Presi-People I Prize 1: Batchmates

Contrary to my ‘online’ image, I am a very happy person. Oh yes, I do enjoy ranting randomly about elements that add that noir-edge to my usually mundane life, but I’m generally a very happy person. No depression has ever been able to bog me down for more than a day, and no, my life is no fairytale, and yes, there are elements of terrible gloom and despair in it, but I generally choose to look at the happier things(except when I’m blogging).

I was contemplating the composition of an article about which out of pen-knives, blades of stainless-steel and edges of new books’ pages are best wrist-slitters(my latest name on FB being Slitwrist Goswami, but just then Puja Rohra came up(through her ever-nocturnal FBchat window) and suggested I write about something more cheerful and not keep brooding about how and why most people dislike me.

Now, this Puja Rohra is a classmate of mine in Economics at Presidency. Initially in college, while I’d go around making my presence felt with those ‘friends’ I’d made then,
this Puja Rohra along with her two girlfriends Nisha Dakalia and Aritri Das would sit quietly, prim-and proper, and look down their noses on us. ‘The snooty Loreto House girls’-that’s what I’d refer to them as, then. Oh yes, they’d also sometimes question my sexuality. Whether or not I am a bisexual always seemed to interest them, especially Aritri. Almost four months have passed since then, tables have turned, and now these snooty LH girls are my closest friends in my class. I spend a lot of time in college with them and my, am I thankful to know them? I admire the positivity with which Nisha looks at life, and the ease with which Puja and Aritri came to gel with the ambience of the college, which is so different from their Loreto(Dharamtala/House) brand of schooling. Now, I generally attend a Maths class out of college with these girls, where we inevitably end up spending more time hanging out at Nisha’s home than we spend trying to hone our Maths skills.

Some facts about them:
1. Puja Rohra hails from a Sindhi household but it’s a shame she doesn’t know a word of Sindhi. Also, according to her ‘kundali’, she ought to have been named Kasicka. However, she must have risen up in rebellion against the name, and have forced her parents to name her ‘Puja’. Her original name has, however, found a lot of favour in college, with most of our beloved 2nd years having warmed up to the usage this name.
2. Puja has two cousins, Rish(i)ta and Sagar, who happen to study in the Heritage School, where my mother is a senior Biology teacher. So I have a lot of insight into a lot of Rohra-family traditions from a variety of sources.
3. Puja and I are linked with each other quite often, but she and I are mature enough to not be ill-at-ease due to these overworking rumour-mills.
4. Aritri and I are two Capricorns and two ‘gawars’ around each other. We randomly start kicking each other while walking on the streets while bewildered onlookers look on(Onlookers WILL look on, DUH! ). We are incorrigible to the extent that after not having been provided with tissues after a lunch at Olypub, we proceeded to rubbing our hands on each other’s jeans. She is the female 'kutti' and I her male countepart.
5. Nisha is an ardent fan of Govinda, having watched all of his movies and mastered his way of laughing. She is also a proficient ‘Ghoomar’ dancer and her dance can put Vidya Balan’s Monjulika act to shame.

Among my closest friends in other departments, of course are Debadrita Modak, my fifteen-year-long acquaintance, and the only person in college, apart from Ankur Lahiri(of Statistics 1st Year,my batchmate from St. James’) who I knew from before joining Presidency. Not much to say about her apart from the fact that I absolutely adore her, and is the only person I can blindly trust.

Then there is Manimanjari Sengupta. I’m obviously not following any order of mentioning this people as Mani(or ‘Moni’-as she prefers being called) is as close to me as Puja, Nisha, Aritri and Debadrita. What I like best about Mani is the fact that she’s still a child at heart, much like me. Her way of greeting people with a “Hiiiiiiii” with her two hands parallel with each other, only one partly folded and the other fully stretched out, has garnered a huge fan-following in the college. Mani and I get along like a house-on-fire. With Mani, obviously, I must mention Sayantika Ghosh . Sayantika is this Beatles-loving-feminine-clothes-hating-‘ushkokhushkochool’ flaunting school friend of Mani’s who I’ve especially come close to. She’s unconventional, like I believe I am, and hence I love her.

Taniya Bhardwaj, the girl who the entire college thought I was dating, is the only person apart from Mani, who I got to know in college, and have been very good friends with, since the first week. A lot of the guys in college dislike me for they believe they’re not getting the opportunity to go coochie-cooing with her only because I’m around her all the time. She sure is one of the most attractive girls in college, and there’s hardly been any topic of conversation we’ve left uncovered between us. But don’t worry Rick, she’s all yours. Taniya and I hail from similar strata of the society, which makes it easy for us to relate with each other.

Roli Roy and Sriparna Dasgupta- I can’t claim that I know them too well, but despite the initial odd vibes [especially with Roli, with her knowing Rajdeep, who I didn’t get along with in school] , I’ve got to know them to an extent now, and I can say I like what I’ve seen. I admire Roli for she is an amazingly fun person who can be the soul of any party, who dresses well and is quite a charmer, and also simultaneously manages to bring home a 94 something score in her ISC, and in PHYSICS. Now that’s an extremely rare feat to achieve there. As for Sriparna, she is one of the most graceful and beautiful girls I personally know, and she is extremely well-behaved. Knowing Shalini, Sarequa, Taniya and Debadrita helped me get to know the two of them better.

Shabba Hakim is one person I passionately hated all the while she was in Presidency, but ever since she joined KPC, my love for her has intensified. Now I love her more than I ever hated her, and would ask everyone not to judge her for what she appears to be. She’s not one person you can figure out easily. She is intriguing and in that lies her charm. She’s also scarily blunt ,and her logic sometimes defies my ability to comprehend, and Taniya may be her ‘wife’ and she might be ga-ga over Rick, but at the end of the day, I also happen to ‘prem-kora’ with her. So here’s how it fits. Our foursome couple- Taniya, Rick(whose dad and mine are employed in the same company), Shabba and I. We all love each other. Orgasmic, eh?

Shahana Yasmin is hardly a Presidencian. She spends all her time in Joo. She hated me initially, and thought I was rude to her(me? Rude?? Bleh…). I seriously still haven’t figured out why exactly she found me rude, but the past is past, and the present, well, is great. We get along well, with me having taught her to master the art of sucking lollipops, and her having taught me the bitch-snap and the art of ‘happens’(Well, Anwe, Arghya, Mani and Sean did contribute too). We also added to each other’s vocabularies by replacing the use of the word ‘bitch’ with the metamorphosed version of the surname of a mutual acquaintance. Ooh, someone sure killed.

Other people from my first-year batch at Presidency that I like are
1. Samreen: Very misunderstood again, she’s always been a great help to me
2. Rudradip: Might appear very rowdy at first glance, but he’s my closest male-friend in my class. A classic example of a tough-exterior-with-a-soft-heart.
3. Souravi : Honest and very genuine. And very nice photographs. She’s a great girl who I don’t know so well yet.
4. Pubali: I know we’ve drifted apart, but I still like her and admire her uprightness. Maybe even I would’ve stuck up for Nilaj if I were her and I hold nothing against her.
5. Patralekha: Again, a lot of misunderstandings I know, hopefully they’ll get sorted soon.
6. Debojit: A much-needed guide in the initial days of college. It wasn’t his fault that I went totally loud, and rash, and hate-me-if-you-want-to.
7. Soumyadeb: I like his simplicity.

As for most of you others, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to get to know you all. Hopefully, soon I will.

This is an extremely honest and open note I’ve written clearly stating who I like and why. Later on ,a lot of this might backfire and affect me badly, but then I needed to be honest and open, since my diplomacy is something I bade goodbye to when I left school.
A few months later, I might be biting my fingers for having written any of this but I have only one request. I know I don’t make a great friend and I don’t stick up for you always. I’m selfish, self-centered, opportunistic and a coward. But please don’t let me down. For I’ve already been let down real bad in college, more than once, by people I’d come to really like. If you let me down, I’ll be very, very hurt. I am no victim of an evil world, neither am I any saint myself. I’ve always been totally capable to fend for my own self. However, I LIKE you all, and I really hope it stays this way till the very end.