Neha Sourav......

This post is dedicated to two of my best friends from college… Neha and Sourav… I don’t know why I never say Sourav and Neha… though Sourav was my lab partner in 1st year and those days I almost never talked to Neha. I guess u must have guessed as yet that there is something seriously cooking between these two, or else I wouldn’t have started off naming them together.

Well… these two were born on 16th October 1987 and fortunately Sourav dropped in hours before Neha! Yeah… they both share the same date of birth till 8th digit (as Neha always proudly used to say!!!) Their combined birthday party used to be a grand celebration and a big treat for us!!!

I will write about Mr. Sourav Guha Roy first coz I befriended him first. I remember it was the day of our admission when I had gone to college with my dad. Sitting in a corner with his mother was this guy in red t-shirt with spiked hair (gelled too I guess). A big grown up full size male sitting besides his mother for admission, well it was certainly not what I expected as a preview of ‘college’ on the day of admission… but whatever… that was sweet! When college started, we were shown a lab and there we were told to work on experiments in groups of 3. Since there were no acquaintances, our teachers decided to divide us according to our roll-numbers. That was when I was paired with Sourav and Abhishek (Lamba wala). I remember 3 of us were sitting in one bench (me thinking ‘kahaan phas gaye’) when Sourav said ‘hi’ and we started talking. We were allotted our first experiment and sir asked us to do some research on the topic given. I headed for the library right away when Sourav said ‘tum log karlena… am going to canteen’. I remember I was FUMING with anger!!! I really hated him the first day! That lamba wala Abhishek was still better, didn’t do anything but at-least he accompanied me to library and passed me the books on the top rack. Lamba wala Abhishek was very irregular to college, so mostly it was me and Sourav doing experiments. Sourav sings really well and I too love to sing esply when in lab. Though most of the time I would be stuck to one line, which really used to irritate Sourav a lot, but still he never minded singing along. We were very fast in our experiments and would complete before anyone else (with hell lot of manipulations of course! ;)) I remember Sourav did an experiment (kepler’s pendulum) in my absence once and he gor very accurate results... so accurate that our Agam Sir was dead sure that he had manipulated (though he hadn't) n we had to repeat that !!!

I used to notice Sourav starring at Neha in middle of doing experiments, but then I never thought it was something so important to notice. I used to see them exchanging letters and I think I saw Sourav crying once. But u see I was a bit dumb those days… these things I understand very late… you see this subject is not as easy as physics is! I didn’t realize what was going on between them till one day Ayushi told me explicitly that they both like each-other.

Coming to Miss. Neha Sengupta, a small… little… chubby… chulbuli kinda girl, full of life and masti. She rocked the fresher’s party and the ragging session with the dance on a peppy song from ‘Bunty aur Bubli’. She was no less than Rani Mukherjee!!! First impression – Baap re!!! kya ladki hai!!! I was horrified to see her dancing in front of the whole class with just 2 students known to her (from her school, one incidentally her cousin). I preferred to maintain distance with her. Not my type! I don’t really remember exactly when my ideology towards her changed… and before I realized, she was my best friend! She suddenly seemed to be the most intelligent, matured and sensible person in the world who was my secret strength! She could read me like a book… she was so understanding and sweetttttt!!!!!

It was the fest of our department and I was the JT. Secretary of our physics society when we were asked to make many posters and charts and that was when I saw how damn creative Neha was. I mean she was just amazing!! And the amount of head-work she had put, really impressed me thoroughly. In second year, I was elected the Vice-president and I was the in charge of the fest. I will end up writing a 1000 page novel if I start off with the fest details but other than tortures… tensions… tears… fears… disappointments… excitements… achievements… satisfaction… thrill… fun… etc. etc. I got a few precious friends who actually stood by me… and these two belong to that class! Sourav took half the burden off me by taking some of the major responsibilities like arrangements of sponsorship, posters, flowers etc. etc. and Neha was sure there to guide me carefully through each step. Though these two didn’t had a post for themselves, the dedication and the hard work they put in was simply out of the world. I felt blessed and really really lucky to have them by my side and I will ever be grateful to both of them for everything they did for me!

They both celebrate their ‘temporary anniversary’ on 13th September. I didn’t knew about it in first year but in the second year it was a high class drama. I remember Sourav had ordered a cake in the nearby bakery and he asked me, Shibu n Avek to collect it and get it to the resto ‘colonel’s special’ (in front of our college). Megha got a DVD writted with romantic songs (all English so I didn’t really understand much). As far as I remember Sourav gifted a ring I guess… n chocolates too. We were all so despo to eat that yummy black-forest cake (1 KG!!!). Their treats were ever fantastic… let it be their birthday or anniversary… it used to be simply awesome. We used to get a share of the chocolates Sourav used to get for Neha… and I remember Neha used her college locker to keep cards, gifts etc while ours will be running short of space with so many books!!! In third year on their birthday, I was on the way to college when Sourav asked me to get a bouquet of 5 flowers for her… and I remembered I asked so many doubts that am sure he would have thought ‘kisse bol rahaan hoon!’. I called up Ayu n Shibu for help n together we got 2 red, 2 yellow and a white flower. It was a bit colorful but a nice bouquet… and Neha liked it!

Best things used to be those days sitting in canteen, and me and Neha sharing the hottest gossips around… the word ‘gossip’ used to bring color into Neha’s face and Sourav used to get so irritated with that! Initially he used to feel a bit uncomfortable when we do our girly-girly talks but then he got used to it soon (didn’t had a choice!) Watching movies was something very regular that time. We really had an amazing time in Mt.Abu where we went on a college trip and the video game parlor (near the hotel we checked in) was the best thing to have had there! How can I not mention that I won the car race against Sourav when we went to Appu Ghar (fantasy park).

Its really difficult to summarize all that happened in 3 years in one post… but am posting all this so that I can cherish at-least some special moments when I re-read it after say 5 or 6 years later. Am really proud of them and am glad that they are my friends. I pray to god that they should always be happy and together… They are a lovely couple [TOUCH WOOD].