July-August 2007

It was just a week into college and I was like suffocated . We were cut off from the outside world. Near to our hostel was Narayan Ashram on one side and the townsite of Govindpur on the other. I was curious to see Allahabad, yeah i was . So came the day . Jumped the walls of hostel to the outside world. A relief as soon as i landed into the interior of the Ashram.

Now was the time to see Katra, the shopping hub (LOL) of Allahabad. With all the calculations in mind to return during lunch, i caught this funny allahabadi auto, the so called 'VIKRAM'. Believe me ! this auto consisted of a body placed on a thundering motor. At one moment it will give you the feeling exactly like when you sit on a plane , a supersonic place! The noise ! Half the noise pollution in this world is accounted by allahabadi Vikrams. With such a ride, i reached Katra. Now what! All chaos. Scorching sun above ! 11 am in the morning, Allahabad is nearly 36+ degrees during July.All i could see was three roads ! Each one leading to nowhere near my purpose , the purpose of scavenging Katra. University Road it was which became my destination. After walking half a kilometer i was into the book hub of allahabad. Thousands of Books , Hundreds of Shops. H.K Dass -I bought it ! A couple of notebooks for the semester too. I used to write on my 12th standard notes earlier. Now i had the personal notebook for college ! Twas 12 am and i had to leave , i asked one of the vikrams passing by to stop.

Autowala:'Kaha jana hai bhaiyya ' (in typical Allahabadi tone)

I:(Damn! I forgot the place's name)'Baiyya college jaana hai,tagore hostel jaante hain?'

Autowalla: 'AAiye baitheye.(pointing inside the auto) Are bhai thoda jagah do,aap aage aa jao(to some man)'

Such is the auto of allahabad. Everytime a new passenger sweeps in, the old ones are reshuffled.

I:'thik hai bhai'

Vikram: gad gad gad gad gad gad gad dhad dhad dhad (till i reached near the streets of tagore).

In the auto, i met with a second year senior-Harshit Patel, Mechanical. Needless to mention, he was one nice senior i met first in college.

He: 'Motilal se ho?'

Me:'Yes sir'

He:'First Year?'

Me:'Yes sir'

He:'bahar kaise aa gaye ?allow ho gaya ?'

Me(with a grin):'No sir'

After a bit of intro and infos.

He:'koi problem ho toh mera number le lo , ragging wagging ho toh mera naam le kar bol dena ,nahi hoga'

Me: 'sure sir. Thanx sir'

and then i took his number .

We reached near Narayan Ashram. He left with all those 'dassna'(so we call now ) and i was left alone.

And then i had two options : To wait for the line of the first years and then somehow hop in to reach hostels or to follow the track back:jump the walls.

I chose the first one and the bunk was better than the N D Pandey's Chemistry Class.O believe me ! That guy can himself hardly listen what he talks. Near to zero decibels .

That was Friday and the for the next couple of days , i was joined by many partners.Civil Lines, McD. And yeah! half a month and i already started to hate mess food.