Ek Glassy, Do Glassy

My first encounter with alcohol was after finishing school. After gulping down a full bottle of beer amongst three of us, we were as happy as a father of new-born. It was a toast to much anticipated future college life. We were high just by thinking about it. But at the end of the day I was so petrified going home. If only my mother would have come to know, I would be writing this article from hell.

But, my first real experience of having that ultimate, heavenly, dizzy feeling of drunkenness came in my first semester in my college. That was the first night-out of our batch after two months of torturous ragging by seniors and non-stop schedule of lectures throughout the day. There were many experienced players in that bunch, but there were much more new-comers as well. Even the most experienced player was only 2-3 matches old. Experienced or not, everybody got clean bowled after finishing one beer bottle each. I was feeling so happy and relieved from tensions of studies. I knew that it was not the last time for me.

As we entered into our second semester, we were free from the chains of ragging and other restrictions that senior had imposed. Now it was time for me to go a level up, to get a taste of real drink - whiskey. After getting acclimatized to the taste of beer, there was no problem in swallowing whiskey with water. It was so much better than beer and still whiskey is my favorite drink amongst all. Afterwards, semester after semester, I kept discovering new drinks and new brands and savored them all.

And when I'm drunk I can converse on any topic for lengths. I might not be making sense but if everybody is else is also drunk like me; it will make whole lot of sense. I can give such speeches which could easily win me election for President of United States. Just I need to get started. In college, I always look forward to a drinks party just to have a chitchat on any topic. Otherwise, in a more sober state I'm more of a quite guy. I guess alcohol brings out the hidden person in everybody. Then there were times when a drinks party was necessary to mark any occasion no matter if it is sad or happy. Whether someone has given superb "Chak-De-Phatte" performance or terrible "Beda-Garak" performance, as the sun sets everybody was sitting at the same table having a drink or two.

Our group of nine was especially known as "No. 1" group. This title was not because we were some bunch of all-rounders who always stood at No. 1 position in every arena. But, unfortunately, it referred to a famous brand of whiskey at that time. Somehow we had gathered a false reputation of being No. 1 drunkards in the whole campus. I want this as proper opportunity to clarify to all those people (especially residents of girl's hostel), that we were not that bad. We were very sweet, innocent and cute bunch who tried to enjoy whatever that god-forsaken college had to offer. You would have liked us if you had given us a chance.

Well! We didn't bother about anything. And thus ended our four years of enjoyment in that totally lackluster college campus, when we came out of examination hall after last paper of last semester. But before we went our separate ways in search of a good life, we had a 3 days blast. And I needn't tell you who the chief guest in that blast was. Our good old "Daru ki Baatli".

After almost four years, I still remember each and every time we had a drinks party. I still remember, roughly, who all were present on those parties. I still remember the reason of each party. I still remember the aftermaths of each party. I still remember the two times when I was not able to recall anything about the party next morning. And I will always remember my whole "No. 1" group and the incessant fun we had.

Do You Remember the Time

It was the same old boring start of the day at school. What I had to do the whole day was to pretend to study for the coming examinations for 12th standard. And following the same monotonous routine for the last one month, I was desperately looking for a break. Today I had opened my Physics textbook and was pondering over some tough numerical problem. I was just wishing to get over this 12th standard and subsequent nightmares as soon as possible.

As I was trying hard to stay awake at my desk, I saw Briju entering the classroom with a huge grin on his face. "What is he happy about? Does he bloody know the solution of the problem on which I'm banging my head for the last hour?", I thought. Carrying that stupid smile he came and stood by my desk. Sandy, who was sitting beside me, also got curious seeing those not-so-white teeth over our heads. I could see a lot of scribbling across his notepad showing signs of formulas and digits and lines cutting across them. I was sure he was having the same thoughts as mine. Whatever Briju was about to blurt out, it better be something useful.

"Out with it.", Sandy said with some irritation.

Briju stated loudly for the whole classroom to hear. "Good News, guys and gals. Our respected principal and vice-principal, both are on leave today.", he said.

"You are kidding, right?", said Sidhu as he turned around from the front bench.

"Princi and Vic-princi both? Hurrah!" was the reaction of Simi from somewhere at the back of the class.

Suddenly there were whispering and murmuring in the whole class and a look of happiness across each face.

"Shhhhhhh", came the voice. It was Dutta, our class leader, as he also entered the room. "C'mon guys, don't make so much noise yaar.", he said as he came straight to our desk. "I concur the news", were his next words. Suddenly, all the tension of the Physics problem vaporized from my mind and I think from Sandy's mind too. Sidhu was also more than excited. Everybody was thinking about the ways to make most out of the opportunity.

"Don't waste your energy, I already have a plan", said our class leader. "I have brought my bike today. Nitin is on leave today and most probably listening to MJ at home. Both of his parents are out for work. We can hang out at his place for rest of the day. All I need are two more volunteers with me as I can carry maximum two pillions on my bike.", he hushed.

"Hey, no way. Its too risky. Anyways, even if two of us come with you, we have these huge bags to carry with us. We'll definitely get caught if somebody sees us with bags just getting out of the class only.", said Sidhu adjusting his glasses like a professor.

"Arey, we will leave the bags here only and after the final bell somebody can bring them outside. We will wait at the gate. Without our bags, we can easily sneek out of the school through the BSF campus on the bike.", explained Dutta.

"Not a bad idea, but I'm backing out. I am going to stay in class and have fun here. I will bring the bags out for you. Best of luck and have fun", Briju declared and he went to the back of the class and started chatting with Simi.

"OK. That is one man out. Now who amongst three of you would like to have the pleasure of riding on my bike", Dutta asked looking at me, Sandy and Sidhu.

I surely wanted to go out and refresh myself. But on the other hand I was scared of being caught. I was surely in the good books of Princi and I didn't want to ruin it. "I can enjoy by hanging out with Briju and Simi, anyways.", were my thoughts.

"I'll come.". This was a shout from Sidhu.

"I don't know". This was a low whisper from Sandy.

I was hoping that Sandy was definitely going to say yes. "I am really scared about the prelims next week, and I am not even half-prepared. I need to study hard.", continued Sandy. As he finished his last sentence, three pair of eyes were gazing at him with utter astonishment. Bewildered, he said "What? I'm serious. Now buzz off three of you and let me solve this problem".

With Sandy out of the game, reluctantly, I was in. Although I didn't want to and I expressed my resentment.

"Why don't you guys continue? I think I'll prefer to stay here and may be help Sandy in his problem", I said hoping that they will agree.

"O c'mon yaar. We won't get this opportunity again. We will have fun.", was Sidhu's response.

"Yes! And we will check out some girls also on the way. Remember the girls school near Nitin's home", said Dutta quirking one of his brow .

"What the hell. Lets go", I shouted.

As it was the first period of the day, everybody was in class. It was easy for us to come out of the main building without anyone noticing us. Even if anybody had seen us, he wouldn't have bothered as we were the senior most students and we had this much of unrestricted movement across the building. Coming out of building we reached the bike parking. Now came the most risky part that was getting out of school campus. The main gate was out of question, as it is always closed during school hours with a guard outside. But we had three more escape routes. Our school was conveniently connected to BSF campus which had its own entry/exit gates. All we have to do was to drive the bike on the one kilometer road between school and campus without being noticed. Once inside campus, we were safe.

The three of us got onto the bike and somehow fitted on the seat. As we started out, I spotted that some junior class was out on field with the sports instructor. Now he was a strict fellow. But it was too late. Dutta had already raced his bike to full speed towards the campus. I crossed my fingers as I hung precariously on the bike behind Sidhu. He stopped it as soon as we entered the campus out of sight of school.

"Phew! that was a close call", said Dutta as he wiped sweat from his forehead. "Lets continue".

The rest of the journey was piece of cake. Although, I was in constant fear that some wicked road bump will throw me from the bike and onto the road. There were bumps but somehow I held on to the bike. Finally, we reached Nitin's place after half-an-hour of a joyride across Jammu roads. As we entered, we could hear MJ playing on his stereo.

"Do you remember the time ... "

Nitin came out listening to the door bell. As he saw us he was surprised and confused. "Hey, you guys. You too skipped the school today. No, but you are in school uniform. And it is not 2 o'clock yet. Has the school closed early today? But where are your bags? I'm confused.", was his reaction. There was a simultaneous burst of laughter from three of us as we saw the puzzled look on his face.

"Guess what. We bunked the school today.", explained Sidhu.

"Princi and Vice-princi didn't come today. So we thought why not get out of that hell and surprise this little friends of ours.", I added.

"That is so exciting. So you already got a taste of bunking before the college. Good and welcome to my dwelling. What can I do for you?", replied Nitin.

"Lets play cricket outside in your garden. It is beautiful weather outside", suggested Dutta.

It was indeed very pleasant weather. These were the post-winter days, when Jammu recieves a little bit of rain. It was a cloudy day and perfect for playing cricket. So we grabbed the cricket gear and started playing.

I was having fun now, playing cricket after many days. We played match after match in the cloudy, slight cold weather. And MJ was playing with full blast in the background.

Suddenly, Sidhu said, "Hey! There is a hot babe coming this way".

He was looking over the gate towards the approaching road. Instantaneously, the bat and ball were on the ground and everybody reached for gate to look outside.

"That is some chic!", said Dutta.

"Beautiful!", said me.

"I can't see. Help me.", said Nitin. Being the smallest in our group he couldn't reach over the gate. Everybody ignored him and kept looking outside.

"Hey, she is coming over this side", pointed out Sidhu as he climbed down the gate. "O shit!". Everybody jumped down and nitin got the view of the road outside.

"A**h***s, that is my sister.", was his immediate reaction. That was the second time in the day, a simultaneous burst of laughter came from three of us on seeing the infuriated look on Nitin's face. I was literally rolling on the grass. Somehow, we controlled laughter and greeted his sister till the time she went inside. "You are pathetic.", said Nitin more infuriated.

"I guess we should better take off.", said Dutta.

"But its only 12 o'clock. It is still two hours before Briju come out with our bags.", exclaimed me.

"Don't worry. We will play more cricket at one of my friend's place.", he replied. So this was some school-bunking-bike-riding-cricket-playing day.

At 1:30 we started back towards school. Everybody was quiet during the ride back. We had fun, but now we were wishing that everything has gone right inside the school. Such a good day should have a good ending too. We parked the bike at some distance from the gate. Still, there were 10 minutes before everybody comes out. As I heard the bell ringing inside, my heart started beating 100 times faster. People started coming out of front gate and our eager eyes were searching familiar faces of Briju, Simi or Sandy carrying our bags.

And I saw it. Briju was coming out, again with a stupid grin across his face. "He is happy. That is good news. Seems like everything has gone just fine.", I said to myself. "But wait a minute, there are no bags with him.", was my next sentence. Sidhu and Dutta had the same scared looks in their eyes.

"Guys, you are screwed!", was Brijesh's first word when he reached us.

I felt as if some thuderbolt has struck me. I couldn't speak or hear anything for next few minutes. All I could hear was some murmur going between rest of them. After few minutes of total black-out I regained my senses.
"What happened?", was my immediate question.

"Apparently, our dear friend Briju screwed everything. He made it too obvious that there were three extra bags lying in the classroom. He didn't even bother to hide them somewhere. And as one of the teachers started interrogating him , he blurted out everything. Now our bags are locked up inside", said Dutta in an angry voice.

"Hey, I had to save my own ass. I couldn't help it", explained Briju.

I asked "By the way, who is the teacher who caught us?".

"That is the good part. The teacher is Mr. Chikara, our physics teacher. And nobody else knows about it. He has asked me to tell you that you should visit him", he replied.

"What should we do then? Should we visit him?", inquired Dutta from everyone of us.

Nobody had an answer. We were thinking about the matter at hand, when Sandy joined us. "I can help you guys", he said. "Just go to his house at once, apologize and explain".

"Explain what? That were out playing cricket the whole day while the prelims are starting the next week", I said.

"No. Of course not. I have a better idea. You do remember about the physics project that we have to submit during the final examinations?",asked Sandy. We nodded in agreement. "Well! Just say that you were behind schedule and had to go to the city just to get the materials for the same". He smiled triumphantly after bolting out his brilliant idea.

We liked it instantaneously. After deciding all the details about this lie, we started towards Mr. Chikara's house. As we were walking to the house, I smiled at the irony of the situation. In the morning I was stuck over a minor Physics problem and now I had to deal with the teacher of the same subject with a somewhat bigger problem. Sidhu frowned as he saw me smiling to myself. I replied to his frown with another frown. Seeing us frowning each other, Dutta also joined the frowning game. And for the third time in the day, a simultaneous burst of laughter came from the three of us.

But that laughter and cheerfulness died as after 15 minutes we were sitting in Mr. Chikara's living room and getting scolded by him. We had already given him the reason for our absence from school. He was amused yet angry after hearing it and what started afterwards lasted for about half-an-hour. He kept lecturing us on and on and on.

"I didn't expect this, especially, from the three of you. You are amongst the brightest students of my class. Don't expect me to believe the excuse that you gave me. If the Principal was in school today, you would have been in really great trouble". These were constant repeated sentences of this lecture and we just kept saying "Sorry Sir" again and again.

Finally after half-an-hour of torture he said "I'm letting you go this time. But trust me if something like this happens again, your future will be totally ruined. Because, you will be out of the school the next second".

We couldn't believe our ears. A smile spread across each face that was sitting on the sofa in Mr. Chikara's living room that evening. "Thank you Sir. Thank you so much", were the only words each one of us said in response.

"That is OK. Now, off the record, tell me where were you?", he asked smiling. Dutta explained the whole story to him while myself and Sidhu were just anxious to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Now go to your home but you will get your bags only in the morning because they are locked in the Physics lab".

We came out and for the fourth and last time, a simultaneous burst of laughter came from three of us. "Come, I'll drop both of you", said Dutta and we started walking towards the bike singing the MJ song.

""Do you remember the time..."