Chapter 25

“We did some sightseeing and trekking over the weekends. The one that was best was the trek to the Bear Mountains. It is around 100 Km from Indrapuram city.  It is a cluster of three hills separated by a Valley. Two of them are big. People refer to these hills as three bears. Papa, Mamma and Baby like in Goldilocks. Papa Hill has an excellent resort at the top. Baby hill is small has nothing more than some tea shops at the top. Mama hill has a quaint little place with few cottages and an eating place.”

“I know. I have been to Papa Hills when I was in school” Udhi commented “Who all were there for the trek?”

“Raghavendra Singh, Neel Vincent and Joshua from our batch, Ruchika Raghav’s girlfriend and Gurvinder from the other IMI who used to be our beach partner were there for the trek along with his friend Ravi”

“Aha. The Bike Thakkur was there. How is Ruchika his girlfriend?”

“She is a nice simple girl who has just finished her graduation in Philosophy from Indrapuram University. She plans to go to USA for her Masters next year. She adores our Bike Thakkur like God.”

“How sweet! ”

“We got friendly with each other over this trip and she has asked me to guard Raghav so that he is not stolen by any smart IMI batch mates”

“Great. But I am not sure if you will be able to do justice to this request” Udhi replied

“Why. They know each other from their childhood and they are both committed to each other” Arjun Replied

“I agree. But be practical. Raghav is now here at IMI which is 500 kms away from Indrapuram. In the last one year they have met only once. He is such a handsome and considerate fellow that any smart girl will fall for him. Ruchika is going to go away to US this year and then their contact with each other will come down. I am not sure if this relationship is going to last”

“You would say the same about me and Rohini” Arjun replied

“Yes. But you meet each other every quarter which sort of strengthens your commitment.”

“Then you both write to each other those mushy stuff every day” Udhi added with a naughty smile.

“Come on. We just keep each other posted of what happens” Arjun protested.

“To be honest, for some time before I came to know of Rohini, I thought that there was something brewing between you and Chitra.” Udhi said like an afterthought and a semi query

“Come on. We are just friends.” Arjun replied

“Now that Chitra has sort of hooked up with Kiran Kumar, there cannot be anything left. I agree”

“Get lost” Arjun snapped

“Tell us your stories of your trekking trip” Udhi goaded

“We travelled up to Papa Hill top by bus on a Friday afternoon and stayed at the resort. The drive up the hill was nice. As you go up the hill, it is sort of foresty. Lush green and enchanting. The last 50 km up the hill along the winding road is nerve wrecking. One side is a deep drop and on the other side there is the hill. The forest looked intimidating at places.  When we thought of trekking down through this wild growth, we were a bit weary” Arjun was in a mood to tell the story in detail.  

“We had breakfast at the resort and then trekked Mama Hill” Arjun replied.

“That would have been a hectic trek. How long did it take?” Udhi asked

“It took around nine hours. We started at seven in the morning and reached Mama Hill top by four in the afternoon.”

“These pristine hills with their wonderful greenery and streams of crystal clear water with intermittent waterfalls are joy to be experienced. When we started from the top of Papa Hill the thick canopy of forest give us full cover. The trees were tall and had winding vines around many of them. Some of them were covered with wild ferns and some of them even had tree orchids blooming with brilliantly coloured flowers. The intertwined vines sometimes looked like snakes making love. There were many rocky structures on the way and in their shades way we managed to spot mushrooms with some out of the world designs. Some of then looked so pretty with their red cone on the top with white spots.”

“Wow. I have heard that those hills have some exciting mushrooms that can give a trip. Did you try out any” Udhi asked

“We will discuss that later.” Arjun was in a mood to savour the trek once again vicariously

“As we climbed down for about half an hour, there was a flat stretch of land, like a natural table on the side of the hill. This table had many trees with brilliant orchids growing on them and many of them were blooming. Even many of the vines and the trees had flowers. We just stood there looking around. The lush green of the forest leaves, vibrant orchids blooming with flowers of wild colours, the ground splattered with mushrooms and the sound of birds chirping made us feel that we were in a paradise.”

“Didn’t you see any animals?” Arjun asked

“There were lots of baboons. Many of them are used to being fed by the trekkers. So they would come near us. We had carried some bananas and we fed them. The most confident of those would run towards us, pluck the banana from our hands and then run. As they climbed back to the trees, their red bottoms looked so cute”

“So you were ogling at monkey’s bottom too” Udhi was pulling his leg.

“There were quite a lot of birds including wild peacocks”

“When we neared the bottom we came across a fabulous waterfall with shower spraying down from almost 200 feet. There was nice pool of chilled water collected at the bottom.”

“Wow. Arjun is almost getting poetic” Udhi commented

“Anybody would be if they experienced that heavenly place” Arjun Continued

“All of left our carry bags on the side of the pool and went under the waterfall where there was a ledge to stand. The water was chilly; but the experience out of the world.”

“All of us stood under the waterfall for some time and then jumped into the chilled pool and waded around. The spray reached  the pool too. Though the water was chilly, the sun was shining and that gave some comfort. Then we got out and dried ourselves in the sun as we had no towels with us”

“We then trekked further downhill. As we reached the valley, the forest had died down. There were only bushes and grass. With the forest cover protecting us no more, it became very hot. We were really thirsty and had ran out of water. We met some tribal people collecting wood and asked them if we could get some drinking water. One of them took us to a water hole. We were not so sure of drinking water from this hole. But we were so thirsty that we just drank it along with the sandwiches we carried”

“It took three and a half hours to climb down. Another two and half to cross the valley including the half an hour we took to have our lunch”

“The climb up the Mama hill in the afternoon was quite tiring. As I had not carried a proper walking shoe, it was still more difficult to climb where the ground was slippery with the light shower in that season. I had to hang on to the vines and the bushes many places.”

“Ruchika was scared that we will come across snakes and she was always looking around as she walked. As luck would have it she saw one flitting along the bushes. She freaked out and she rant to Raghav and hung on to him crying hysterically. It took some time for him to get her to relax”

“All through the way up, she was clinging onto him.”

“The chivalrous soul that he is it will be not a problem for him. Luck that she saw the snake so late into the trek” Udhi commented

Chapter 24

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It was around 11 in the morning. Arjun had just woken up. He had returned to the institute early morning that day after his summer training at the end of the first year. He had taken an overnight train back from Tridevpur. He had been to Tridevpur for two days after his summer training to meet his old friends; especially Rohini. By the time he woke up it was too late for the breakfast at the mess. Therefore Arjun walked towards Auntie’s tea shop which was at the boundary of the campus.

“Arjun”

Arjun turned back when he heard the familiar voice of Udhi from behind.

He stopped and waited for Udhi to join. Both of them continued their walk towards Auntie’s teashop

“When did you come” Arjun asked

“I just landed up” Udhi replied

“I reached early morning. It was an overnight journey. I crashed out till now. I have not had my breakfast. Now the only thing left is Auntie’s tea and bun.

They reached the tea shop

“Hello Auntie, give us two teas” Arjun asked in an amiable voice. “We really missed your tea for three months”

“Get a packet of “Wills Flake King size” Udhi added his bit

“Oh have you changed your brand?” Arjun asked

“Now we that are second year MBA students at IMI, we will live life king size” Udhi replied in his half joking half serious manner

Both of them lit their cigarettes and sat on the stools outside the tea shop. Though it was sunny, there was a nip in the air. Auntie served them their tea and bun

“Tell me Arjun. How was your summer training at P&G” Udhi asked after taking a deep drag of his cigarette

Arjun paused for few seconds to swallow the bite of bun he had already taken.

“Quite interesting and hectic. I ended up doing two projects. One in Marketing and one in Systems”

“How did you end up doing that” Udhi asked

“I was doing my Marketing Project under Ravi Chaturvedi. One day I walked into the room of Arun Mehra the marketing controller. The idea was only to get to know him” Arjun replied

“And may be to try to impress him.” Udhi commented

“OK take it that way.” Arjun retorted

“Continue” Udhi egged on

“Arun asked if I could develop software program to help him do some market analysis. It also meant I had to enter the data pertaining to the market trends for couple of years and also develop the master that contains all the 110 products from 40 odd brands. I told him that I would try”

“The workaholic eager beaver” Udhi commented

“I used to work on the marketing project till evening and work on the software six in the evening till twelve at night.”

“How is the computer facilities at P&G?” Udhi asked

“There  have quite a few PCs that use floppy drives. They also had two XT 286 machines.”

“Did they allow you to use those” Udhi asked

“Oh they did after the office hours” Arjun replied

“I have not done any programming since I completed my FORTRAN course during the final year engineering. I have not run much testing of any of these programs as getting computer time at our college was a difficult task” Arjun said.

“What were you using for programming?” Udhi asked

“Oh I was developing the program in Dbase 3. I got a AshtenTate manual and struggled with it. Our batch mate Jayakumar who was also doing summer at P&G taught me database schema and the fundamentals of software design. I developed a modular design which helped me to develop each category of analysis as a separate module. I developed each of them independently, test them and then integrate the whole under a master menu”

“That is a very healthy design. I am impressed that you got the idea in your first project. Normally the beginners end up developing complex intertwined software that make debugging and enhancing absolutely painful” Udhi commented

“That exactly was my guiding principle. I wanted it to be simple and modular to make my life easy”

“Did you end up impressing Arun” Udhi asked

“That was the funniest part” Arjun replied

“What was funny about making software?”

“I slogged for two months. Got the data model ready, developed the software, and entered past data. Arun used to drop in on and off to the room where we worked. That is because it was the same room which Ravi also used. I would catch his attention to  show him the progress and he would say Hmm”

“Almost at the end when I had nearly finished all the core work, I spent some time adding some bells and whistles to the software. Some blinking stars and some collapsing squires with borders”

“That is really the cheap stuff” Udhi commented

“One day Arun as usual dropped into the room and I showed him the bells and whistles. Then he spent some more time on what this software could do. He was really impressed.”

“The moral of the story is that it is packaging that counts. It doesn’t matter what shit you are peddling so long as you know how to package it” Udhi summarised

“What they don’t teach you at IMI. But what I developed was not shit OK” Arjun quipped

“What did you do after your late night programming” Udhi asked

“Oh We used to go and sit at the beach for an hour or so. There were other guys from various IMI’s doing their summer in the town who would also join.”

“There was this funny guy called Gurvinder who was doing his summer with me. His favourite past time when we sat at the beach was to rate the cheap whores who frequented the beach” Arjun continued

“What?” Udhi jumped up.

“Not what you think” Arjun replied

“Then”

“These whores used to hang out at the beach awaiting customers and they generally sat so far from where we used to sit. Then the customers came over, picked up a bitch, went behind a rock structure and returned after 10 mts or so. Gurvinder tagged each of the regular bitches and maintained a table of how many customers each of the regulars got and how long the session lasted. He then developed a ‘Bitch Rating’ for each of them.”

“One day Gurvinder walked over to these and asked them their rate. Then he walked away saying that he can’t afford it” Arjun was laughing

“Then using the ‘Bitch rating’ and the session rate he got from them, he estimated their income per month” Arjun continued

“That was a good summer project” Udhi commented

“Gurvinder claimed that he was going to do more research on this and make a term paper. He believes that this study can in some way help in developing some social security schemes for these sex workers” Arjun said

“That is quite an interesting take” Udhi replied

“What else did you do to have some fun?” Udhi asked

“Wait let me finish my tea and bun. I am famished. You won’t let me finish my breakfast” Arjun snapped but not seriously 

Chapter 23

Archie bounced back to his room

“Man who was the chic?” Suman asked

“She is my cousin.” Archie did not want to publicize this at this point

“Oh. What a let-down!” Suman replied

Archie walked in to his room, closed the door and shouted Hurray. He walked over to the mirror, looked at his reflection and said to himself. “Archie you scored” He mused to himself.

By evening, Arjun, Sudhi and Luxi were back in the campus. They decided not to share this story to many. But of course they had to tell this to some.

When they all finished the dinner and walked over to the garden for a smoke Sudhi narrated this story to the gang with a  stiff warning to keep quiet about this.

“Man we need to see the fun fully before we publish” Luxi exhorted.

Suman was part of the gang. Being a friend of Archie he wanted to warn him. But he was also bugged at Archie for having made up this story of his cousin.

“If Archie tells me the truth about his so called date, I will warn him. Else let his walk the full length in the fool’s paradise.”  Suman mused to himself

But Archie decided to keep quiet about it. On Wednesday afternoon he was all excited. He had a bath, shaved put perfume, and got ready in this best outfit.

When he came out of his room, he was looking dapper

“Hi Suman, can I borrow your bike?” Archie asked suman

“Oh where are you going?” Suman asked

“I am going to my uncle’s house. He is celebrating his daughter’s birthday.” Archie replied nonchalantly

“Oh  I See” Suman replied

“Archie, I am going to the city. I can give you a drop” Sudhi offered.

“No ya. No need to trouble. I will take a rick and go” Archie did not want anybody to know where he was going.

As Archie walked out they all had a great laugh.

“Let him have some coffee from Casa Picola” Luxie commented

“Guys, let us all go to Casa Picola”  Sudhi suggested

They all got up. Got a taxi and proceeded towards Casa Picola.

When they reached the restaurant they saw Archie sitting by a corner table. He has a small bunch of red roses on the table

Archie looked up and saw the gang walking in.

“Oh shit” He swore to himself

“Hello Archie How come you are here?” Sudhi asked

“We thought you had gone to your uncle’s house” Suman asked earnestly

“Oh ya” Archie was stuttering and stammering

“I am going. I came a bit early because I wanted to get a present for my niece” Archie blurted out

“Did you not buy one till now” Arjun asked

“I searched the gift shop and did not know what to buy. So I just bought some flowers”

“But you don’t give red roses to your cousin. You give that to your girlfriend” Sudhi butted in.

“Oh he just converted to our cast. You know we marry our cousin’s” Arjun butted in

“Nothing like that idiots. You can give flowers to anybody.” Archie replied irritably

“Let us have a coffee with Archie.” Luxi commented. They pulled in chairs and sat down.

Archie was getting frustrated.

His gaze was on the road.

Luxie ordered for coffee for everybody. They sat sipping their coffee and making general conversation.

And then there appeared a girl, just outside Casa Picola. She glanced towards where they were seated, walked to the magazine stand nearby and started browsing through the magazines. She was wearing a bright yellow skirt and a blue top as if to catch attention. She was stunningly beautiful.

“OH MY GOD.” Archie groaned silently.

“She is standing out there because of these morons sitting with me. What do I do?”  Archie thought to himself

“Guys. What are you going to do? Are you going to sit here for ever?” Archie asked around.

“Why hurry. Let this is a nice place to hang out. Plus there are many good looking girls around. For example look at the one outside wearing the yellow skirt. I like her. I am going to sit here enjoying her beauty” Udhi said

“I am going to go.” Archie replied

“OK You are going to your uncle’s place anyway” Sudhi replied. He was having fun. The rest of the guys were enjoying the whole situation. They could read the anger and irritation emanating from Archie

The girl in yellow skirt moved away. She started walking along the side road towards Elegance apartments. Archie was disheartened. He got up and walked out.

He got into a cab.

“Sir where do you want to go?” The driver asked

“Oh take me to nearest book shop” Archie replied.

“Shall I take you to Higgin Botham?” The driver asked

“Ok Get going” he replied

“May be she will call me again. This time I will suggest a less conspicuous place” Archie thought

The rest of the guys got up and returned to the hostel.

“Sudhi you rascal. Did you arrange for that babe to come there?” Luxie asked

“No man. I know no babes here”

“Oh I believe you.” Luxie said sarcastically

After half an hour Archie returned to Casa Picola. After checking that his classmates have left, he walked along the side lane to Elegance Apt. He stood outside the apartment for some time. He walked around for some time. Then he decided to return.

All through his return journey he was dreaming about the girl in yellow skirt

He reached back to his room. Then he decided to have a coffee at the mess. He changed his nice clothes and walked to the mess.

“Sudhi, Archie is back in the hostel. He is on his way to the canteen” Suman came running to where the ‘gang’ was and gossiping in the garden

“Great let us give him a welcome treat” Luxie suggested.

Archie went to the mess. He walked over to the vending machine, picked up a coffee and moved to a corner. He sat there still dreaming about the chance that he missed.

Suddenly there was a  commotion. He looked up. He could not believe what he saw. Ten of his classmates were coming towards him.  They were all wearing some kind of yellow skirts. They had a banner in their hand. It read “Archie Choose the best” There was a huge gang behind

He realised that he had been taken for a ride. He turned red. He swore under his breath and walked back to his room

Chapter 22

This happened soon after the marketing fare that was conducted by the IMI students. This marketing fare is an annual affair and during that year Sudhi and Arjun were lading the organizing committee. After the fare was over, the OC team were at the ground clearing up the tents and the all the paraphernalia that was set up. There was no mobile phone yet in the market and the OC had one line set up at the control room. As they were waiting for the ground to be cleared, Arjun offered to make a call to Archie in a girl’s voice to have some fun. The whole gang was excited about the idea.

Arjun took the phone and called up IMI hostel.

“Hello “ Arjun said in a girls voice

“Hello” Replied Suman who took the phone at the hostel

“Can I talk to Archie Please” Arjun continued

Suman who was Archie’s class mate was curious when he heard a girl's voice

“Yes. May I know who is talking? Is this Archie’s sister” He was digging

“Oh No. I am his friend My name is Mary. I met him the other day at the marketing fare”

“Oh great. I will get him in a jiffy”

He left the phone near the cradle and ran to the block where Archie lived

“Hay Archie” He shouted from far

“A chic is on the phone. She claims to have met u at the fare”

“Shut up Don’t try to pull a fast one on me” Archie replied

“No man it is for real. I swear. If it is a prank you can kick me”

Archie was excited. He pretended to be nonchalant and walked towards the phone room.

“Be ready for you kick in the bud if it is a prank” Archie shouted to Suman

 “Hello. Archie here. Who is this” Archie’s heart was pounding

“Hello Archie” the girl from the other side replied with a sigh.

“Who are you? How do I know you?” Questions came in rapid fire

“Archie. My name is Mary. I had come to the Marketing Fare yesterday. I met you at the store. I was taken aback by your personality. I stood there for some time looking at you. What I saw impressed me further.” She replied coyly

“Where are you studying?”

“I am studying in Jyoti Niwas. Doing my BA final year”

“What Major?”

“English Literature.”

“Where did you do your schooling”

“Bishop Cotton”

Archie was firing questions to see if this is a prank and Arjun was replying with absolute confidence.

“I have a cousin name Ann in you class. Do you know her?.” Archie asked.

Arjun realised that it was a trick question.

“We have no Anna in FY BA English Literature. There is an Ann Philipose in FY BA Sociology. “ Arjun replied with absolute confidence.

“Looks like this girl is genuine” Archie thought to himself

“May be she is in Sociology” Archie replied

“Where do you stay” Archie asked

“ I stay in Elegance Apartments near  the famous restaurant called Casa Picola”

“It is nice of you to have called” Archie was melting

“Archie can we meet for a cup of coffee sometime soon”

“Yes I have no objection” Archie replied with a serious tone though he was excited beyond description

“How about tomorrow”

“Oh tomorrow I am busy. I need to finish my analysis of all the data we collected during the fare and submit to the client” Archie replied pompously.

“Oh I understand. Then may be the day after.”

“That will be fine. Where do we meet?”

“We could meet at Casa Picola at about five in the evening”

“That will be wonderful. Then I won’t have to bunk any classes”

“How will I recognize you?” Archie asked

“I will recognize you. Look for a good looking girl around” the reply with an enticing giggle

“Oh yes. But there could be many around!!”

“Nobody to compete with me.” Arjun replied with charming laugh “Anyway I will be wearing a yellow skirt.

“Ok that is great”

“Ok see you then.” Arjun said

“Oh why are you in a hurry to keep the phone down” Archie asked

“I just thought that you need to finish all your analysis and I did not want to take up your time today. I am eager that you and I meet soon” Arjun replied

Arjun, Sudhi and Luxi who were together at the phone were finding it difficult to contain their laughter.

“Oh that is ok. I will sit late and finish. Now I have extra motivation” Archie replied romantically

“Naturally”

“Anyway I need to get off the phone now. My mom will come home now and she won’t be amused to see me on the phone. Especially when I have a very happy smile on my face”

“OK. Get going. See you the day after”

Arjun kept the phone. Luxi and Sudhi were rolling on the ground with laughter. Now that the phone was back on the cradle they let loose their restraint and were laughing aloud

He was coughing after talking in a girl’s voice for so long. He also joined their laughter.

“My god the guy has fallen hook line and sinker” Sudhi replied

“Pompous Ass. Look at the way he was acting pricy about meeting her.” Luxi commented.

“Let us not tell this story to Archie or his friends today. Let him come for his date”

“We could all be there” Luxi replied