10: Wonderful Memories

            "We song many sangs", these were the words spoken out by an excited Nandhan as we were on the way back to Bangalore. The spoonerism exhibited by Nandhan was just an example to illustrate how excited we were on the trip.

            Joey surely did have an unforgettable experience. We kept pulling his leg all throughout for the act of his. Feel sorry for him at times, but whatever, we had fun.

            We had a dinner at a famous restaurant back in Goa. Some choose to sit at the section where they serve meat while the rest along with me and Joey where seated at the vegetarian section. Joey is a tall and a thin guy with very sharp features. Even a hot model would get jealous of his outstanding figure :). He weighed a mere 111 pounds. So the obvious thing was, we would advise him to eat lot of food and not to starve. Joey always retaliated saying he had a better appetite then most of us. I don't think he had it, but he kept talking about it and until proven we could neither deny nor accept it. So we would just smile off and listen to him. But that night things changed. Each of us ordered a meal. Joey looked like he was enjoying the food. It was really delicious.

            As were walking out of the hotel,

Joey asked, "Isn't the food tasty?"

I replied, "Yes, it is awesome"

Joey: "Oh Shit! Hold on, I have to puke".

            Joey rushed into the restroom and puked the entire meal out. I was worried. He seemed fine. I assumed it was food poisoning or if there was something in the meal that put him off. After he recovered, I asked him what he thought was the cause of vomiting. He replied, “I think I ate more than what I could”.

            We didn't care if it was offensive towards Joey, but from that day whenever we offered food to Joey our next statement would be, you should have guessed by now, "Make sure you don't eat much or else you will vomit." I pulled his leg throughout the journey and I guess even to this day we do it. He keeps arguing that it was a one off incident and nothing much should be derived out of it. And what do we do? just ignore him and continue pulling his leg :).

            So this way the puking act of Joey, the embarrassment Arjun faced at the hands of the Eunuchs, Chetan's legendary dialogue, "I swear, I will kill that boy", the uncontrollable excitement exhibited by Nandhan, the hilarious game of Rammi, all gave us lot of moments which will be cherished forever.

            The trip of Goa was one of the first trips I took with my friends. It was filled with lot of wonderful and golden moments which are etched in my mind forever. No matter where I or my friends end up, when we look back at the trip, we sure will have a smile on our face.

9: Who was she staring at?

"She is staring at me", Abishek said

"Nin mukha ge, ashtondu scene illa", Arjun replied.

(Literal translation: Your face, not that much scene :). The meaning: She can do much better than your face.)

            Nandhan interfered and said, "Dude, I think she is staring at me". Chetan and I burst out of laughing. This was the condition the guys were in.

            Out of all the beautiful damsels, one of them seemed like she was staring at one of the guys from our group. The argument, “whom was she staring at?” We still do not know the answer to that question even to this day. Everyone felt like she was staring at them, it was not like they would go and ask her out. None of them had the guts to do it, but some sort of childish satisfaction that a hot chick is staring at them. We argued on and on for the next couple of hours. At the end of the argument, each one believed that she was staring at him. That made all of us happy, so we stuck to that thought.

            That night we ended up coming home tired and hungry. We quickly gobbled up some food and were all ready for a game of cards. We played the 13 card game also known as "Rammi". The concept of the game is that, one needs to make sure that all the 13 cards given to him are in a set. A set consists of minimum 3 cards. Two kinds of sets are compulsory, a sequence where one needs to have a minimum of 3 consecutive rank cards with the same suit and a triplet which consists of at least three same rank cards with unique suit on each of them. The player had the freedom to arrange the remaining 7 cards either as a triplet or as a sequence. In order to view the joker which is chosen randomly for each game, a player needs to show a legal sequence to other players thus giving him the right to view the joker. Without this sequence a player cannot proceed to make the other sets.

            There are always some characters in a group to whom you narrate an entire story and they bamboozle with you with such dumb and basic questions that you feel like just landing a punch on them. It’s like you narrate the entire Trojan war at the end of which he/she asks you questions like, who is Achilles? Or who is Helen?

            As I was aware of the game rules, I explained it to all the guys who didn't know the rules of the game. All the guys listened to all the rules with a lot of concentration and we began the game. We were 5 minutes into the game and Abishek with a certain assertiveness said, "I wish to see the joker!" I was impressed as it was his first game and he got the hang of it real soon. So I asked him to flash the cards to cross check if it was a legal set. When he flashed the cards, I was dumbfounded and perplexed. I came out of it only when Nandhan spit out the water from his mouth unable to control the hilariousness of the moment. :) :).

            Abishek flashed a "hybrid" of sets, a sequence and triplet. Instead of flashing three consecutive ranks with the same suits, he ended up with three consecutive ranks with all different suits. We were all rolling on the floor laughing at this unique set created by Abishek and took quite some time to recover from it. Abishek was quite embarrassed  but he was a real good sport. He just laughed it away and gave us 10 minutes of rib ticking laughter by the act of his.

8: Arrival at Goa

I received a good morning message from Aksha at 6 AM in the morning. I had been messaging Aksha throughout the journey ignoring the fact that SMS in roaming cost me a fortune. But at that point of time, I was in "love" and love has no barriers my friend. I just kept messaging on and on ignoring the factor called money. In middle of exchanging the good morning kisses, we reached Goa. Woke up everyone and we quickly packed up our things and got down from the train. Joe's father came to pick us up. All the guys could not fit in the car, so his dad had to make two trips to the railway station.

            We were very excited to be at Goa, the idea of beach filled our minds with excitement. I was expecting a beach as soon as I arrived at the station, how foolish of me! We all freshened up at Joe's place, nothing better than a hot cup of Boost :) in the morning. We were all set to hit the beach, but we had no idea how. So we set up a package tour for the first few days so that, we get an idea of the entire city. Our idea was then to pick out the best places and head there by ourselves. We traveled the entire city in a mini bus, accompanied by few more people in the mini bus. 

            The weather at Goa was very humid, it was a rude change in the weather for us when compared to Bangalore, and so we were profusely sweating. In spite of that we visited couple of beaches, the famous Anjana beach and the Calingut beach. These were the beaches where most of the holiday crowd flocked to. Apart from the beaches, we visited couple of holy places. You must be wondering, what the hell are these guys doing? Holy places in the city, which is full of beaches and semi naked chicks, not to mention the amazing sea food!! I don't know, even to this day I don't get it, why did we go to holy places?

            Our first lunch at Goa was just simply outstanding. The spicy shrimp tasted just perfect. The thought of the food makes my mouth waster even to this day. The guide in the tour explained to us the prominence of the places in Goa. It was interesting in the beginning, but became a drag later on. Adding to that, there was some really stupid song playing in the background.. Goa..Goa..Margoa..some shit like that. It was really bad and to top that the same song was played again and again!!

            The first couple of days were interesting, we had covered a lot of places and got a feel of the Goa city. One fine evening, we headed off for a cruise. It was my first time on a cruise, so didn't know what to expect. There was some sort of a dance show on the cruise, where a lot of beautiful damsels danced to the local tunes, these tunes didn't sound as bad as that Goa song, as my eyes were fixed on their beauty. After the dance show they invited the audience to join them for a dance. Abishek was quite upbeat about it, after a little push from us, Abishek and Nandhan joined them on the stage for a couple of nice dance moves. By the way I am a terrible dancer, I am better off dancing when I am drunk, as my stupid moves can be attributed to my drunken state rather than the fact that I dance horrible.

7: Goa! Here we come!! part 2

Eunuchs barged into the train and created Havoc. Eunuchs are popular in the train stations and at several road junctions, where they seem like they beg for money, but what they do is just demand for it! Most of them surrender to it and end up paying it, irrespective of their liking. And generally the ones which enter the train are like the most demanding ones. They feast on students and those poor souls who look vulnerable and all set to surrender. Arjun was at the receiving end this time, when they came into the compartment where we were seated, each of us ended up paying 10 INR, 5 times more what would be paid to the normal beggar. But our hero Arjun, chose the bold way, he just paid like couple of bucks. They say fortune favors the brave, but in this case fortune chose to laugh at him. The moment he paid 2 bucks to the eunuch, it got enraged. I chose to refer the eunuch as "it", as it is hard to pick sides between male and female. On receiving the 2 bucks, it got so pissed, that it literally abused Arjun and went onto pull his check and further teasing him by touching his face and chest. We just couldn't do anything, forget about the fact that it was enjoyable looking at him in that condition but the whole situation was shit scary. 1 tip of rule while travelling in India, do not take up a fight with a Eunuch, you are bound to get embarrassed and certain to loose dignity. The important point here is, a eunuch has nothing to lose, while you have got everything to lose. Arjun was handed out a really rough treatment for about 30 seconds and he ended up paying 50 INR. He must have had his heart in his mouth while facing it. But if you look at the whole incident from a neutral person point of view like me, you would realize how laughable that incident was. The eunuch with its blood red saree, a bindhi on its forehead about a size of 50 p or 1 cent coin with lot of piercings on its face was surely a scary site to us, leave alone the "not matured" Arjun.

            "I swear, I will kill you" This was the most used line by Chetan. Whenever anything pissed him off, those were the words he used to utter. Never did anything, but when he spoke out these words, he sure looked like he meant it, but would mean nothing. I met Chetan in the 2nd year when students from both the sections got shuffled around depending on their names in an ascending order. So Chetan and Joey moved into my section. Chetan, appeared like he carried a lot of attitude, a lot of it can be attributed to the fact that he was into western music, his English was a lot more fluent and is a guitar player. Apart from the fact that his sense of humor was slightly on the lower side compared to me, he was a really good buddy. His patience levels were thoroughly tested by a 5 - 6 year old kid, who was jumping all around the train. As the sun set, we decided to get some sleep before we arrive at Goa the next day morning. So all of us got our pillows and blankets ready and were just about to sleep. This hyperactive kid dressed in a white t shirt and blue shorts with curly hair, popped up from nowhere and started pulling the blankets and legs of Chetan, Aditya and Nandhan. These were the guys sleeping in the lower beds, while the rest were sleeping in the upper compartments. He kept doing that continuously, Chetan initially was laughing, but one could see the irritation levels growing in him. But the thing with which Chetan got mad and uttered those words "I swear I will...." was when this kid bit Chetan's leg!! Yes, he bit him, I have no idea what that leg looked like to him. We were laughing uncontrollably sleeping in the upper compartments. The kid left few minutes after getting a rude warning from Chetan.

            We woke up the next day to see that, we arrived at Goa!!

6: Goa! Here we come! - Part 1

Did u know that, Goa is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population? If you didn't know, your general knowledge is not up to the mark. Just kidding! J I just found out about that, before writing this piece, courtesy Wikipedia.

I along with Abishek, Aditya, Arjun, Joey, Nandhan, Chetan headed off to Goa for a week. It was one of the most memorable trips we ever made together. I get a kick out of the fact that Arjun's mom considered him, not mature enough to let him go on the trip. I can never stop laughing thinking about that. She quite literally told him on his face, "Arjun you are not mature enough, you cannot go to the trip". He looked like a kid. I mean who doesn't? We just turned 20 that year and our parents were not sure if we were big enough to take care of ourselves. After a lot of convincing, Arjun eventually made it through. I met Nandhan and Chetan much later after I met Abishek. But they quickly became an important of the group. All of us along with Prithvi and Joey became a set of very close friends. Unfortunately Prithivi could not make it to the trip. I had a fair of bit of convincing to do at my place and also at Abishek's place as their initial answer was a plain NO. Parents finally agreed to the trip finding solace in the point that Joey's father was residing in Goa at that time.

I and Aditya arrived at the train station, Abishek arrived late as usual. He has a habit of showing up in the last moment for almost everything. He proved it once again coming just minutes before departure. Nandhan's and Chetan's parents had come to give them a sendoff. I was subdued initially, but later something got into me. I was at my maddening best, cracking some stupid jokes and PJ's. It was as if someone injected me with a pill which sorts of awakens the madness in one. Now that I think of that, I was always like that. I was very happy to be with these guys, it sort of gets out the best in me. The fact that I was leaving Aksha for so many days made me feel sad, but quickly came over it.

So there we were, train from Bangalore to Goa, if I am not mistaken it was like an 18 hours journey. I am not sure about the railways in other countries, but the railways in India are really interesting. Constant activity, people getting in and out all the time, children making a lot of noise, elders submerge themselves in a novel or they end up talking the entire journey at the end of which one will know the other person’s entire life history including their sons or daughters annual paycheck. There is always something special about a train journey. One can see people travelling from all walks of life. The train stops at many stations on the way and the best part about it is that there are so many vendors selling the local delicacies that one can sit and buy everything that comes along. If you are a foodie, you will be surely in for a delicious ride!

The journey was fun. We spoke about all the possible topics under the sun, sang songs, and played cards. Initially we were quite apprehensive about cards in a public place as they might mistake it for gambling, we took a chance and ended up playing UNO as well. That is one hell of a game if you are not aware of it.

There were some breathtaking landscapes and sceneries as the train made its way from Bangalore to Goa catching up steady speed as she moved along.“Dudhsagar” is one of the most exquisite water falls in India. The water plummets hundreds of feet in large volumes during the monsoon season and we were blessed to see her in full swing. Legend has it that a beautiful princess lived in a forest where there was then a beautiful palace. She loved and enjoyed bathing in a lake nearby, while at it she used to drink "sweetened milk" from her "Golden Jug" after finishing with her bath. One fine day, she found herself being watched by a young prince while she was in her inadequate bathing attire. To cover herself, she poured the jug of milk in front of him to form an improvised curtain to hide her body, while the maids rushed to cover her with her dress. And it is said that, it is that sweetened milk that cascades down the mountain slope to this day as tribute to the virtue and modesty of the Princess, as the "Dudhsagar Falls".

Just as we were awestruck by the beauty of the falls and mesmerized by it, there entered the Eunuch's!!

5: First Kiss

She typed "Sid, I am missing you a lot, I want to see you tonight, please come home!" This was the first time Aksha said something which meant she too loved me. When the phrase “I miss you” is used in a general context, it could mean a lot of things, but in this context and given the circumstances, it conveyed a deeper meaning. I replied back if she wanted to see me right away. I was a freaking 600 km away from Bangalore, with what guts I asked her if she wanted to see me, was something I never understood. As it turns out she said yes, which left me with no other option. So I took the next bus to Bangalore and made it home eventually the next morning in one piece.

 Does a girl really have the ability to change a guy's plans? Or is it that, the guy is so completely blindfolded by the girl that, he leaves his plans to her choice. I guess it is something for which I have no definite answer. I was happily enjoying my vacation at my aunt's place hoping to catch the newly released film that night and to spend some quality time with my little cousins. And within few hours I saw myself stranded in the middle of the highway at 2:00 AM in the night. There was no direct bus to Bangalore. Adding to that, I did not have any reservation as the whole thing was totally unplanned. So I boarded the available bus which took me just half way, I did not even have any connecting bus from there. The only thought in my mind was that,"300 km away from Aksha is better than being 600 km away". That was the extent of my madness!

I could obviously not meet her that night but did meet her the very next day. I was really excited to see her as I was hoping that she would shower me with her feelings :) and was hoping to be rewarded for the journey I undertook the previous night.

They say hard work pays, it did! Aksha deeply fell for that act of mine and later I was rewarded that night. Now now!! Do not get your dirty minds to think. :) She messaged me that night saying, "The girl, who marries me, would be a lucky girl". This was my reward! I am like an "alpa santoshi" – one who becomes happy for little things.

As days passed by, we shared a lot more things and Aksha even mentioned one night that "She was beginning to love me, as my love was too hard to resist". The moment she uttered those words, I was literally jumping with joy. It was like, there were 100 guitars playing in my heart at the same time, my joy knew no bounds. But the very next day, that joy was snatched away from me. The next morning she said that,” She was not in her right mind the previous night and asked me to ignore whatever she said”. Can you just believe that! Why are girls like that? Why??

I don't want to generalize, but I din't understand why she did that? By then I had got used to the periodic disappointments, so I recovered quickly. I was wondering what stopped her from expressing her love, but strongly believed that, one fine day she would be mine.

As days moved on, I was wondering where the next ray of hope would come from, I was waiting for an opportunity to knock. On a Wednesday afternoon, while we were in the middle of a class, Aksha received a message from home, asking her to return home immediately. Her house was very far from the college and she asked me to accompany her. How could I turn down an offer like that?

It was a long journey and was accompanied by long gaps of silence. I guess she was wondering why she was called home on such a short notice. On the other side, I din’t quite know what to talk. So I chose the silence.

I broke the silence after a while by offering her a piece of chocolate. What came next was a sweet surprise. She asked me to feed her! That left me confused and nervous. I mustered some courage and did eventually feed her. The interesting twist here was that, the chocolate had melted completely. How I managed to feed her in spite of the melted chocolate is left for the reader to imagine :).

That journey was special for the obvious reasons, it laid the foundation for our love. As days passed by, we spent a lot more time talking on the phone. In spite of all that talking, those three magical words never came out. So there was always a certain degree of uncertainty involved. This probability of uncertainty eventually faded away day by day, and even before I knew it, I kissed Aksha for the first time! 

It was truly magical when my lips touched her lips for the first time. She seemed tensed initially, but her nerves calmed down after few seconds. I could sense our hearts beating a lot faster. I felt as if the time had slowed down. It lasted for quite some time, it felt just amazing! I am telling you guys, the first kiss is definitely something. 

The after effects of the kiss were as sweet as a candy. Love definitely made my life beautiful. All of a sudden smile became an un-detachable part of my face. Life looked in all glory and smiled at me every single day.

4: The Reply

I said "I love you", I was greeted with a long silence. My heart was beating 10 times faster, I was sweating, dying with anticipation. After a long wait she said "I never thought of you that way". I was literally heart broken. I felt embarrassed and disappointed at the same time. It was hard to take the conversation further after a rejection like that. Even at that moment, there were a lot of questions in mind, but my mind went blank for that moment.

There was a sudden rush of thoughts in my mind. Why did she say no? What did she mean when she said I did not think of you that way? How will I face her tomorrow? Is it the end of journey! Countless thoughts. I eventually mustered some courage to ask, "Did you never think of me like that?"

The answer was a blatant NO. The heart broke into finer pieces this time. It felt like the whole world was crumbling right in front of my eyes.

           I just could not sleep that night for the obvious reasons. I did not want to face her the next day, in fact did not want to face anybody for the matter. I just did not know how to behave or move around with her. To top that, the next day she said,” Don't worry, it happens. I am sorry Sid, I never thought of you like that". It was like a slap on my face. All of a sudden she looked devilish to my eyes, she seemed completely like a different person.

            Days passed by, I suggested her that we be friends, as I did not want to lose the friendship. This is like a default option all guys fall back on. Get rejected, suggest to be friends as usual. This gives the guys a chance to try again, it’s like the friendship net is the fall back option.

Anyways we began talking as usual in a few days, but there was this unexplained tension at times. I thought to myself, there was no point going further. But due to my unprecedented love, I ended up proposing her again! YES you did read that right!! I repeated the same act. I tried to curb the feeling, but just couldn't. I expected the same answer, but this time Aksha said, "I don't know". The reply definitely infused some hopes in me. I was thinking in my mind, couple of more times and it might actually work. The moment she said "I don't know", I knew, that was my chance, I grabbed the opportunity and poured out all my feelings. The idea was to build on her reply.

In the same way, I ended up proposing three more times. "I Love you" now had become a joke. But the important thing was, every single time Aksha's answer was different. It was better than the previous. But it was never a "Yes" or "I Love you too". Her best reply was, "Maybe, I don't know". I tried and tried the entire third semester, but always in vain. 

Then came the semester break, I knew that I could not see her for a month. Was happy for the vacation, but was sad that I wouldn't be seeing her. I visited my aunt, an overnight journey from Bangalore. In spite of the location or in spite of the fact that messaging used to cost a fortune on roaming, I continued messaging Aksha.

One bright sunny afternoon, I received a message from Aksha, the message which changed the dimensions of the relationship or at least what I would call, the turning point of the relationship.