Those enchanted four and half years

Chapter 10

Post examination, the atmosphere in our class had become gloomy. Everyone was depressed to a certain degree; some had started studying too harder. Sufee, however, did not take any load. She remained her funny self. "If we already knew everything, why would we waste 4 & ½ years of our life studying it?" she would say.

One such post exam day, after our usual biochemistry nap (our biochemistry hour nap was not affected by exam), as we were just getting oriented to surroundings, Tarun Bhalerao, our class representative, came on the stage. Looking at the stunned expression on everybody's face, he said, "Don't worry, I am not here to talk about any omissions in biochemistry lecture by our professor," he continued, "I am here to announce that we all are going for a short trip to Mahabaleshwar. The trip is scheduled on coming Saturday - Sunday. It's a two days trip with one overnight stay. Those who are interested, kindly submit names latest by Thursday night. We are hiring a luxury bus for our journey, and Dr.Nikhil Chatterjee will be accompanying us."

"Yeeyy!!" the whole class uproared.

"Two reasons to celebrate," Sufee said excitedly.

"Two?" I asked.

"Yes, one - the trip, two - Nick!" Sufee said.

"You will never change," I laughed, shaking my head.

Suddenly the gloomy atmosphere in our class became charged with excitement and enthusiasm. Those who were depressed became maniac, and those who had started studying harder, stopped studying. The only topic now in lecture halls, tutorials, practicals, dissection hall, SP, hostel steps, was the upcoming trip.

We began our journey early morning on Saturday. The weather was very cold and small amounts of fog were still floating in the air. The bus was a luxury bus with 3 - 2 seating arrangement. The guys took seats at the back, while front seats were occupied by girls. When Arun climbed the bus, I initially did not recognize him; he was draped from head to toe in warm clothes. Even his eyes, which were the only visible part, were half covered by his woolen cap.

"Hey, ask Tarun if we are going to Mahabaleshwar or somewhere else," I said loudly. Arun stopped in his tracks. "Why?" somebody asked. "Looking at Arun, I thought we were off to Antartica," I said. At that, everyone laughed. Arun gave me a 'I will get back to you' look, and went ahead to get seated. Everyone cheered as Nick entered the bus, looking handsome in a jerkin, and took the seat in the driver's cabin. Sufee immediately exchanged seats with me, as Nick was better visible from there.

As we started leaving the town, the sun started rising and the atmosphere became very beautiful. The weather was still chilly. Outside the window, I could see stretches of lush green grass, almost reaching the horizon. The horizon was lined by distant mountains and huge trees, which appeared very small. The sky was clear blue, sometimes interspersed by white clouds. As we crossed a bridge over a river, I could see the beautiful river running beneath with its dark blue water. Small children were playing along its banks. "Ruta!" Sufee's voice brought me out of my reverie. I looked around with a start. "What are you looking at outside the window? We are playing antakshari," Sufee said. "Oh...Okay," I looked around to see Nick standing in the middle of the bus with a mike. This was a different kind of antakshari, not exactly an antakshari. Here, guys would sing a song where in a guy lures a girl with his love, and as an answer, girls would sing a song wherein the girl rejects the guy. For e.g, Guys would sing - 'Aaja aaja, mai hu pyaar tera' To which, we would answer with - 'Nahi nahi, abhi nahi, abhi karo intejaar' They would sing - 'Mai tumse pyaar karta hoon, ha ha ji pyaar karta hoon..' We would answer with - 'Jaane kyon log pyaar karte hai' They would sing - 'Teri adaaonpe marta hoon, love tuze love mai karta hoon' We would reply with - 'Dil vil, pyaar vyaar, mai kya jaanu re' so on and so forth. We all enjoyed so much, the jugalbandi went on till in the end, girls won with 'Bhaiya mere, rakhi ke bandhan ko nibhana', to which guys had no answer. Time just flew by, and we reached Mahabaleshwar. No one seemed to notice that we had played for four hours.