Chasing the Monsoons

Was setting up my room (again) and came across all the photographs I had taken over a span of 4 years at IIT Kharagpur and in India. Found some old memories, some best forgotten and some to be cherished for ever.

I went back to the good old days when I had just entered IIT Kharagpur in the department on Electrical Engineering. I was in awe and all wet behind the ears. There on my first day in college, I had my chemistry practicals and we were assigned partners based on our roll numbers in class. My eyes were darting all across the room to see who it would be. My first instinct was to see if one of the girls would be the lucky ones to pair up with me (hehe) and then I realised I would be better off with one of the guys (as the non-males in the class did not measure up to being called female).

Finally my roll number was called in conjunction with another, and I went ahead to shake hands and introduce myself to him. He had this goofy look on his face, and seemed like a very serious fella. We just greeted each other and stood around thinking of what to do next? Everyone got paired up and went to their respective work tables. Shashi and me went on to ours.

The first few weeks sucked as we realised we were paired up for all our labs! We just did not seem to get along too well as we were always arguing on who knew a better way to shake the conical flask over the flame for consistent heating or a better way to connect a circuit.

Soon I realised the biggest hindrance in our relationship (yes it was one of sorts!). It was language! The second most unifying factor amongst everyone after thought. I felt more comfortable in English and he had assumed I don't know Hindi! So he would attempt a fairly well formulated reply in English but his nature was such that he would giveup midway. This caused us unneccessary duress.

But we soon got over it all one day when he called me a bahenchod and thought I wouldn't understand when he was speaking with his friend. I replied back in kind and said something along the lines of don't take me for a fool.

That was all it took to break the ice! Then onwards we went on to be the best of friends. He was the one reason I made it through IIt Kharagpur in 4 years without a hitch. He supported me in every which way, even to the extent of not studying for some tough exams himself and teaching me late into the night. We shared everything from homework to projects to taking the rap for each other in class.

Today I was going through some old snaps and came up with one of us holding an A4 sheet with our names, roll numbers (9918131 and 9918123) and "IIT Kharagpur Jail" written on it. It was one of the best snaps from my college days. Will scan it in one of these days. Its also the only picture of ours to reach our Head of Department (HOD) Professor T. K. Basu thanks to a prank played by one of our department mates.

Shashi always remained the underconfident person that he was the first day I met him. Today he works for Larsen and Tubro in Mumbai in their marketting division. I hope to meet him the next time I visit India, an opportunity I missed this time around. Personally he has been one of the most dominant influences in my college life, apart from some of my wingies.