“It would have been totally cool if we could have studied in this college”, Arun said to his brother Sanjay.
Sanjay was 3 years older than Arun and was more of a serious type of guy. He just nodded.
Arun and Sanjay were in the annual cultural fest of IITD. RENDEZVOUS 2012.
It was a hectic morning with all the walking around and they were relaxing for a little while sitting on the lush green lawn in front of the main block trying to soak in the spirit of the fest.
Fest is a naturally exciting time in college. People coming in from different colleges, co-ordinators running around organising things stream lining logistics and feeling pretty important about themselves, the frequent announcements regarding different events on the many loud speakers installed in the campus; these are just few of the common sights in every cultural fests. The sheer energy of the group of guys and girls practicing their dance sequences for the Dance Face Off or some other group practicing their skit is almost infectious.
Another common sight in every fest is a bunch of guys and girls who are there just to enjoy and LOOK at the fest. They are not there to participate or to organise or to cheer for anyone. They just want to have a nice time. 5 pm in the evening of October is the kind of time when these group of youngsters generally take a break from all their looking and relax for a while charging up for the grand events of the night.
The lawn where Arun and Sanjay were sitting had many such groups of college students chilling out. There was one group who were playing DUMB CHARADES. It is a game where in the rival team will give a name of a movie to one person from the opposing team and he will have to act it out so that his team mates can guess the name. This guessing has to be done within a time frame.
Arun was amused at this game. He has never seen such kind of thing. The group was of 8 people. 6 guys and 2 girls. And they were having a really good time. Arun tried to show Sanjay what they were doing, but Sanjay was not interested, he was trying to make some calculations on a sheet of paper.
“haah ! look at them bhai. What they are doing. One of them is acting the name of a movie and the others are guessing ! it’s funny!!”
“hmmm” said Sanjay.
“ I bet I can do better than that fat guy in specs over there” claimed Arun
Sanjay was busy scribbling something on the piece of paper.
“In our village I can’t even imagine girls sitting with boys and enjoying like this. Delhi is different” Arun continued.
“Hmmm” Sanjay was still not interested.
Arun continued to look at the group. He was really enjoying it. He was laughing whenever something funny happened. A part of him wanted to go and join them but the other part was wary of city people. Also he thought he is not cool enough to join them.
“okay,enough rest now. Get up” Sanjay folded the piece of paper and put it in his shirt pocket.
“Already?? We just sit down” Arun said in a complaining but withdrawn tone.
“Yes. If Sitaraam ji sees us sitting down he will cause problems during the payment”, said Sanjay in a slightly angry voice.
“But my feet are aching bhai.” Arun was hoping to get few more minutes.
“It’s only natural. Who asked you to dance with those students? Standing on 2 wooden sticks is draining enough. But no.... you are always hyper excited” Sanjay was visible angry now.
Arun looked away from Sanjay towards the group playing Dumb Charades.
Sanjay continued in a softer voice this time, “bhai, if we do not perform then Sitaraam ji won’t give us full payment. I was making some calculations. After we receive today’s payment we will still be 2500 rupees short to pay the rent of the room. Looks like we won’t be able to send back money to mother this month as well.”
Arun knew that he must get up and put on those wooden sticks and walk around the fest entertaining the crowd. That’s what he and his brother were being paid for. Arun was an expert acrobat who could perform different stunts. Walking around on 7 feet high wooden logs was literally a cake walk for him. Sanjay used to accompany him with a dhol, their job was to entertain the crowd in the fest. They have been doing this all morning. Arun’s feet were aching, there were blisters in some places as well.
Sanjay took out his handkerchief from hsi pocket and tore it into 2. “here, wind these on you r feet. The blisters won’t hurt much. You won’t lose your balance no?”
Arun took them from his brother. Like always his brother was looking out for him, the best way he can. “sure. I can walk around on these sticks with a glassful of water in my head, without spilling a drop”.
Sanjay smiled and strapped his dhol onto his shoulders.
Arun glanced one more time at the group playing dumb charades. They were all laughing uncontrollably over something. Arun forced himself to smile and picked up the wooden sticks.
