Courting a Gymmie – Part 2

The basics

My first impression of the gymkhana was of a place where he lived in a room having dimensions 20’ x 20’ x 20’. This is how he had described it to me in one of his earliest letters from Jamalpur; however description of the place was even more interesting. I vividly remember him calling Jamalpur a गांव/कस्बा/town, just that he couldn’t make up his mind what was it resembling more. Before, he was leaving for Jamalpur (the same time when we had just started our life as a couple); he had told me that once there, he will tell me about the possible modes of communication we might look forward to. So after he left, I was left in anticipation and preparing myself for the worst, I had convinced myself that at least I shall receive a letter/ phone call at some convenient time.

It was three weeks after he had been there, that I received a phone call from a number starting 06344- and I just can’t express my happiness. He hurriedly gave me some basic info and assured me that he was the fittest among his batch-mates. Of course, coming from a regular engineering college, I started imagining the variations of ragging and feared the worst. However, after a few more days of such anxiety, he found out that he could afford to give me a call every week and gradually I got convinced that things were not as bad as I had imagined them to be. To say the least, I was not really able to comprehend the kind of situation he was in. The customs n ways which he used to describe briefly, were many times totally beyond my understanding and imagination.

I can recall the day when he had called to tell me that ‘kal hamari club entry ho gayi’. Once again I was perplexed at this phrase. I tried correlating it to a normal Fresher’s party and due to our limited time on phone, he said that it was something similar to that and that he would get into the details later. Of course with passage of time, I came to understand the essence (not fully though :P) of a variety of such terms; Club-entry, FLS, UNIT, VL, ‘faanki’ and ‘pail’ and of course CLUB DAY.

After his stint at Jamalpur started, we met for the first time in October during DP break. (And this was the first time when I didn’t feel irritated at my college authorities for giving us a break at DP and not Diwali). During this meeting, I actually realised the meaning of what he meant by saying that he was the fittest of all among his batchmates. I could not believe my eyes, when I noticed that he was laming slightly as we went on a walk. During that trip, he told me many a things about Jamalpur, Gymkhana, IRIMEE and the life he had over there. And a lot of it was quite incredible. My initial reaction was of shock and disbelief, but, since he seemed happy and well adjusted in that environment, I was also somewhat relaxed.

During our conversations, he told me about the ‘Club Day’ and more importantly the fact that it is celebrated every year on the 14th of February. (I guess it must be the only celebration on this particular day which goes unopposed by the people of India at large). Since we had started our official courtship after February, and given the fact that I was full of a college girl’s romantic notions, I didn’t really understand the implications of ‘the club day’ then. Seriously, till date, at times I question that whether it is a practical joke played by destiny on all of us girls who ever thought of (or actually did, like me) courting a Gymmie. It has been almost 6 years of our courtship and we are yet to celebrate a V-day.

As time passed, the culture and traditions of Gymkhana began to unfold before me. I was looking at the complete scenario through his eyes. It was like a fort with an invisible boundary wall and I was peeping inside from the other side of it, with my face pressed hard against it. Once the DP vacations were over and both of us were back at our hostels, things became somewhat relaxed (just slightly so). Actually, things had not changed as such, just that being humans we had got accustomed to the situations.

His life had fallen into a routine and I had subconsciously started following the same :P (we girls are so adjusting na :P). A regular day started with his rushing to IRIMEE in the morning for assembly, followed by some or the other method to pass time. Lunch time was around 1330 and the most happening and fixed routine was of evening which started with tea (which he never took and always preferred Nimbu Paani) and was followed by sports session (which lasted up to dinner time). Dinner was followed by sessions of pail. On a normal day, he used to get free at max by 2330. With time, the frequency and duration of our calls increased. I started completing all my chores before I expected him to return from his dinner and subsequent sessions. I had found out some of the best potholes in my hostel and had also developed the skill to talk very softly on phone, so much so that even a person standing right next to me might not realise whether I was speaking at all.

Though we had been the best of friends since school time, yet we always had so much to say, to discuss, to share and to recount. Honestly speaking, during my four years at college, my best moments were those which I spent conversing with him. As times passed our phone calls were no longer a mere mode of communication for us, it became the method by the virtue of which we spent time with each other.

I would like to describe one such call over here. We had been talking about our initial years when we were toddlers and were busy recounting interesting anecdotes from the past. I can’t explain how exactly did it happen, but soon we were discussing ABCD and what words were associated with these alphabets in the prep standard books. We were doing well and were able to recount almost all of it except T. We thought hard but it didn’t solve any purpose. Next day while in conversation with a batchmate, he brought up this highly disturbing issue and as fate would have it, the dear batchmate came to our rescue and told us that T was for Tea Pot. Now, please don’t judge us and our conversations on the basis of this sample. It’s just that this sample was simple and comic enough to be shared on a public forum :D.