Jawani Diwani
"In the cookie of life, friends are like chocolate chips"
This post is a dedication to all my friends, from the one with who I clapped hands and sang 'oh, miller, caterpillar...' to the one who had to hear out all my headache causing banters. I love you all!!
A couple of evenings back I had a chat with Ipsita and I asked her to suggest to me a topic on which I could write a new post as my mind was quite blank. After a couple of them she suggested why not write about the two years that we spent at the hostel during our M.A. degree course. It suddenly struck as a wonderful opportunity to write an ode to friendship and that amazing time of our lives called youth. Now Ipsita completely rejected the term youth but just to clarify my point I would like to digress and say.. persons b/w 15 and 24 are the youth according to United Nations General Assembly therefore next year we all become 'god-knows-whats' as we shall all turn 25, so is this not the best time to recount our jawani spent with friends?
The Beginning
To start right from the beginning, 5/6 of us sat in an open foyer with big files on our laps, looking glum, morose and scared. It was the interview day for admissions to the Delhi University hostel called North Eastern Student's house for Women(NESHW). While waiting for our turn we were all getting quite restless, and from the corner of my eyes I looked at one of the girls who had a very familiar face.
In one of my restless moments I got up and paced outside when this girl came up to me and asked, 'are you bobo's friend'?, yes yes I am, where have I seen you? Oh in Rajdhani a couple of years ago, I am sorry I dont remember your name, Poulomi, hi I am Deepanjana.. great, so what are you studying?' bla bla and the conversation continued.
In a couple of hours we got to know that all of us had got admission to the hostel and feeling relieved we went back to our respective PGs or friend's houses where we were putting up temporarily.
Semester 1
Within a week or so of the interview we shifted to our new hostel and got busy unpacking and cleaning, taking time getting used to a new place. Being a bengali it was always a relief to meet other bengalis around us. Poulomi had the room bang opposite mine and we became fast friends. At dinner time we met a few others and we got down to chatting. Poulomi and I discovered there was another bengali girl, sitting quiet and meek, Ipsita, straight from Calcutta. Oh how that was fodder to us virtuosos of Delhi, we took her under our wings and started our preaching. Poor dear girl, I don't even have the guts to ask her now how she had felt during those formative years of her adult life or Caterpillar to Butterfly should I say?
We were a group of 7 and soon a birthday ritual started among us, birthday girls would take us out to dinner and we would collectively give them gifts and cakes. Some of them were more receptive to this idea others were a little weary. At times around birthdays our exam routines clashed and bickering would ensue. With time we even got over that and would adjust dinner dates according to everyone's convenience.
Now Poulomi living closest to me would come over to my room any time and we would chatter away late in to the night, during one such chat sessions we decided to organize a booze party to get all the booze virgins drunk. We got a bottle of vodka, from where I dont remember and also a quarter of a bottle from a friend couple who rented an apartment right opposite to our hostel. And got the girls into my room. One of the girl didnt drink soft drinks so she announced she would be having it neat,and Ipsita was highly disillusioned with alcohol for being such a nasty smelling, foul tasting thing! After all the ruckuss, loud music some dancing and a lot of laughter some of them left except poulomi and sujata!
And Then the crying started... Poulomi of all people drifted into the world of nostalgia with a song that reminded her of her father, oh my god... We replayed the song at least a dozen times with poulomi sitting in a haze with tears streaming down her face! Sujata joined. What do I do? WHat do I do? nothing apparently.. just watch them cry! Sujata was feeling sick, "I had 12 jalebis at dinner," she announed.. OMG she was about to throw up! Ashima, Help!
The night cannot be forgotten... of dirty jokes,bar dancers and cry babies!
Semester 2
We got new microwaves and hot water dispensers installed in each floor at alternate wings so suddenly everyone had become quite mobile and we were visiting other floors and wings and we started mingling more often. By this time some of got closer while others got a little distant. We had made our new best friends! We would go to Ipsita's room which had a lot of sunshine during winters and huddled under the blankets chatting away or studying for exams and sometimes just for an afternoon nap under the sun! And a year passed by.
Semester 3
Next year when we came back from our vacations we chose new rooms, poulomi was next to me now, Ipsita on the same floor and I was certainly more serious about my classes that semester. The third semester went on smoothly, met a bunch of statisticians, thanks to Poulomi, and we all made new friends. We were hanging out together more frequently and started to visit the men's hostel for the food at their cafeterias(we didn't have one)! Ipsita was much more receptive by this time, she would down a vodka without much coaxing and dance some too. Wow, we were really having a great time, got good grades and were plump with satisfaction (or was it momo's point), CHandni chowk, paranthe wali gali, balli maran, kaanch ki choodiyaan, beautiful things had brightened our 3rd semester!
Semester 4
Short lived was the smoothness, 4th semester started out rocky, Sujata and Poulomi screamed at each other, Ipsita and I could hear that from the dining room and silence prevails between them till now! Well, there was some awckwardness initially but we got used to the situation and handled things smartly then on.
Campus interviews had started, our department didn't have one so I accompanied Ipsita and Poulomi to theirs. We held each others hands through those times and gave a shoulder to cry on when things weren't going our way, the friendship got stronger between the three of us. They got a job!
Another booze party on Ipsita's birthday, this one saw us eating Marie biscuits dipped in rum,throwing them across the room as flying saucers, dancing mujra at 4a.m. and poetically describing the sunrise to random people.
We had found paradise; Classes, term papers, projects, book reviews,exams---booze parties, hostel nights, movies, valentine's days and anna's cafe!
'DU is a smoke-free campus.. where do we buy sutta from? walk 3 kms?', 'Ami paan khabo, amio, amra shobai khabo', 'let's go to to DU gardens... nahi ridge chalte hain!' 'Bibhaas get booze for us please, we cant go to the theka na? akeli abala nari?' 'Tuhin let's go to TGIF.' 'I want to watch Basic Instinct.. where do we get?' 'Nahin madam nayi wali hai, hindi mein, murder ka nasha(basic instinct 2).. wohi de dijiye!' 'let's go watch Tashan'-- we found ourselves saying or hearing these above-mentioned sentences!
The End
Exams were tense times, did more masti than studying! Last semester was like a do-or-die time for us, iske baad mile na mile? We would miss Delhi so let's go on delhi parikrama, we decided. Ipsita and I stayed an extra 5 days after our exams to pay our homage to Delhi.
It would be very wrong of me if I don't mention a particular person in the post. That is our south-indian guard bhaiyya. I think we were a very well-behaved group so he gave us little discounts on our 'late nights' and 'night outs', wished us on Diwalis and courteously enquired about our injuries, and yes we had suffered many broken legs in our group!
This post is a dedication to all my friends, from the one with who I clapped hands and sang 'oh, miller, caterpillar...' to the one who had to hear out all my headache causing banters. I love you all!!
A couple of evenings back I had a chat with Ipsita and I asked her to suggest to me a topic on which I could write a new post as my mind was quite blank. After a couple of them she suggested why not write about the two years that we spent at the hostel during our M.A. degree course. It suddenly struck as a wonderful opportunity to write an ode to friendship and that amazing time of our lives called youth. Now Ipsita completely rejected the term youth but just to clarify my point I would like to digress and say.. persons b/w 15 and 24 are the youth according to United Nations General Assembly therefore next year we all become 'god-knows-whats' as we shall all turn 25, so is this not the best time to recount our jawani spent with friends?
The Beginning
To start right from the beginning, 5/6 of us sat in an open foyer with big files on our laps, looking glum, morose and scared. It was the interview day for admissions to the Delhi University hostel called North Eastern Student's house for Women(NESHW). While waiting for our turn we were all getting quite restless, and from the corner of my eyes I looked at one of the girls who had a very familiar face.
In one of my restless moments I got up and paced outside when this girl came up to me and asked, 'are you bobo's friend'?, yes yes I am, where have I seen you? Oh in Rajdhani a couple of years ago, I am sorry I dont remember your name, Poulomi, hi I am Deepanjana.. great, so what are you studying?' bla bla and the conversation continued.
In a couple of hours we got to know that all of us had got admission to the hostel and feeling relieved we went back to our respective PGs or friend's houses where we were putting up temporarily.
Semester 1
Within a week or so of the interview we shifted to our new hostel and got busy unpacking and cleaning, taking time getting used to a new place. Being a bengali it was always a relief to meet other bengalis around us. Poulomi had the room bang opposite mine and we became fast friends. At dinner time we met a few others and we got down to chatting. Poulomi and I discovered there was another bengali girl, sitting quiet and meek, Ipsita, straight from Calcutta. Oh how that was fodder to us virtuosos of Delhi, we took her under our wings and started our preaching. Poor dear girl, I don't even have the guts to ask her now how she had felt during those formative years of her adult life or Caterpillar to Butterfly should I say?
We were a group of 7 and soon a birthday ritual started among us, birthday girls would take us out to dinner and we would collectively give them gifts and cakes. Some of them were more receptive to this idea others were a little weary. At times around birthdays our exam routines clashed and bickering would ensue. With time we even got over that and would adjust dinner dates according to everyone's convenience.
Now Poulomi living closest to me would come over to my room any time and we would chatter away late in to the night, during one such chat sessions we decided to organize a booze party to get all the booze virgins drunk. We got a bottle of vodka, from where I dont remember and also a quarter of a bottle from a friend couple who rented an apartment right opposite to our hostel. And got the girls into my room. One of the girl didnt drink soft drinks so she announced she would be having it neat,and Ipsita was highly disillusioned with alcohol for being such a nasty smelling, foul tasting thing! After all the ruckuss, loud music some dancing and a lot of laughter some of them left except poulomi and sujata!
And Then the crying started... Poulomi of all people drifted into the world of nostalgia with a song that reminded her of her father, oh my god... We replayed the song at least a dozen times with poulomi sitting in a haze with tears streaming down her face! Sujata joined. What do I do? WHat do I do? nothing apparently.. just watch them cry! Sujata was feeling sick, "I had 12 jalebis at dinner," she announed.. OMG she was about to throw up! Ashima, Help!
The night cannot be forgotten... of dirty jokes,bar dancers and cry babies!
Semester 2
We got new microwaves and hot water dispensers installed in each floor at alternate wings so suddenly everyone had become quite mobile and we were visiting other floors and wings and we started mingling more often. By this time some of got closer while others got a little distant. We had made our new best friends! We would go to Ipsita's room which had a lot of sunshine during winters and huddled under the blankets chatting away or studying for exams and sometimes just for an afternoon nap under the sun! And a year passed by.
Semester 3
Next year when we came back from our vacations we chose new rooms, poulomi was next to me now, Ipsita on the same floor and I was certainly more serious about my classes that semester. The third semester went on smoothly, met a bunch of statisticians, thanks to Poulomi, and we all made new friends. We were hanging out together more frequently and started to visit the men's hostel for the food at their cafeterias(we didn't have one)! Ipsita was much more receptive by this time, she would down a vodka without much coaxing and dance some too. Wow, we were really having a great time, got good grades and were plump with satisfaction (or was it momo's point), CHandni chowk, paranthe wali gali, balli maran, kaanch ki choodiyaan, beautiful things had brightened our 3rd semester!
Semester 4
Short lived was the smoothness, 4th semester started out rocky, Sujata and Poulomi screamed at each other, Ipsita and I could hear that from the dining room and silence prevails between them till now! Well, there was some awckwardness initially but we got used to the situation and handled things smartly then on.
Campus interviews had started, our department didn't have one so I accompanied Ipsita and Poulomi to theirs. We held each others hands through those times and gave a shoulder to cry on when things weren't going our way, the friendship got stronger between the three of us. They got a job!
Another booze party on Ipsita's birthday, this one saw us eating Marie biscuits dipped in rum,throwing them across the room as flying saucers, dancing mujra at 4a.m. and poetically describing the sunrise to random people.
We had found paradise; Classes, term papers, projects, book reviews,exams---booze parties, hostel nights, movies, valentine's days and anna's cafe!
'DU is a smoke-free campus.. where do we buy sutta from? walk 3 kms?', 'Ami paan khabo, amio, amra shobai khabo', 'let's go to to DU gardens... nahi ridge chalte hain!' 'Bibhaas get booze for us please, we cant go to the theka na? akeli abala nari?' 'Tuhin let's go to TGIF.' 'I want to watch Basic Instinct.. where do we get?' 'Nahin madam nayi wali hai, hindi mein, murder ka nasha(basic instinct 2).. wohi de dijiye!' 'let's go watch Tashan'-- we found ourselves saying or hearing these above-mentioned sentences!
The End
Exams were tense times, did more masti than studying! Last semester was like a do-or-die time for us, iske baad mile na mile? We would miss Delhi so let's go on delhi parikrama, we decided. Ipsita and I stayed an extra 5 days after our exams to pay our homage to Delhi.
It would be very wrong of me if I don't mention a particular person in the post. That is our south-indian guard bhaiyya. I think we were a very well-behaved group so he gave us little discounts on our 'late nights' and 'night outs', wished us on Diwalis and courteously enquired about our injuries, and yes we had suffered many broken legs in our group!
Comments
So many memories come back reading this blog..its like everything happened just yesterday!1
And i really really miss our hair oiling sessions(and the arguments arising thereof!)