well, there’s not much age difference between my mom and dad, but comparatively dad looks much older. Mom is perfectly fit and quite healthy and all thanks to her activeness. Well, to have started a parlor of her own was indeed a very bold decision for her at such an older age. But as people say "Better late than never" Even though, my mom usually have a tiring day, but she keeps herself occupied and the pleasant feeling of financial independence, boosted her confidence a lot. She is actually quite happy now and I'm really proud of my BARBER mom. 

A Stranger On A Train

6th semester exams was over and everyone was pretty much prepared for their Industrial training. Well, the training was mandatory for all the traditional branches, but for some new ones it wasn't. As far as Computer Science was concerned, the training was not compulsory for us. One reason could be because there wasn't any software company in Assam those days and the authorities didn’t want to put too much pressure on the students. Most of the students usually used to do their Industrial training in one of the refineries and Oil companies out there. Some fortunate ones used to have their own kind of jugaar(source) and they could manage to do their training in big companies, in different other cities. Some of our hostel mates, most of them were from mechanical branch, could manage to do their training in a reputed company in Chhattisgarh. The guys were so much excited for their adventure. Few of us preferred to remain at the hostel itself. Well, anything related to study and education was always my last priority, and on top of that the training wasn't mandatory for us. But to be honest, we were little jealous of those guys and we knew that they would have a hell lot of fun for the next couple of months.

A gang of 10 to 12 mechanical goons boarded a train to Chhattisgarh and they had some great fun out there. Our friend Jeet was also part of the company. Jeet’s elder brother recently cleared his IAS that time and was posted out there in Raipur. Well, he only did all the jugaars for those guys and they stayed there for almost 3 weeks and then they had a short Delhi visit. Well, the visit was part of their training program and after a week they again returned to Raipur. On their way back, they couldn’t manage to get all their railway tickets on the same compartment. In fact, their berths were scattered in two to three different compartments. Now our friend Sab was always a Rangeela(fun loving) kind of guy. He's blessed with his sensational talents, that could impress the girls so well. His performance was not only limited to our college boundaries, but was extremely magical quite far and wide as well. He's tall, slightly dark and extremely handsome. He's just the perfect kind of dream boy for most of the girls. Sab’s greatest advantage was his flattering tongue. How could he managed to be so over sweet and also remained quite dignified at the same time?  It’s such an art and with time he mastered it to such a great extent. 

Fortunately for Sab, one cute and extremely smart looking girl seated just next to him. Sab noticed the guy who came to see off her at the railway platform. From their conversation and their touchy kind of activities, Sab was almost sure that the guy was her boy friend. As the train started to move, passengers were quite busy to adjust their luggages. After sometime, few of our friends came to Sab’s compartment and were pretty much delighted to enjoy some kind of an eye candy. As usual, everyone started to pull Sab’s leg a bit for the enchanting train journey he’s about to enjoy. Gradually everyone opened up a bit and had an informal  kind of introductions. The pretty lady was also an engineering student and went to Delhi for her Industrial training. Everyone was having a wonderful time and at lunch, guys went back to their respective compartments.

After lunch most of them went to sleep and my friend Sab asked the lady "Don’t you like to have some sleep?"

She had a cute smile on her face and replied "No, not really. By the way, you can sleep if you would like to"

Sab replied "No, I usually don’t sleep at day time"

She again smiled and said "That’s nice, that thing should be left for the night I guess"

So, gradually they opened up a bit and chatted for hours. In the evening again few friends came to Sab’s compartment and everyone enjoyed tea and some snacks together. Time simply flied that particular day and it was already 8 PM. It seemed, as if only a couple of hours had passed since they boarded the train in the morning. Group of friends and a lovely evening, along with cool train breezes. It was such a fascinating moment and Sab simply waited for some kind of a free space all around. It was dinner time and guys again went back to their respective compartments. Fortunately for Sab, he got the side lower berth that day and on top of that, the lady occupied the upper berth, just above his one. The train was supposed to have reached Raipur by early morning, but the girl was supposed to have reached her destination at midnight, by 2:30 AM. She was not in any mood to have slept that night and my friend Sab already started to get, kind of intoxicated and the effects was much more than those heavenly fluids, which he was so much used to that time. He was getting lost into her magnificent blue eyes. 

They continued to chat on their lower side berth and they kept both the windows open. The cool breezes and the deep blue eyes close by, just created some kind of a hypnotizing environment for my friend. They talked about hell lot of things, right from Engineering to Bollywood, from music to feminism and a little bit of atheism as well. All the passengers were sleeping and Sab was simply enjoying the moment. All of a sudden he asked her about the guy who came in the morning to see her off.  She didn’t hesitate and said that he was her boy friend.  Sab was little hurt with her response, but they continued to chat. From her conversation Sab assumed that her relationship with her boy friend was not very serious and felt a little good about that. It was already 1 AM and the girl said that her destination would arrive within an hour.  The train slowed down a little and she was quite excited and wanted to have a glimpse of a temple. She said that there’s a famous temple nearby and GOD fulfills everyone’s wishes, if they wish from their heart in that temple. Sab asked her whether GOD would fulfill his wish, if he would have wished from his heart right that time, from inside the train. She had a cute smile and replied "Yes of course, GOD would fulfill your wish"

All of a sudden she almost screamed "Here it is, the temple"

Sab couldn’t notice anything, but she's being a local girl, she might have recognized the place.  She asked "So, what did you wish?"

Sab was little shy, but in a mischievous way he replied "Well, I wished if I could have kissed you"

It seemed the girl didn’t like the joke at all and looked quite serious. She didn’t talk with him and simply looked outside the window. Sab felt very bad and thought he shouldn’t have said like that. He didn’t even asked sorry and might have waited for her response. After a while she collected her luggage and placed it nearby. Well, she already prepared herself to get down from that train. Sab asked "So, you will get down now?"

She replied "Yes, very soon"

Sab asked for her email id and she replied "What you would do with my email id?"

Sab preferred to remain silent that moment. After a while the train got little slower and Sab could see a hell lot of tiny lights far across, through the window. The lady struggled a bit with her heavy luggage, as she moved towards the door. Sab immediately went to help her and said “Please allow me”

They both went near the door and Sab opened it little wider. It seemed to be a small town outside and the platform didn’t arrive yet. They both were quite close and they had an eye contact and the intimate kind of stares continued for a while. All of a sudden the girl approached much closer and pressed her lips against his. There was complete silence all around, as if suddenly everything else stopped. Their breathing accelerated and it was quite louder as well. Slowly and passionately, as her tongue entered inside his mouth, it got filled with some kind of an ecstasy. Sab’s blood pressure increased exponentially like hell and his eyes busted with few teardrops as well. Some unusual kind of chemical reactions occurred inside his body, that produced some kind of exceptional emotions. That was the best moment of his life, but then all of a sudden the train stopped and she whispered her email id into his ears. She got down and Sab helped with her luggage. Within no time the train started to move all over again and they both kept looking at each others faces. Sab even continued to stare at her, even after she's completely lost to his view. Later, Sab couldn’t sleep the remaining night.

Well, that was for the first and last time, Sab had any sort of communication with that lady. Even though, after he came back to hostel, he emailed her on many occasions, but he never received any reply. 

Do Fatichar

After passing out of engineering college, I was in Delhi for quite a few months with some of my close hostel mates. Being a Computer Science passout, I always thought I should have gone to Bangalore. But some of my close buddies already booked their tickets to Delhi. The situation in Bangalore was also pretty much pathetic, as the market witnessed serious kind of recession during that time. Without applying much pressure to my brain, I simply opted to go with my friends to Delhi. Recruitment was almost frozen and especially for fresher’s, there wasn't much hope. We used to stay in some kind of a Dhobi Ghat in south Delhi. Well, it was basically a Dhobi Colony, but not those traditional Dhobi Ghats kind of. They used to wash clothes in giant washing machines which had some kind of a local flavor, pretty much similar to those kind of air coolers.

For a few months, I shared a small room with my dear friend Rajat. He’s from Mechanical branch and at least, they used to get some calls. Even though, those days were quite memorable, but was a little bit painful as well. Apart from the anxiety and the uncertainty about our future, one more headache was to have fed ourselves. Most of us learned to cook that time and it was quite a challenge to have satisfied out tummies. Some of our friends were very focused for their MBA and already started their CAT preparation and coaching. I never thought of MBA though, also it was little out of scope for me that time. I think Rajat was also on the same boat and that’s why we decided to share our room. 

We lived a Fatichar life style those days and on top of that, Delhi summer made our life much more miserable.  One late night, as our room was completely dark and I was busy shifting my sleeping position every now and then. I tried to make myself a little bit comfortable in order to have had some sleep.  All of a sudden Rajat asked from his bed "what’s up dude? Still awake?"

I replied "Yeah, trying to get some sleep"

We chatted for a couple of minutes and then he asked "Do you have any cigarettes left with you?"

I replied "No dude, I already lighted my last one just before we prepared to sleep"

Our conversation continued and suddenly Rajat switched on the light. It was 3:30 AM and he tried to look for a cigarette all over the room. Without much luck, he then looked for some healthy cigarette butts inside the ashtray. He lighted one and could only manage a couple of puffs and then felt the heat on his lips. Rajat was getting little desperate and started to look at all those empty packets. As I looked at him and his activities, even I also wanted one damn long puff, but none of the butts were at lightable condition. Oh! Shit, it’s such a mind game and we wanted it so badly. I also started to explore my luck and looked at every possible empty packet. It was already 4 AM and we didn't bother much for some sleep. Fortunately, all of a sudden luck turned our way and I could find a cigarette piece in one of the empty packets. Well,  that was a fresh and a completely unused one. As soon as I showed that damn thing to Rajat, his level of happiness was clearly visible on his jubilant face. He was extremely excited and I was almost about to have lighted our revere, but Rajat interrupted and said "Just wait a while, I would make some black tea"

Wow! That sounded extremely pleasing and within no time Rajat was ready with his tea. I offered him to light our ecstasy. Well, he truly deserved it that moment and his happiness was pretty much expressive while it came out, along with those long and smoky drags. The caffeine and the nicotine, along with our extreme kind of craving, created a mesmeric environment altogether. Oh! That was some kind of a moment and we felt highly satisfied like hell. We continued to chat about our uncertain future for almost another hour and then later, had some sound sleep early morning.


With this post, I completed my first century. I guess my post rate is quite slow, but still it’s some kind of a milestone.  

A little bit of Cookery

For the first time when I arrived in Bangalore, I was so mesmerized with the typical kind of cool weather out here. Even though it’s been almost a decade, but I still remember how I felt about the weather that time and it almost felt as if I directly arrived into heaven, all the way from hell. Well, before coming to Bangalore I was in Delhi for quite a few months and I hope Delhiites wouldn't curse me for this, as I’m simply comparing the weather. For the first couple of months, I stayed at a hostel in J.P Nagar 6th Phase and it seemed, the place was mostly occupied with students and job seekers. Initially, I was so much amazed with some of the food items on the street. Well, the first one is Gobi(Cauliflower) Manchurian. To be honest, I never came across that food item earlier. I was so much confused, yet quite delighted to see those red color things every here and there, while they're being fried on those big utensils. Initially I assumed them to be pieces of chicken. As my pocket was at a very pathetic and miserable condition that time, so I didn't bother to explore much. But then one afternoon, I just wanted to taste those damn chicken pieces and approached a vendor and asked "Boss, chicken plate Kitna?" How much for a plate of chicken?

The guy simply smiled and said "Boss, chicken nahi, ye gobi hai, Gobi Manchurian" Dude! it's not chicken, it's Gobi Manchurian.

That was a huge KLPD for me and simply wondered "what kind of dish is that?" I wanted to try that out and the price was also quite reasonable. As soon as my tongue encountered the first piece of gobi, it created some kind on an ecstasy inside my mouth and also deep within my soul. It was crispy and slightly juicy. Oh! The taste was simply out of the world. It all started that time and even today, I’m a big fan of Gobi Manchurian. I’ve no idea about the origin of the dish, but one could find it in almost every nook and corner of Bangalore.

The another popular food item out here is Chicken Kabab. One of my initial observations in the city was "one would find a Bakery and a wine shop within every 50 meters on the streets of Bangalore." Also the wine shops are meant not only to buy liquors, but one could also gulp as much quantity as they can afford, out there as well. Outside every wine shop, one could find someone preparing yummy fried chicken kababs in the evening. Even though, quite often my pocket had to face some kind of an embarrassment those days, but somehow my loyalty and affection with Old Monk remained intact. That time the market was gradually recovering from the recession phase and I hoped that my dream to taste all sort of kababs in Bangalore would soon transform into reality. Once my pocket turned little better and that too with those chicken kababs all around, my relationship with the monk got stronger and stronger day by day. Also, I was getting kind of obsessed with those kababs and the obsession was somewhat similar to the kind, I had with Momos during my college days. 

After I tied the knot, the monk must have been quite disappointed with me, as I couldn’t able to worship him on a regular basis. But my devotion continued over the weekends with my close and nearby friends. One day, I applied for a Life Insurance policy and I had to undergo a thorough medical checkup for that. Everything was perfectly fine, but the insurance company increased the yearly premium by Rs 500 and the reason they gave was that my cholesterol level was somewhat higher. I assumed that to be a silly excuse and was very much irritated with their attitude. After some flow of emails, I actually cancelled that policy. But my wife repeatedly insisted for my master health checkup and she was quite shocked with my reports. That time I got quite serious and started to work out a bit. I even consulted with doctor and according to his consultation, my relationship with old monk and fried kababs was jeopardized. Those roadside kababs look, as well as tastes very yummy. But the guys repeatedly use the same oil again and again, not sure for how many days or months.  I completely stopped to consume them and unwilling though, I had to dump my good old monk as well. Later, I tried to get spiritual with some budget scotch brands and even though it took sometime, but ultimately I was able to gain spirituality with them. Sometimes, but very rarely though, when I get very nostalgic, I would spend some quality time with Old Monk, along with some of my good old, old monk fans. 

Last weekend, I was missing those fried kababs so much that ultimately I decided to prepare at home itself. The recipe is quite simple and would like to share out here.

1. Ask the guy to cut the chicken in smaller and medium pieces

2. Also buy a kabab powder along with the chicken

3. Marinate the chicken (1/2 KG for a small packet of kabab powder) with very small amount of water.

4. Also mix one egg with it and again marinate it for a while

5. Mix ginger/garlic paste to it (I prefer fresh one)

6. Put it inside the refrigerator for around 15 minutes.

7. Deep fry the chicken pieces in either olive or refined oil in low heat for around 15-20 minutes.

Oh! It tasted much better than the kababs from good restaurants. I think, along with other important factors, good cookwares are also very important to create such kind of a magic. If you haven’t visited magickart yet, you should definitely have a look at it. Well, magickart.in is the leading online shopping portal in India for Kitchen appliances and Cookware. With their exclusive collection of Cookware, Bakeware and Kitchen Appliances, now days one could quite easily be able to create a wide variety of magic inside their own kitchens.

Saurav Maheshwari

Our school KV BRPL was located inside the township premises. Till 10th standard, our class used to have two sections A and B. As our school only had science stream for the higher secondary education, so in our 11th and 12th standard the number of students got reduced and both Sec-A and Sec-B were merged. Saurav Maheshwari was basically from Sec-A and earlier, I didn’t have much opportunity to interact with him, apart from those Hi-Hello kind of talks during the cricket matches we used to play on some Sundays. Later when we started to share the same classroom, I got to know Saurav more and he was gem of a person. I think many of the Sec-A guys were able to clear their Biology concepts because of Saurav. Well, those days during 8th and 9th standard, guys used to have hell lot of doubts regarding the reproductive system of human beings. Saurav’s dad owned a VCR and sometimes when his parents were not at home, Saurav and his close friends liked to utilize the opportunity and used to bring those reproductive kinds of movie cassettes on rent, to further enhance their biological concepts.

Saurav was quite a fun loving and an extremely friendly kind of guy. I even had the opportunity to had lunch at his house on few occasions. Wow! His mom used to make such yummy Alu Parathas. Almost 80% of the students of our school were from the township itself, well, I was from the minority group though. Earlier everyone including the teachers used to go home for lunch and on few rare occasions,  some sincere students used to bunk their afternoon lectures. Later the school authorities became strict enough and changed the rule. The township students didn't enjoy the new rule at all, as according to it no one was allowed to go home for lunch. So, everyone started to bring lunchboxes and that really created hell lot of opportunities for some of the foodie guys and trust me, they were quite plenty in numbers. Everyone had to somehow protect their foodstuffs till lunch time from those anonymous food stealers. I think the girls must have had a real hard time to protect their lunchboxes. Aha! Their mom used to prepare such mouth watering and tempting foods for them. As soon as we opened those boxes, oh! The aroma was so pleasing and I was really impressed with all those Mithais they used to bring. I must say, girls are very choosy and demanding with the stuffs they shallow, as long as they don’t have to prepare them. 

Not only girls and even some of the guys were also quite pissed off with those food thieves. That was the time when I and some of my backbencher friends used to empty our lunchboxes by 2nd period itself. Well, that minimized our risks to a great extent and also gave us the opportunity to enjoy some extra bites later. Apart from the girls, also few guys who used to bring good quality lunch, complained about those anonymous Tiffin Chors. Now Saurav often used to complain and then one day, he was so irritated that he came up with an extreme, yet very innovative idea. He along with few of his friends consulted with a pharmacist and one day, he mixed plenty of jamalgota seeds to not only his food, but also few other lunchboxes as well. Jamalgota is one of the best known laxatives and mainly used for severe constipation. I was not part of the conspiracy at all and they executed their plan in the first period itself. 

Fortunately I didn’t consume any of the damn thing from any of those boxes, on that particular day. But many of my friends were not fortunate enough. OMG! That day I realized the power of jamalgota. Actually, it's very much capable to convert serious constipation into ultimate loose motion. But under normal condition and specially on that particular day, it performed little differently. For most of the offenders, something unusual kind of chemical reaction occurred inside their stomach. Within no time, the food inside the stomach took an alternate path and poor guys started to eject from their mouth. Some of the guys puked 6-7 times that day and few guys even complained to the principal Sir. But the principal only said "why you guys had to steal lunch from others?" After that day, it became quite a daring task to steal foodstuffs from others lunchboxes. 

When we were in our 12th standard, Saurav’s father got a very good job offer and he had to resign from BRPL and joined a company in Saudi. Saurav also had a younger brother named Gaurav Maheshwari and he was 2 years junior to us. Both the brothers had to leave our school and got transferred to some school in either Delhi or Mumbai, I’m not very sure about that.  Once they left, I didn’t have much contact with him. Few months before our final 12th exams, most of us were little tensed, as well as confused about our career. During that time, on Nov 12 1996 the tragic Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision occurred over the village of Charkhi Dadri, to the west of New Delhi. The aircraft involved were a Saudi Arabian Airlines flying from New Delhi to Saudi and a Kazakhstan Airlines flying from Kazakhstan to New Delhi. All 349 people on board both flights were killed, making it the world's one of the most deadliest mid-air collision. It was so difficult to believe that 2 planes had a head on collision up in the sky, I mean there’s so much space out there and how could 2 tiny things collide just like that? 

Next day at school, we heard some rumor that one Saurav Maheshwari was in the passenger's list of one of the flight that crashed the previous evening. Everyone was so much tensed that moment, but I was cool enough and wondered, how the hell that could have been possible? But after sometime our school principal made the official announcement that both the brothers, Saurav and Gaurav Maheshwari was on board flight "Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B".  The entire classroom went silent and we simply started to stare each other's faces. Even though our principal Sir didn't declare a holiday on that day, but our entire batch simply couldn't attend any of the lectures. After sometime most of us went back home. It was so difficult for me to digest the fact and just couldn't have imagined the pain, Saurav's parents went through after they lost both their grownup kids.

Without considering the security measures involved, according to the researchers the probability of such kind of a head on collision of flight up in the sky, at an altitude of 15000 feet is one in 100 million. Well, the probability is much lower than someone getting killed by a coconut, falling from a height of 80 feet above the ground. But yet it occurred and after that incident, aviation authorities across the world no longer relied on the theory of probability and developed the ACAS (Airborne Collision Avoidance System) to a great extent.