"Shit!! idaa answer arey yaar how could i miss this hmmm " CAT was fast approaching and it was the mid sem break and the hostel had become almost deserted mi watch read 3.30 am time for a coffee break i guess , put on mi jacket and slowly started down stairs the hostel had this eerrie silence, not a soul to be seen mi foot steps echoed in the hostel a rare sight got to the entrance brrr.... chilly winds adding to mi woes , "gaurd saab" no answer he was snoring away to glory " wat a life!!! the world is celebarting diwali and am stuck in this place with no soul to even to talk and they say i am what u dream to be bull shit , wy do i always have this lonliness, dejection for company wy cant i have someone to share mi feelings with i guess some r destined to lead a life as ..cking as is mine" disgusted with mi life i pondered upon things to do the next day. then i saw someone coming neatly dressed with a file and suitcase in hand " some brother or friend of some one" i thought " Excuse me ye nilgiri hi hain naa" he asked. " yes sir looking for someone " i asked " hi am Rahul verma am looking for sanjeev kappor " "pleased to see u sir am samrat,sanjeev kapoor , mtech yaa btech which year?" i asked "aaann he is... " " good morning sir" suddenly gaurd saab intervened our conversation " haan gaurd saab ye kisi student ko milna chahte hain register main dekhne ek baar" G:" haan sir andar aaiye" S:" sanjeeeeev ..sanjeeeeeev haan got it but this was just sanjeev haan sir" i turned right to tell him but was surprised not to see him, R: " ye painting aapne kahan liya its really amazing !!" he was starring at a painting hung on the entrance S:"ye actually this was brought by some of my seniors when i was in the first year " R:" T K S SAMRAT House Secy ohh ur the house secy of this hostel gudd" S:" yes sir would u like to sit in the guest room, bahar tand bhi hain" R: " yaa sure i guess u r having some renovation work going on in ur hostel " S:" yes air its actually the common room, this way sir " showing the way took him to the guest room. Starring at the house secy board which had the list of all the house secretaries till date, as if trying to find some name he looked at it very closely" aaannn.... aaannn 1983 aditya sharma haan aditya sharma hehe, gud old adi never to lose a tennis match, always missing out on morning classes thoses days were reallly full of fun" he muttered to himself forgetting about me S:" sirr " R:" yayaa do u know aditya sharma he was ur house secy yaar" S:"Aditya sharma 1982 aann i was not even born then sir " R:" oh yaa sorry sorry u were not even born then ok kidar se ho aaap" S:"hyderabad" R:" ohh Hyderabad which dept" S:" chemical" R:" ohh chemical is Dr O P Gupta still there" S:" never heard abot him donno sir" R:" okok leave it is ther any place where i can get some tea or coffee" S:" yes sir nescafe is just 10 mins walk from here", R: " ohh gud i can also see around iit ", then we started for nescafe, there were chilly winds blowing, but atleast i had company now
S:"so when did u pass out which dept?" vroooommmmm....... a bike sped by rahul, R:" what was that, a bike are bikes allowed in the campus nowadays", S:" hehe not really but students often keep them always finding new ways to hide the bikes from the authorities ", R:"whats this a restaurant inside the campus!!" S:" ohh its the uth cafe the newly opened student canteen" R:" gr8 iit has definitly changed a lot we had to walk miles before we could get anything to eat that too outside iit". Now we had reached nescafe S:" sir maagi" R:" yaa sure now students here smoke openly also donno whether this is really an improvement" S:" anaan this has become a common feature in iit, cant help it i guess" R:" what do u mean by cant help it u can definitly solve it after all its the students who should act responsibily, mind it the country has plenty of hopes pinned on you". in the meanwhile maagi arrived and rahul struggled to balance the suitcase files and maagi, i offred to help him S:" sir, give it to me ill hold it for you " i took the file from him, then we both started for nilgiri again
R:" hmm so wat r ur future plans masters, IAS, job " S:" haaa am not too interested in a technical job doing mba is surely an option for me" R:" so u want to be the boss gud mi opinion has always been that one should always do wat he is interested in, nothing should be forced on u " by this time we had reached nilgiri R:" so u mite be feeling proud to be an iitian " S:" haaaan not really i sometimes feel that am a complete misfit here " R:" ohh come on dissapointments are apart and parcel of life and bouncing back more strongly after every dissappointment is what seperates iitians from others" Gaurd:" sir wo sanjeev ka room tho locked hain" S:"ohh ok sir i guess he has gone home and mite return tommorow" R:"hmmm then if thats the case .... no problem ill come back next week dont worry anyways it was nice meeting u heres mi card" S:"it was gr8 meeting u and do come back ur always welcome" .
then suddenly a junior called srinivas comes in j:" sirrr gud morning sir" S:" itne subah subah kya kar raha hain" J:"was not getting any sleep was watching prison break and aap kya kar rahe ho" S:"nothing yaar jus wanted some fresh air and met this alumni ... arey yaar uska file mere paas rahgaya ek min dekhna wo bahar hi hoga" i & junior ran out of nilgiri to look for him but no sign of rahul "oh yaar poor chap uska file mere paas hi rahgaya" J:" kaun tha sir itni tension kyon lerahe ho" S:"koi alumni tha ... wait i have his card us pe phone no hoga " it read rahul verma blah blah 756625, 465804 S:" magar isme tho koi cell no bhi nahin hain do landline nos hain" J:"chalo karte hain sir" S:" chal " 2 .7.5.6.6.2.5............this dial code doesnt exist ........ S:"dial code doesnt exist dikharaha " J:" doosara no try karo naa" " haannn 2.4.6.5.8.0.4......" "same aaraha hain " S:" kya fight ho sakti hain shit no bhi kaam nahin kar raha one min usne house secy ke board kissi ko closely dekhtha lets look for him chal" J:" siiirrr muje nind aarahi hain afternoon main dekhlenge " S:" chalna 2 min kaa kaam hain". we reached the guest room where the boards were hung S:" aaannnn.....87 ...84 ...83 haan addityya sharma yes milgaya" J:" magar isse kya karoge jaanke" S:" hmmm kya karunga haan i heard sometime that the caretaker maintains the records of all the alumni their present contact no also lets check him thrrr" J:" par abhi to caretaker so rahe honge" S:" shit haannn... chalo phir afternoon main hi dekhna padega get me up by 11 ok chal phir soja". we both returned to our rooms and slept
time: 11.00am Junior:"sirrrr get up its already 11 get uppppp"
S" wat happpennnned " J:" sir ur alumni we were goin to search for him" S:" yaayaaa yaad ayya mere purse se wo card lana, chal chalte hain" we both went to the caretaker office where our caretaker mr dubey was sitting on a chair dubey:" come in samrat kyaa hua kuch tension main lag rahe ho wats teh matter" S :" sirr i wanted some information do u know anyone by the name rahul verma " D:" kaunsa rahul verma rahul tho bahut hain yaar abhi hostel main hain kyaa" S:" no sirr he is our hostel's alumni 83-84 batch paasout " D:" 83-84 tho bahut purani baat hain yaar kuch yaad tho nahin aaraha kuch secretary the kya wo" S:" sir phir aapko aditya sharma yaad hain kya wo apne house secretary thein 1983 main board ,main bhi likha hua hain " D:"kuch yaad tho nahin aaraha pramod ji se puchlo wo tho bahut pehle se kaam kar rahe hain" pramodji was our mess supervisor an elderly person S:" sir aur maine suna hain u keep some records of all teh batches till now agar ho tho plzz toda dekhiye sir:" just then pramod comes in p:" haan samratji kya hua problem kya hain " dubeyji checking in the almirah for the student record files S:" sir aapko koi aditya sharma pata hain kya apne hostel ke house secy thein wo 1983 main" P:" kuch suna suna sa hain naam kuch bata nahin sakta pakke se" just then dubeyji places a file after dusting it D:"haan samrat here is ur file student record for the batch 83-84 isme dekhlo hoga shayad" i and junior got down to search for rahul verma, the file was such that it had one page alloted to each studnet details of his 8 semesters and his present adress if available S:" rahullllll......rahullllll.....yaa got it yes it was the same guy his photo was also there 1st sem..... 2nd yr.... 3rd yr..... 4th yr ...... wat was it the 4th year was striked out and some writtings in red and blue were not viisible because the ink got smudged confused i turned to praamod S:" sirr ye kya hain samaj main nahin aa raha hain kuch clear nahin hain idar present adress bhi kuch nahin hain kuch batayiye" P:" ek min muje dikhao aannn kaun hain rahul verma hmmm ye writing tho.... meri hain sign bhi hain mere dean sir ke bhi hain kya case thaa hain ye...... hmmm... arey haaan ye tho wahi case hain yaad ye dubeyji ye ladka rahul verma nilgiri ka hi tha bahut hoshiyaar tha bechara " D:" kaun rahul verma yaar muje tho yaad nahin aaraha " P:" arey wahi rahul vermaa jisne ... wooo nilgiri se khood ke sucide kar liyaa tha!!!!!!!!! bahut accha ladka thaa bechara kya hogaya tha suddenly idar hi upar se kood ke apna jaan dediya" D:" kyaa kuch ladki kaa chakar tha kyaa " P:" nahin yaar aisa kuch nahin tha padayi main bhi acha tha dance bhi karta tha najane kuch tension main tha kisine bola tha ki dostonke saat ladayi , padayii bhi ho sakti hain kuch nahin pata....." dumb founded. hearing those words a chill ran through mi spine sucide but how on earth can this happen i had met this guy in the morning, was i dreaming if i was dreaming then wat was that file he gave me and tht visiting card D:" haan samrat aapko kya kaam tha rahul verma se wo tho matlab 83 mainhi margaye thein " S:" aaannn nahin sir kuch nahin aise hi .. chalo sir main chalta hoon" saying these words i got out of the caretakers room " how can this happen if rahul verma had died who was the person i had met in the morning was it just a halocination , one min that file " remembering tht file i ran upstairs J:" sir kyaa hua pata laga rahul ke baarein main" S:" haan haaan lag gaya thanks yaar mil tha hu baad main" i ran to mi rrom and opened it and searched for the file and thank god found it in a corner wat was that file, it read
Chemical Engineering department
Major project part 2
Design of a fixed bed reactor
GUIDE Student
O P Gupta Rahul Verma
fuck !!!!it was a btech project report and this was the same topic that i was working on i ran thru the pages and at the end it was signed with love
rahul verma
i couldnt believe mi eyes !!! i was speechless
After that day i had many more niteouts and roamed in iit many times but never met rahul verma again !!! i guess he had come just to remind me what i was missing in life " i was merely existing not living mi life" he changed my perspective towards life and i owe a lot to him if only i knew where he was i just wanted to say " Thank u"..........