Chapter 1 - Ira and Me !

New life in Pune, I am sitting in the heavily crowded yet beautiful canteen of my college, breathing in as much air into my lungs as possible… you see, every time you feel alive you do that don’t you? Breathing in a lot of fresh air, feeling rocking alive and ready to charge! So there I was munching Wada pav and sitting there with Ira… Oh Ira? Well, met her in class just today, struck up a little conversation and thought that she was almost like me.. So we both went to the canteen during recess. “Are you happy?? “ Suddenly ira asked. I wasn’t expecting that question so it amazed me.. And I loved that feeling of amazement in me. “I think I am not??? “ I said with a confusion in my mind.. Well, I was happy in a lot many ways and not happy in lot many ways.. So I was really confused. Anyways that conversation was the beginning of a new friendship. Two lunatics! Ira and me.

We were this bunch of insanity. We were this partially irreparable spirits, optimistic about life and a lot adventurous. Adventure provoked us more. We planned and plotted several ideas which to this date remain buried in the minus degrees of Arctic ! We laughed and laughed and laughed a lot in class which almost threw us out from there ! I never bunked the class, never dared to but Ira was non hesitant about bunking classes. One day she somehow convinced me that we run out before the sir comes in and I was still wondering whether I should do it or not and there she runs out with my bag and screams “ run Indu run… “ like run lola run?? I didn’t budge from the seat I thought I will sit there instead but then I suddenly remembered that my book pen and everything else was in the bag. So I decided to run before the sir came in. I ran .. and all the boys in the class sang “This is not fair !! “ ( This is not fair ?? Are boys saying this , it made me laugh inside ) I ran.. and I bumped into the very sir who was to take our class. He just came out from the lavatory nearby ! He was coming from one side and saw me but I just ran.. I ran not looking at him and not giving him a feeling that I had seen him already! It was an absolute flight !

Then I joined Ira and we went to the canteen and passed our time, laughing ! The next day sir came in and when he saw me , sitting there with my puppy dog eyes , he said “Indu , yesterday you ran away from my class?? “ Everybody in class started laughing. I gave him this roughish smile and said “noo sir ! “
Obviously he knew, and I knew. Both of us knew. But he didn’t make it a big deal because this was a very common thing in colleges!

Anyways.. Hunger and poverty were the two things that followed Ira and me. We both usually came to college without having breakfast.. and by the recess we’ll be hungry enough to eat an elephant.. But we would get satisfied with a chai and wadapav or a bread paattis.. But when there is no money and its just the transportation charges we have with us, we kinda linger around at the food counter and dip our hands inside the sauf (jeera coated with sugar) bowl and grab some and eat it… We made this a regular affair. Whenever we didn’t have money we would go and take a handful of sauf and munch on it happily.. But atlast they found how so much sauf went missing ! And sadly for us, they stopped keeping it on top of the counter… instead they kept it underneath.. we laughed about it , I remember.

Money was a goddamn problem. Without money nothing is possible. We would discuss. We thought like that because we were always window shopping at deccan.. We didn’t have the money to buy things sold at the beautiful Deccan area other than the corn chaat and some posters saying “ MY ROOM , LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT ! “ But still we loved Deccan.. We would always hang out there… walk about in malls , walk by the road, read a book for an hour at the roadside book vendor’s small makeshift shop and finally hear him swearing at us because we didn’t buy the book.. and so on…

Ira and i fought once, it was supposed to be a big fight. We stopped talking to each other for some days. Friends in class started asking me "what happened? " I would say " nothing " Then one day Sudarshan Bhaiyya tells me "Arre... are you people in L K G for heavens sake..?? Not talking ?!! " Bhaiyya calls her up and talks to her after me repeatedly saying NOOOOO.. he gives the phone to me.. i talk to her and she talks very happily and talks as if nothing has happened... I start crying and she gets surprised by that ! She said " Arre.. i am sorry yaar... didnt mean to "
That was our first and last fight !

Then we would just meet, roam around , see ajji ( grandma ) at her home, spend time talking with her, eat rotti dal chawal and everytime i would find a hair in it ! I hated it ! And she knew that i hated it ! :-)