True stories - A Pal of Mine……..& yet Another One!!!!!

 A Pal of Mine……..& yet Another One!!!!!

- Ram V Nampoothiri

 “I LOVE MY FRIENDS, THEY ARE MY STRENGTH. I WILL ALWAYS STAND BY THEM IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR DEEDS, AND EVEN I GET SCREWED UP, I DONT CARE COZ IT’S THE NAIL THAT STANDS UP WHICH GETS THE HAMMERING"

The 'About Me' ramblings in Orkut profiles usually don't hold much value as one's character sketches, but the above is entirely true about him.

Short. Well-built. Fast-receding hairline. White shirt with pink-flowers, or blue with a huge Metallica print on the back and a zipper over the chest. Designer jeans with carefully made out tears all over. You can easily spot him from a mile away amongst the medico crowd, that is if he comes to college.  But his appearance is the least important thing about him. He has his own unique take on anything under the sun – from medicine to politics to sports. And that made us hit it off together. I found that I could converse, debate, argue and laugh with him on anything hours on end without either of us feeling a wee bit bored. He has this rare gift of putting people at ease.

His exploits on the cricket field are widely known. Colour-blind he may be, but he pumped up Anwar into hitting a few sixes and even smashed a four himself (God knows how?!) on our road to winning the cup. What isn't known to many is his brilliant chess game. I looked like an idiot betting against this district player over a game with one of my pals. I lost the bet, of course, and he won a bottle of sprite and a lot of my admiration.

Another day, he greeted me with this question:

“Dude, heard about the quiz?”

“Ya.”

“How about we team up?”

“Sure.”

And off we went, without even a microscopic amount of preparation between us, sailing through the preliminaries on top and finishing third in the final. We were the third-best team in the college, but the fun we had was the best part.

A party freak, he is also pretty good dancer as we found out from Caterpillars at Genesis 2006. His remarkable organizing skills came to the fore during our three college tours so far. Without losing his temper even once, and without a single heated exchange with anyone he made sure we enjoyed three flawless tours to the max, all the while having a whale of a time himself. Not your typical burned-out impresario. Oh yeah, and he occasionally scoots off on unplanned stress-buster trips with his close pals.

In case you're wondering what's so special about being a popular, high-spirited college guy, there's one thing that truly sets him apart from the rest – he stands up unselfishly for people – his friends, his classmates.  All of us know his super-fast attendance-taking and zipping through the registers, but only a few know about the mess he landed in as our rep., after we mass-bunked an average exam. The only time that he has gotten angry was when one of our classmates got beaten up in a row. In the events and the brawl that followed, he cut his radial artery and underwent an emergency vascular surgery and hospitalization for a couple of weeks. All for a pal. And some say a high made him do all that. I can assure you that he was extremely sober that night when he went to seek retribution for our mate. ViKu Sir later described him in the incident as “Look, these are actions which make a difference to the society we live in. Change for the better or worse I cannot say, but change certainly he has brought about, and you should all be proud of him.”

There are two kinds of brilliant people in this world – the ones whose heads rule over their hearts and those whose hearts rule over their heads. The former become highly successful and famous in life. The latter touch more lives than others and spread happiness and contentment, and become a part of our very souls.

“As we complete four years of acquaintance and friendship, I realize that you belong to the second group, mate. And I'm proud to have you as a pal. You're totally COOL, and then some.”

Moving on to the other end of the spectrum…..

She is short cute and plump. And Quiet. So silent that, you wouldn’t realize her existence even when she has been around you for the past four years. She has a perfect attendance during the theory classes but the register doesn’t reflect it, and this is probably because the guy taking the attendance fails to hear her answer her name from the front row, where she sits in all these classes. Now you know how quiet she is. To make the contrast more obvious with the guy mentioned in the first part of this article, she dresses in the most simple, down to earth manner that one can possibly imagine with absolutely no trace of even an earring in her body.

However the most characteristic feature that sets her apart from everyone, is the pace of her speech and gait which, I’m afraid, is really really S-L-O-W. Except when she’s inside the exam hall answering viva questions where, (as the marks might reflect!!!) I think she answers them all a little too quickly.

An extremely God fearing person, she is also a very homely person who gets very very homesick if she doesn’t visit “Mama” at least once in a couple of weeks. That she hails from the same city as my hero of the story, leaves my wondering how different can people, hailing from the same region, who studied in schools very near to each other, turn out to be.

            You don’t expect to see her on class tours, neither do you expect to see her dancing during DJ night. You will never see her involved in any sort of sports nor in your wildest dreams do u expect her to have her own Orkut profile. But you need people like this in the unit, always. To give you completed records to copy from, to teach you something in the morning of the practicals and to answer all the questions put forward by professors during classes to the unit. Why is it that everybody who notices her, talks to her or studies with her, like her so much? Is it because of her willingness to help you, her simplicity or her down to earth modesty? None. People adore her when they see her universal love for all, and idolize her, when they realize the happiness she gets by helping out others.

           

            I’ve now described a couple of our classmates to you. These two superb and extra ordinarily brilliant pals of mine can’t be more different from each other, whichever parameters you may measure them with. Except for one. A Heart made of pure Gold.

                                                               

True Stories - A Day to Remember (for all the wrong reasons!!!)

A Day to Remember (for all the wrong reasons!!!)

Disclaimer: All characters in this story are purely fictional. However, resemblances to real people who are alive, dead or dying, or to incidents that have occurred in the past, are occurring now or will occur in the future, if any, are purely not coincidental, purposeful and intentional.

One ball to go, four runs to win, me at the crease. I felt the eyes of the whole crowd on me. I looked around for gaps in the field. Then I saw her in the stands. She had her palms across her mouth in silent prayer, but our eyes locked and she waved at me cheerily. Now I really wanted to hit towards the stand where she was sitting. A guy from the senior batch charged in with the ball. It pitched in short and zoomed towards me, and I took a wild heave at it.

THUMP! What on earth, did I miss it? Oh, no! I can’t stand the humiliation! I was struck on the arm and it was hurting. I sat up groggily. My phone was bawling the newly set ‘Funny Machine’ message alert tone. Aargh… it was a dream, and I had banged my arm against the wall. Not funny. I read the clock through my foggy eyes – 8:30 in the morning, who the hell woke me up so early! “wer r u. we r at ward 18. sir cmin 4 ward cls at 10. cme fast” said the message from a girl in my unit. After a second show movie and a couple of hours of sweet nothings with my love (time flies!), does she know at what time I hit the sack yesterday and that I needed to sleep the day off? I decided to make it to the ward class anyway, still ruing my lost sleep.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Ten minutes later, I was on the road to the hospital. On the way I wondered, which posting did I have? Pride didn’t allow me to SMS someone in my unit; I decided to find that out when I reached Ward 18. Now where the heck was Ward 18? I swallowed my pride and approached a guard, who, with a knowing smile, directed me to the Surgery Ward. I scurried there to find the entire unit already there. Wow! Now that’s a surprise! “Sir is very strict. He came exactly at 8:00 and asked me where the rest were. He wants everybody here with a case ready when he comes for the class at 10:00”, informed a girl before joining her friends back on the case. They were actually suffocating the old man with their enthusiasm, and he was in a bit of pain. I decided not to join them on the case until Sir came. There was more than a half-hour to go, and I stepped into the Nurses’ Room nearby to set my bag down. I felt bored and sleepy. I sat at the edge of the bed there, and pondered on what to do next.

Next thing I knew, I was getting up from the bed in the Nurses’ Room. “OH MY GOD, I had dozed off!” I looked at my watch – 10:15!! Almost jumping out the door, I stopped short to see Sir taking class to the unit, a few feet away from where I stood. Luckily, he had his back to me and didn’t see me. Sheesh! Even the guy who slept through most of the classes was listening intently. I couldn’t just join the class right then, and neither could I slip away without Sir noticing. That left the room behind me the only place to go. I tread into the room quietly. Panic now subsided, and I thought, “What the heck!” I’m trapped in this room until Sir leaves, and I might as well relax a bit, I thought with lingering sleep was tugging at my eyelids, and lay down.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??” I woke up to the shout of a senior Nurse. “Er… I’m not feeling well, sister”, I lied. She didn’t seem to believe me; I stepped out. It was noon and all my unit mates had left. I hurried to college, and this gal who woke me up in the morning had more news for me – I was to meet Sir next morning. Of course, I’d also willingly enter a hungry lion’s den.

Lunch from the canteen was terrible. I gulped down some and went to the Common Room to find the seniors at a game of cards. I didn’t have to bat an eyelid before joining them. “Aren’t you coming to the Pathology lecture?” one of my best friends asked. By then the game was coming to a head, and I didn’t want to leave. So I asked him the favour of answering my attendance too. How on earth could I’ve known that the Pathology teacher was my SLP madam in addition to being my next-door neighbour? He answered for me, and she promptly asked that “I” stand up. Idiot that he was, he actually stood up! She glared at him. Well, both of us lost attendance for the class, and I had my second appointment for the next day. Very good. However, I had a gala time at the card game in the Common Room. Three of my seniors, in the opposite team, were already wearing the ‘kunukku’ on their ears, the characteristic symbol of the vanquished.

It was evening, and I walked towards my dispersing classmates, looking for her. I hoped to catch a coffee @ Essar with her. While I was dodging teasing glances and knowing smirks from my sadistic classmates who were relishing the ‘day’ I had, there she was, speeding away on her scooter with ‘Chottu’ behind her. Ah! Probably to catch some damn old soap on the TV…! I thought bitterly.

What a miserable day… I thought as I entered the rented house where I lived. I was about to catch up on lost sleep when the phone rang. “Buddy”, chimed my friend who ‘stood in’ for me at Pathology class, “How about a first show today?” I tried to excuse myself out, citing that I’d been to a movie just the day before. He persisted, and I relented considering that even if it was his fault owning it up, he wouldn’t have had to go through all that trauma and humiliation but for me. So we went for the show. A horrible Malayalam movie it was! Dear time and dearer money gone down the drain! We ate a silent dinner and he dropped me off at the start of my lane. I walked home to find that the owner who lived upstairs had locked the gate and let the dog loose. My roomie might be up studying, but it was no use calling him since he was utterly scared of dogs despite his large frame. Our ex-roomie, the dark guy, would have coaxed the dog to the kennel. He had quite a way with dogs, and didn’t they love him as well, I thought, chuckling to myself. I trudged back to the Men’s Hostel nearby, and phoned my friend there to expect me. I also messaged my roomie that I won’t be home for the night.

It was almost eleven, and I was twisting to get some space on my friend’s bed; he was sleeping like a log taking up almost all the space. It was very hot inside the room, and he didn’t have a fan yet. Sweat poured in rivers down my neck, and I thought about the day I just had. Couldn’t attend Ward after being well on time, didn’t get the attendance for a class I didn’t attend (Um, do I have a problem here? No, attendance is our birthright, whether or not we attend the class J ), threw away time and money on a godforsaken movie, and didn’t get to sleep at a place I’m paying for, under a fan I’d bought on my own. Not to mention my two ‘meetings’ for tomorrow.

Then my phone rang; I was already cursing.

It was her! “Hello?” I answered, a tad tiredly. “Hello dear!” came her sweet reply! There’s always a silver lining, they say. After an utterly hellish day, heaven is here!!!!

Ram V. Nampoothiri 2005 MBBS