Love, Life and Bicycles.

“Where are we going?” I asked my bro. He turned to me as he retrieved his hands from the prayer, and raised an eyebrow, “aren’t you too young to come with us!?” I punched on his arm “c’mon I’m in 9^th standard!! You had two girlfriends back then when you were of my age!!” “But you still haven’t got one! Have u?” he sharply said rubbing his arm….”okay I haven’t but you are not giving me the opportunity to get one, are you!?”I said cutting him. ”okay, okay!! Let’s go to Bongo first, meet some friends then we will think where to go!”

We came out of our school, took out our cycles and within minutes we were on the road to Bongo Vidyalaya ….

It was my first time going out with my bro and his friends during the swaraswati puja. This one day we can throw the books aside and enjoy. They do the same stuff every year…first they got to our junior school where the Puja is organized by the 10^th standard boys. And the same red wall adjacent to the jail on the other side where they pose and click photos to which my bro will be glued for some days. Some of these photos will appear in different face book profiles of friends, comments will be flowing in like catastrophic floods. Next they go to other schools like bongo vidyalaya , Krishnabhobyani & to the old friends places  and then there is the party at night the school ground. The place becomes a night club for that particular night! Their perfect way to end the day. Our school is probably the only school that has a party (I never heard any other school having it!!)  No one’s allowed in the ground except the 10^th standard students and ex-students,& they are wild(my bro once recorded some videos )…. there are no bouncers at the doors but nobody tries to cross the line. After that in their own houses thrash themselves on their respective beds waiting for the day to end and again throw life on us!

“Oh! There is he” my bro said after putting his cycle’s stand in a corner of a dusty playground.

He has spotted Kush da, his best friend… in a distance….he was busy with his own cam. “Oh gawad! His little bro’s with him…. I won’t get bored then!” I said with a sigh. He gave me his sarcastic eye look.

Actually I never get bored with the two of them together…I just feel out of place at times. Its just good to be with your own friends but my besties live faraway places and are not sporty enough to roam about in my town on bicycles. The boys of my class who live in Chandernagore are not interested in this particular activity and I don’t actually want them with me on this day. So I have to make his friends my friends to make this time worthwhile. Kush da’s bro, Kuttuss on the other hand is a good friend of mine though in 8^th standard he can speak like is 9^th or 10^th standard. We come in same category i.e little bros, so I can pretty much bitch with him.

In the meantime he has spotted us and was pacing towards us. “Matching kurtas!!” Kush da said

“Ya this is what happens when you live in the same house!! Everything get same!! Even the clothes!” he pointed out and again gave the sarcastic eye look! “Copy cat!!” he added. I also gave him the same look!

This may seem funny but from my birth every bloody person have been comparing two of us and pointing our similarities once in a blue moon our dissimilarities!! I myself think that we are pretty much alike…except the fact that when he was of my age he already had two girlfriends and became single after that and can get any girl he wanted! Umm….well not ANY!! But I’m not even half way there!!! Thus, he began to use words like ‘copycat’, ‘intruder’ referring to me!!  

Both brothers smiled, as if with sympathy.

Then all of turned our heads towards the opposite corner of the dusty ground where in a small pandal sat the goddess of wisdom.       

“This is odd…where are the students!?” I pointed out looking around the place.

“You very well know where they are! Don’t you!?” Kush da winked at me. My bro sighed with a faint smile “didn’t expect the whole battalion to march out there! ” Kutuss & myself remained silent and folded our palms in prayer, and stared at strange huge cotton balls stuffed on either sides of the idols trying to create the atmosphere of heaven like in cheap Bengali T.V serials….and I background played “Marjani ….marjani” ,the  then poplar Bollywood number…

Yes I knew where they were! They were at Kirishnabhavi, the one of the few west Bengal board girls schools in chandernagare….and maybe one of the most iconic!! That’s our next stop!

“Let’s go then!” Kush da said. All of us followed his words like lifeless robots, we took out our cycles sat on them and went out of the gate….and then it happened…..my bro trying to the lead the way went a little forward, but stuck in a slow moving jam, myself trying to catch up with him a little behind….….  Kush da  and Kutuss a little back of me. A rickshaw form the same side tried to overtake my bro but in failure pressed closer to him. And slowly as the jam cleared….and the three wheeled carrier began to move and we heard a sound “Cheeeeeeeeee!!” My bro’s new kurta got tangled with the rusted screws of the rickshaw, which had torn his right pocket to some length!!! “stop!!” he cried loud enough for the rickshaw diver to hear and to stop him doing any more damage to the purple jute cloth!! The startled driver pressed his brake hard….turned around with a irritated look on his face to see what has happened….seconds after there was a cry higher than my bro’s previous one! We turned around almost in equal timing…the cry came from Kush da’s epiglottis!! I opened my mouth to ask what happened, but he opened his mouth instead and cried out again in self confession “I loved that kurta!!!” we looked at each other and bust out in laughing .There we were two almost adults and two sensible teenagers laughing their heads off in the middle of a jam on the town’s most busiest road and the rickshaw driver still staring at us in a even more irritated look pasted on his face!!  

We reached Kishnabhobani somehow controlling ourselves we kept our cycles facing the giant lake adjacent to the school. You won’t laugh when you are in this school but you would have a ‘mission accomplish’ like feeling! Or it’s just me…I guess it’s just me I asked my bro about this and he confirmed that it’s just me. “Nobody fell like that!! They have better things to do in there…but to fell absurd things!!” he said. Never the less we entered through the wide open front door. It looked like miniature Santineketan! Colorful Ranglois on the ground, beautiful women who wore colorful saris probably once a year. I was amazed by the scene that lay in front of me……most strange thing is that at first sight you won’t see the girls but idle boys who roaming around the place. Mostly, giggling, staring at the people with bad things in mind (it was clear from their expressions!)And trying to hit on girls(whose category is limited to minimum )

“Guessed it right I think!” I said thinking aloud.

You might be think that we were there for the same reason as we are also boys….but we were not like them we knew how to control our thoughts, actions and most importantly also our hormones!

We were there to meet a friend of ours and to see the idol not to stand there like idle people and imagine getting laid……

Me & Kutuss were left alone (like always) when my bro and his friend went to search for their friends…. I was observing  the rangolis and the decorations to take ideas from them as next year it’s our turn for the school idol.  When we were done roaming about we sat on the concrete slab. My bro came back soon with his friends. “we are going to her house….u guys wanana  go?” my bro enquired. “I wanna go home!!” Kutuss said. “Nay I’m exhausted too and I will be bored there too…let me drop you home ” I suggested. “Ok then adious amigos!” Kutuss said trying out his Spanish!

We took out cycles out and took separate routes…. And soon we reached his house…he dragged me in and offered me to play Angry Birds with him! I thought for a while and stated that there is no use of going home in the sun and I have no work to do in my house at this point of time….

“Let’s shoot some pigs!!” I exclaimed. He smiled and led me to the computer room…..

We sat and played for two hours, did facebook, talked for a while and again played that easily addictive game!! Around 2pm I got out of his house and headed towards mine….after 15 minutes I reached my mentioned destination , folded my kurta away and hanged it on a hanger and crashed on the bed. Within seconds in floating in dreams.

Same day. 6:45 pm….

I woke up with my eyes half closed…saw my bro dressing up. The kurta wasn’t there instead was a black t-shirt layered with a shirt… “Where are you going!!?”I asked with a feeble tone, it was a known answer…but still I asked “you well know where I’m going! Tell dad I will be home by 9….” He answered fixing his watch. “I will join you in the party next year…you know” I said getting up. “Next year I won’t be here! This year is my last…. ” he replied curtly …. I crashed back on the bed and stared at the pale white ceiling “bros don’t go to parties together?”

“Good night…” he said.

I turned to him “Good night”     

Blogger’s note: I don’t know how but the title came to me somehow. I knew it would be about the three things, love, life and bicycles….but didn’t know how to connect the three together in a good way. Then one fine morning in English tuition my sir told us write a dialogue on sarasawti puja…. & there it was the perfect link joining the three. It took me nearly over a month to finish it off as it is a sensitive piece involving our lives. The incidents didn’t occur this year alone… it is a collection of two years! And to be honest some of them are frictions also…(my bro doesn’t talk that much or at least not in that way )…. ‘the kurta tearing incident’  did really happened this year but I wasn’t a witness of it as I was at my grandpa’s …. I heard it from my bro and tried to fit in it!! I took innumerable breaks during that particular incident! Because I didn’t know how to portray it properly as I wasn’t there!! But I know kushda cried! And also know he’s goanna kill be after reading this!!! Of course there are some loose points…I ain’t no Sakesphere! Never had tried to be one! But this is how it is. This is my life. Hope you become a part of it! If not I will convince to become one….. thank you for reading.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                         Living life.

     

Time of fantasy.

“Hey P, turn around, jerk! You are messing up the frame.” Cried my friend from behind .I turned around... “Smile!” the small 5megapixel phone camera clicked. “Done?” I asked irritably. Aashish ran to him to see the picture he has just taken, I remained where I was and turned back around. We were at the Jethi it was our refreshment day at school so we decided to roam about a bit before we go home. I thought it was more to do there than to just click pictures for face book. My eyes came back to the man sitting with his legs folded at the furthest corner of the Jethi …his face was turned towards the Ganges so I couldn’t see it. With him was his young one too small to sense his surrounding & understand the harshness of life. I came and stood near them but didn’t talk much so that I might not disturb them…the parent was describing the scenario that lay ahead. The child gave his reply in his own childish language which explains his importance .His words gave a glimpse of the unknown fantasies which a child imagines to venture, without knowing the way but just the certainty that it have to be done anyhow…. This idea manifests in his brain until he gets the idea that his dreams are too imaginative and are not worthy of fulfilling and there are other things to do in life than to just to turn faint imaginations into reality. These faint dreams become memories and the wish of being a pirate and sail away gets lost. The child becomes older and realizes that life is just a speeding ball and one have to hit it hard at the right time, at the right speed to make a six! Or else you are out… the parent who has heard the boy’s dreams remembers them but keeps quite as he thinks remembering those memories will only divert his son form his aim. He finds out that the only way to live life is to go with it…though it can break your hands or legs. He realizes that there is no happiness, no grief, no pain only the race and the will to win it and make it big in life. The library just turns into place to get free reference books! Then if he hits the pole and life becomes unbearable… and he finds a dead-end he switches off the fan…and ties the knot to his neck... and unties the knots with life…       

“Who’s that!? “The friend asked,

“Nobody…” I answered with a smile on my face.

Blogger's note: The picture given(insert) is the real picture I took that day on the Jethi. 
Thanks for reading. 
                                                                                                                                    P.p~

The still rocking 'bhadur da'!

our old scl....we go there only in the sawarsti puja and in some of the following days!

my present school! isn't grandly old fashioned! :P

i actually never sat in this class!!

a small corridor of the great building!

A GLIMPSE OF LIFE.

Long ago I read a wonderful poem in which the poet tells us about glimpse of a flower he has in a train journey .This was described as the glimpse of heaven. I don’t remember the lines or poet but the subject matter has left a deep mark in my life. We get so busy in our life that we forget many small &beautiful details of our short life. It’s like a song. Until you listen with utmost concentration you can’t get the lyrics and the instruments playing with it. I try to observe as much as much my life lets me. I find the most intriguing observation in gazing the world through the train window. We always have something new, to see, to observe out of that thin glass sheet…but the people on the other side are on their daily routine…who might have got accustomed or even bored with the daily passing of the train and may have stopped their observations as they don’t find anything new about it. We see different people from different places, whom we have never seen in our life & probably will not see any more. We imagine what it would be like to get in the big factories, climb on those stairs to the high chimneys…look to life from up above. To gaze, and let someone else care about the destination. Feel the wind about your face and plug your earphones in and don’t care about your hairstyle to mess up. The absurd shapes of flowers with unknown hues, which seems to have their origins in wonderlands, the green bamboo forests with its diagonal leaves spread all around the wet soil. The narrow strips in the middle of young seed beds for the highland lass to cross…or simple rhythm of train accustomed to reach its destination on time. Then again the speedy train halts and we take our bags and rush out of train and again in to our busy lives. Again forgetting what we acquired and in a corner of the heart waits the wish to be on the train and reconquer  it !                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                     P.p.

 

On the starting of the strand road, opposite to SJC (Saint joseph's convent ) in the park the benches (picture above)contain carving, or just first letters of names & heart sings! well its not a new thing for many (which includes me) but i thought of telling you guys !  
                                                                                    pp 

life     

.Good-bye Chandenagare.

My dad welcomed me with a rough voice as I entered the house. Ato dari holo kano! Janis na train ta miss hoye jabe to(why are you so late! We are going to miss the train...). We were going to grandpa’s house that day. Since the death of my grandma’s death, a year ago we call it only grandpa’s house…..everybody calls their grandparent‘s house as mamarbari (uncle’s house) in Bengali. We (me and my bro) thought about that for some time and decided to call it dadur bari (grandpa’s house) as we didn’t have any maternal uncle!! Okay back to present time …me and my dad exchanged some hard words then drank our morning tea and go up to dress. My dad got out of the house first to the nearest auto rickshaw stand to catch a rickshaw to the station. Then I and my mom came out. During that time I remembered doing something very silly that morning …I posted on facebook that I will go to my grandpa’s house for 1&1/2 days ! But I’m writing the post as if I’m going for a week or so…! I also posted a link of a song & wrote above it “this is my last song for 2 days!”!!!How silly I’m…but I guess life is full of sillyness or else we wouldn’t enjoy it as we do, and in facebook that silliness is sometimes acknowledged .Other than that I talked with a friend who was going to dinner with her hubby. I shared some links and then said the goodbyes and went offline. I remember there was a thick fog, which have faded now, but is still dense and moist in my thoughts. I wish my bro can be with me that day but he can’t because of his exam … I get bored without him present. I don’t know what to expect for the following days. Perhaps a happy grandpa and an even happier little bro! Well life is lonely if only you think it in that way. We boarded an auto rickshaw and went towards the station. I cannot explain my emotion at that point of time …. I was feeling happy for I was going to my grandpa’s house but also sad for leaving my town. The roads were covered with dense fog. The bright lights of cars cutting their way through the moist clouds. In my heart echoed – goodbye Chandenagare ; goodbye my town!

                                                                                                                         P.P

Blogger’s note: This passage was written during the train journey to my grandpa’s.

                                                                        

Hey guys sorry about not giving any posts these days! My net was wrecked so I couldn't & I have exams now so you guys have to wait till 9th December! sorry...
                                                                                                
                                                                    Prithwish.