Beginning grad...

Schooling was one of the most difficult things in my life. Not so because I was dumb but because I was obstinate to a fault. College was a different experience. There was an altogether different environment, I was doing something which I liked unlike school where I needed to produce a notebook full of answers copied from the book or guides 4 times a year and since I never made a notebook for most subjects, I was often on the receiving end of some exquisite treatment. Old Chemistry teacher would bellow dangerously close to my year telling me I'll amount to nothing and I used to make a very discouraged face though I was smiling smugly not 5 mins later. Because as far as I was concerned he'd just as well go to hell. But to be always on the receiving end of one thing or the other was tiring.  

So, in the first few days I went to college many things changed. I remember sitting in a C class (I'd gone through a bit of C myself so could make the head and tail of it nicely), KS sitting on my left and Ravi on his left. SRK (not the movie star!) was just behind. We were given a not very difficult exercise and Me and SRK immediately went into gear to solve it. KS was sitting there making alien shapes in his notepad and mumbled "Fuck" pretty much out loud. I was mildly surprised but wasn't caught off balance. The instructor was all pretty patronising about it, telling us to think collectively. But KS couldn't make it out without "Fuck"ing at least 4 more times. Needless to say I went along quite well with these three like water on duck's back. And everybody brought a different color to it. 

KS was the loudest; damn it, still is the fucking loudest. The first thing you'd hear when he calls is a nice little greeting that I don't care to elaborate. Ravi was typical Delhi guy. Baadshe...masti.  The fun of "Check karo" while biking was just awesome. SRK was the serious one :). Surprise, surprise. He'd always be upto some criticism. More like dissection. He'd dissect almost everything from a C program to a food recipe to the female instructor (in technical matters, of course). I still remember how he made one of the interns cry who came for a guest lecture. I was pretty much myself and that's the mark of a friendship. It's a beautiful experience just to be. We never pretended.