a friend called anshuman...

anshuman called up at 00:45 hrs to convey the good news. arpita and he were blessed with a baby boy at 10:15pm India time, 10th jan.

when i saw anshi and abhi in our zinj villa sometime in late december 2000, i was willing to share my room with him - not that i had an option of keeping anyone away from my room. he appeared to be a very calm and relaxed person. abhy on the other hand appeared too boring and typical bong [no offence]. looks can be deceptive is what i later realized.

for the next 6-7 months, i despised anshi. he was a problem creator in every sense: loud, talkative, careless, and always upto something mischievous. he would leave the door ajar while AC was running, he was quite vocal if something did not happen the way it should have been, he called up people late night, he would not eat his food in 15 minutes - 1.5 hrs was okay for him. he was a cricket fanatic, and we always used to fight. i think we both enjoyed fighting and always looked for an opportunity to just pull each other. and yes, we used to fight to sit in the front seat of the car with idrees our pakistani transport minister!

i got along quite well with abhi. he was quite and calm, with a wonderful and refined sense of humor. we shared good times talking about friends and family, future plans and other trivia. not that i was the only one in anshi's hit list - there were others too.

anshi bought a cd player and i used it judiciously - i used to play MSS's suprabhatam every morning, and he would really get bugged up. he would crane his neck from the bedsheet that he used to cocoon himself into and yell, "what happened to this lady, she's just repeating few words, is there a chicken bone stuck in her throat." And i would just fume.

his undying love for non-veg was quite visible when he used to be upset with our cook devender. reason, "आज साले ने चिक्केन नही बनाया!" he wouldn't have mind if we had given him a complete goat to devour!

one thing for which i took an immediate dislike for him was his songs, importantly the revised lyrics of popular songs -

ओ ओ जाने जाना,
खाना तुझे है खाना,
रोज़ तू veg खाये,
आज नॉन-veg खाना!

सोल्जर सोल्जर, सारे कपरे खोल कर,
बीच सड़क पर बैठ गया!

खाना खाया और पानी पिया or something like that!

and then his umpteen stories about his days in UPtech, lucknow. How his peon served ras-malai in glasses used for having tea. his friends tabrez and so many others. but gradually we started enjoying his antics. at least there was some fun.

from the beginning he proved to be one of the best faculty in terms of knowledge and his ability to conduct classes with no complaints from the students [there were 4 complaints against me]. he was my teacher. as in, i learnt visual basic, javascript, HTML [can you believe that], and MS Access from him. always helpful and humane. i remember when no one else visited abhy in salmania hospital, he used to daily, without fail, walk upto his ward and spend time with him. Nearly for 20-30 days. i visited salmania twice only. no one else bothered to go there. i don't know about others, but i am averse to visiting hospitals [and abhy, i am not clarifying].

full of energy, this man walked fast. he used to walk from zinj to manama or adlia almost every three four days [a distance of just 5/3 kms respectively]. to a sprinter or an ordinary human being this may not be 'quite a distance' but you should also factor in the scorching heat of middle east.

we derived some kind of pleasure pulling our counselor's leg. and he used to be quite good at it. someone who could say nasty things in a good way. or even if it was not so, he would just laugh it off. for many a things he did not carry any grudge.

we had great fun narrating incidents with the 'bonta man'. and the interpretation of local news on bahrain tv. talking about students and the wonderful grasping power they had! he never approached me to check how his students scored in exams when i used to validate their papers. there was absolutely no hitch in asking him any query for which i had no solutions. he just dived deep into the problem.

his kid side was also quite evident - especially with his umpteen pranks. and yet this guy was not just all fun and funny. he had a softer side as well. nothing about it here, but i guess that's when we bonded. being a roomie was fun then. we had endless discussions on various issues, and his analytical skills were quite amazing.

he stayed on, and is still in the middle east. we continued communication after i left the geography and settled in India. met him once in delhi when he was on vacation.

in nov 2004 he got married to arpita. they make a good couple. i was in bangalore that time and attended his wedding in bandel, and then the reception in kolkatta's golf green area. his folks are quite warm people and not for even a moment i felt as an outsider. his elder sister who would be atleast 4-6 yrs younger than me thought that i was of his age and very sweetly spoke to me in the same ways she spoke to him. even on telling her that i was older than her, she had that elder sister's affection towards me. i also became quite pally with her bua whose first question when she met me was when was i getting married. had i been in touch with her, i am sure by this time i would have been married to a bong girl!

his bua arranged for a guest house accommodation for me and his other friends. the wedding was fantastic and i captured the moment in my camera. the reception in golf green area was also quite memorable.

each one of us respect and care for our parents, but this man is amazing. the credit also goes to arpita who has won the heart of her inlaws. his parents now hop between bahrain, indore, and sometimes lucknow. it feels good when he tells me that ma and baba are with him in bahrain. and here i am, haven't spoken to my mom asking her to visit chennai ;-)

so ARYAN was born on 10th Jan 2009 at 10:15 in Bandel. I wish they have a wonderful future and a satisfying life.

Everyone should have a friend like anshi - it makes life so much fun. And now something which only Idrees, Shabab, Sanil, Abhi, Mona, Kawther, Sameera, Devender, Luma, and Mr Joel can can understand and relate to - Layyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

God bless Aryan, Arpita, and Anshuman.