Meeting Abhijit and Rudra

 Abhijit Datta was the topper of VII C when I joined All Saints High School in 1977. I was pretty intimidated by the school, the city, the language - coming from small town Kazipet. But I could hold my own in English and could do passably well in other subjects. I would top in Kazipet but here I never topped, at best coming second to Abhijit. 

Abhijit, me and Rudra

Our class was on the third floor - in a corner, slightly compromised for space. But it offered a glimpse of Abids, the blue skies above - to me, a glimpse of freedom. Our teacher was Martina teacher, very young at that stage, still finding her feet, but with the intent and earnestness that one warms up to. One Mrs Luthra I remember from those days and I would be scared of Mr Dixit, our Physical Education sir.    

Abhijit was the Bengali babu of the class - a bit of a rebel in the sense that he was one of the few who would wear blue jeans to class instead of the school uniform (which was also blue). His academic record was impeccable - no one could touch him with a barge pole - and his supreme self-confidence (being a Bengali gave him that I suppose) gave him an air that perhaps scared people off. He was not easily threatened or scared (like me) and had clear and strong arguments and though he had an easy smile and demeanour, not many would mess with him. 

With my books!

It took a while for us to warm up to one another but once we did, we hit it off very well. We would talk about books, go to the library together and read story books, discuss novels, stories, ideas, movies. I remember we would exchange books to read from our collections - he would advise me to read Alistair Maclean which was on banned list for me at home, would tell me of his well-read cousins and their emphatic and articulate arguments and we would wish we could become like them. He lived in Nallakunta and would take a cycle rickshaw home I remember. 

Once he invited me home for lunch and my one fear about this English speaking Bengali boy and his posh mannerisms was that the family would eat with knives and forks and while on the way to their home actually asked him. He played along and said that they did and let me stew in my worry for a bit until we went to their place and had a good laugh at my expense. But that was how he was and how he looked - intelligent, articulate, clear headed, supremely self confident.

When I started playing cricket for the school and state in my tenth class we kind of drifted apart a bit and then he went to Little Flower and I went to St Alphonso. (Surprisingly there is not a single photo of ours taken by the school during those four years I spent at school - there's no picture of us from those days) 

Before leaving - good to catch up and hope to meet again soon

But when I joined Osmania University College of Engineering, I made it a point to go to his house which was close to my college. Abhijit had joined Roorkee University to study something in chemistry, had become even more of an academic, had that same air about him. He's the kind of a guy who you walk with and people know you have intelligent company. Then he went abroad and we lost touch. Until the Internet came and we connected on LinkedIn perhaps.

Then, over a decade ago I saw news of his father passing away and attended the funeral. It was not the ideal way to catch up but we did and once again he disappeared. Until yesterday when he messaged me - hey, am in town. I fixed up a breakfast meeting with him and invited old pal Rudra too -- we had just spoken about Abhijit a week ago.

It was great fun catching up. He is in San Diego in a company that does stuff in bio something, has patents to his name, two kids - both grown up. Lots of chat, memories and I gifted him copies of all my books. He already had TWIED which he said he bought when he visited India last. We discussed this and that and it was just too short to catch up really but glad we could do this. One thing though - we had planned to meet at 830 and he was there on the dot, a couple of minutes before me. Impressed!

But yes. It was good to catch up and now that I have his number - will surely stay in touch a lot more. Good to catch up Abhijit my old friend. Net time, we'll spend more time together. There's a lot to share.