What I did last summer

Part I
Meet the people

Challenges may treat you and threat you but what if challenges laugh you. The blazing sun was everywhere and the place was quite humid. The Brahmaputra River taking its toll every year but she never saw the excellence brought by a human mind which was excited and passionately nurtured by its travelogue. Through the tea gardens passing New Jalpaiguri junction as I moved to the north east, I was sure; something’s going to happen different. Very different. I was said by a guy of the pantry car that you are about to reach the station in 10 minutes and I could see my destination, IIT Guwahati. It was the summer of 2004 and my first summer training ever. Though an academic training but I was highly interested as there were 50% females selected for the purpose and I was one among the rest 50%. So it was school time again after 2 dull years in a place where there was merely 5% of fairer sex.

As I landed on the platform, I could see two typical Bengali guys and the very sight said me they are with me for the next 28 days. They approached me and one of them said me “Show are you going to IIT?” This guy was good except for the problem that he belongs from the same district me and my ancestors belong, the Midnapore district in the state of West Bengal and thereby pursues a tongue which takes its toll in pronouncing “S” – A typical shoshi babu of Bengal. But he couldn’t perplex me as he said, “I’m Debashesh from Prey-she-den-she”. To rectify you, his name is Debasis and he was from Presidency College, Kolkata. Quite a friendly guy. Isn’t it. And he was really a good pal. He was accompanied by another guy, “Oh My God, Mr. Attitude”. He spoke zero words through the one hour journey as we moved from the station to the campus. What I could notice about him in that short span was, he seemed to be a dancer. The way he walked and his body language may have definitely seduced somebody. The way he relaxed his chin over his spread out palm, and the way he was curling his hair. His whole 5’5’’ structure seemed to be floating on the air and he responding to it lethargically.

The welcome was good, and I met with some of the most interesting characters I’ve met in my life. Let me pen down one by one. Tejinder Singh – A true sardar from Punjab. Now I know I don’t have to speak much about it. I would call him the life of the team. But I also came to know one thing, their long hair stinks. He used to apply almost 150 ml of oil everyday and no water. I mean no bath. Latter on he used to treat guys who would oil his hair and share the irresistible odour. He brought with him 8 baggages. It had everything, everything we needed. Ajay Kumar – Great guy. Basically a highly talented physics major student but I would suggest him to join entertainment industry. Tanned, extremely skinny guy with jokes, pranks and his lovely smile. I loved it. Anirban Bose – Xaviers, Kolkata. That’s how he described himself. There was a similarity between me and Anirban. Both took tuitions from the same teacher at two different cities, at two different times. He was the only to make me feel competitive out there. And his thick moustaches!!!! Awesome. We shared adjacent benches, and he showed how to fall in love with the last bench. We were last benchers. Isfak Hussain – also from Kolkata. He brought a bhujali with him. Not very special….. A bit low the order, when it comes to thoughts, any thoughts. But I would never forget one thing about him. On the second day of the camp he said me, “Are you afraid of girls”…….OMG……. :)) I’ve already told about Debasis Khamrai and with him was Sukanta Bhattacharya from Presidency. Tanmoy was from Burdwan. Introvert and he used to cry inside the PCO booth cabin talking to his girlfriend!!!! Deadly romantic indeed. There was Sanjeeb and Satyanarayan from Orissa. Really good guys. I wish I’ve them here in Kharagpur next year. Satyanarayan is a CS student, another lover of the camp, but he never cried. Thank God. And Sanjeeb – short, tan with a great enthusiasm and interest for mathematics. The unfortunate fact was that just one of the many guys from Assam who attended the camp had fun with us. The rest kept them isolated. They were too bookish and deadly perverted. No regrets infact.

Now let’s come to the point - The fairer sex. Though not even 50% of them were HOTTT!!! But all of them were so gentle and down to earth that I just can’t stop respecting them. There was Navamita from Xaviers, Kolkata – sweet girl. Barnali from Assam – umm she was in love there. That was sweet. And the mother…Papori Sarma…(pronounced as Papori Horma)……Hey ma. How are you!!!! With them there were also Tanima and Niharika from UP and Orissa respectively. I can just visualize them as Indian ladies. May God bless them and they find their true purpose of existence on earth. They hardly spoke to me. We never saw this girl talking or opening her mouth, her name was Kanchan from the host institute, but somewhere she was brilliant. Another brilliant girl was Devi Goswami, a board ranker from Assam and presently in Delhi. She is the one with brain and beauty - really lovely and brilliant. Have you heard about the Charlie’s Angels? So here was also a 3-gal Company and we loved to call them Charlie’s Angels. They were together every time and everywhere (may be not!!!!). They were the smartest, sexiest, hottest and grammatically fittest for the Indian version of the movie. They were Pallavi, a semi pro-TV and movie actress of Assam, Surabhi – tall, smart, highly intelligent gal from Delhi whose BF is a model and the least talented of them was Anindita – from Xaviers, Kolkata. I won’t say much about her. She’s the only girl I "hated" in the camp as she thought herself to be a Bengali beauty queen, her attitude was like that……What a shit. Just a thin hip isn’t enough to make you sexy madam!!!! Doesn’t she understand this?

Though there were many others, but these are the people I loved or hated the most. There were also few more, but they are characters of my story are inspired by them. My story is my fantasy and they are the characters. So you’ll know about them in the next episode.

Coming next in

What I did last summer

is

The Siege of SEX and Statistics.