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Published: December 11th 2011
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The Egyptian theme park.
This park is an Egyptian themed park, made right on the banks of the Ganges...! Its a great spot to spend the afternoon... As far as I remember it was around the month of December…year 2009…academic year 2009-2010…!!
The year we passed school…the year in which we gave I.S.C…the year of dread…!! The pressure had already started to mount by then…it was obvious, since it is mandatory to get awful marks in the pre council exams and hope to “make up” in the last few months…well this has been “the rule” from time unknown! To beat stress, different friends of ours implemented different methods; some relied on porn to do the trick, some took up smoking, those who smoked took up drinking, marijuana had also found its way into our friends circle…!! But what we did would baffle even the most intelligent of all minds…it was almost a blasphemy against all laws of nature…we went to our physics tuition!!!!
We, that is, me: Soumodip, Joy, Lolo and Saswata went to Mr. Shantosheel (Sontu) Chaterjee for physics tuition (two days a week, more if we could help). This “sir” of ours usually taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On every Tuesdays we had chemistry tuitions right after the physics tuition, the few minutes gap between the two tuitions would be spent on the ghat of the river Ganges. Ghats are like embankments made on both sides of the river, these ghats have steps made that leads down to the river, to sum up it’s “the best” place for hangout! It was a small, standalone type of ghat, unlike other ghats it was hardly ever populated with romancing couples or elderly folks spilling their always sorrowful hearts to one another. This ghat had another striking difference with the other ghats…this ghat did not have any name…at least till then!
This weekly hangout started becoming more and more addictive till physics tuition and our ghat hangout became synonymous! From weekly, it went biweekly, then triweekly and at last daily…tuition or no tuition we four used to meet at there around 4:30 to 5:00pm, puff a couple of cigs, beat our stresses out and return home all charged up…!
As months passed on our board exams came closer and closer until we could feel it breathing on our shoulders. Above all other inconveniences that the board exams had brought with it, putting a total stop to our “ghat trips” was the gravest of all…! Though I.S.C could stop our ghat trips it could by no means put a stop to our physics tuition, thus we stuck to our ghat as faithfully as ever…but sadly our ghat trips had again been cut down to twice a week and so we dedicated ourselves to make the best out of those two days.
Soon came a brand new year, year 2010…! We literally could feel the noose tighten around our neck…even our ghat trips did little to ease our minds. So we unanimously decided that it was about time to take our ghat hangout to a whole new level…and so we did, and that too within three days!
It was the last week of January 2010; our second pre board exam had just ended leaving only about three weeks before our practicals for I.S.C began…by this time all of our tuition had ceased except for the physics tuition; if you know what I mean! On one such evening in our tuitions I took up the initiation to take our hangout to the new level. As soon as the other three of our group came in I said to Saswata, “Bhai 30 taka hobe amar kachhe 40 achhe!!”! (Dude do you have 30 bucks, I’ve got 40!!) Not only Saswata but Joy and Lolo also had around 30 to 40 bucks each…which meant that two 330ml bottles of vodka, 65 bucks each could be bought with ease!!
The next two hours of the tuition just flew past. As soon as the tuition was called off, the four of us gathered to discuss who will buy the drink and from where. At this point let me tell you Naihati (our hometown) is famous for three things: 1. Kalipuja, 2. Abundance of Alcohol shops and 3. Brothels!!
Thus owing to point number two there was a “shop” just outside the lane where our physics teacher’s house was located…but the problem was the shop was right in the middle of the busiest marketplace of Naihati, which gave the buyer a fair enough chance to get spotted by the most unwanted of all individuals! One of us had to take the risk and I volunteered. My friends gave me all the protections that they could provide…we swapped our pullovers as well as our bags, and prayed that the “disguise“ will be enough in case someone acquainted to caught my sight. What the world next saw of me was I hurrying out of the shop with two bottles full of warm vodka in my bag! A joyous greet from my friends, on our cycles, out of the bustling market and the next moment we were sipping away the “Magic Moments” at the our beloved ghat, with the river flowing at our feet, the cold breeze of the winter evening ruffling our hair and all the worries of the world magically gone!
Though the alcohol relieved us of all our academic doubts…yet it implanted a new worry in our minds, each and every time…the worry of the wretched smell!! It really was great pain in the butt to drive away the smell, and it was also one of the most important parts of the routine…because that little smell had the potential to blow our fool proof plan and get all of us into a great deal of trouble! The only way to drive away the smell was to eat something very spicy or something with a strong flavor so that it could mask the smell of the alcohol. But here too laid another problem…cash!! We were always short of cash. Just to get the drink would push us to the verge of bankruptcy. Food was thus not an easy thing to get…! However, come to think of it, Lolo, no matter what always used to have money just enough to get himself an egg roll! Alas, there was only one Lolo among us, so we decided to get real economic…each penny that we got, we saved it…we walked to school and saved the rickshaw fare…we starved at lunch breaks to save the tiffin money…!! Really, we were ready to face any hardships just to get back to that paradise of a ghat…our very own Sontu’s Ghat, as we called it!! The ghat had an uncanny elusive effect about it and that’s what made us all so faithful to it, that’s what made us bear all that hardships just to return to it over and over again…! The ghat provided us a sanctuary…a place where we could find some peace of mind…and trust me when your board exams are knocking at the door “peace of mind” is something which tends to get real scanty. We all owe to the ghat big times.
Though the ghat did us all so many good but it had also planted a devil inside us.
Soon our little savings ran out. To replenish it we stole. We stole from our teachers. The fees of our English teacher never really reached him. Among all our teachers he was the one easiest to get…that man didn’t keep any sort of record of whether students were paying him or not…he was a good man…and we exploited his good nature! Each month 200 bucks meant for him ended in one of the secret chambers of our bag. By the time we stopped going for the English tuitions we had around 800 bucks each in our pockets. All of it was spent on alcohol and smoke.
Then from the 2
nd week of January, we got real serious, English tuition ceased completely. The only excuse left to us to go for the physics tuition was solving test papers. Even that ceased when the I.S.C practical finally started. The others though made about a couple of ghat trips even during the exams with the excuse of going out for playing cricket…you know sports refreshes mind and all that stuff always work on parents!
A grand party was held after the I.S.C ended…after all it marked the end of our school life. With the end of our school life came the end of an era…and by the end of it we had all turned into addicts…but none addicted to the alcohol nor the smoke…we were all addicted to the Ghat…The Sontu’s ghat…!
THE END
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