Josh- my novel

Dedicated to Akkineni Naga Chaitanya, the Telegu superstar who starred in a movie of the same name. Love his dialogue, "Chepte vinay vadu student e kadu(One who listens to others' [advice] is not a student."


Chapter 1

It had all started back at NIT Agartala. Abhay, a hot-tempered & normally reserved person is instigated repeatedly by a Amartya Saha & some of his cronies from a newly constited clique. Its just been a week into their first year in college. Abhay had a peculiar personality somewhat akin to that of Ajay Devgan in his serious movies- quiet and reserved but hot-headed and violent on instigation with the proper "activation energy"; in short a hand grenade that's safe as long as the pin is not fiddled with.

Now moving on to that perticular day. "Enough is enough.Bahut ho gaya. Ab aur saha to sharafat ka galat fayeda uthayenge. In bhakchonder o ko dikhana padhega ki hum kaun hai." He calls up his good friend Utkarsh, who's now a student leader at his college in Kolkata & heads a motley band of leftist students. He describes in detail the problem he's in & asks him if he knew anyone from Ashutosh college, where Amartya studied for an year before getting entrance to NIT Silchar. Utkarsh tells him that he'll call up in 10 minutes.

In the meantime, Abhay still irritated & perplexed rushed to the second year hostel. He went straight to the room of Prashant Jadhav, after the routine "Good evening bro!" uttered with bowed head to the seniors whom he encountered on the way. Prashant Jadhav was a friendly senior & also the batch-topper: a "nine pointer". On the first day of college, Sam Barua, the Dean(Student Affairs), had come along with Prashant Jadhav(Head of ARC- the Anti-Ragging Committee) for an informal interactive session that soon was to view a debate. Since then Abhay & Nakul came quite close to Prashant, much to the ire of the other second year seniors.

Abhay asked him if he could shift to the senior hostel. Prashant said," Haan paar kaafi tang karenge. Akhir ek junior itne seniors ke beech me. Par jyada din nahi. Aage jaake help bhi milegi. Kar lo agar 2-3 hafte jhel sakte ho to." Abhay replied,"Sahi hai bhaiya. Akhir junior-senior me thoda restraint bhi to rahega hi. Har roj mere room se khana gayab kar dete hain, raat-raat bhar doosre room waale aake pakate hain. Saalo ko bhagao to phir wapas aa jate hain. Paani rahti nahi hostel me. Aapke yahan water cooler se bhar jaata hun; pahuch te hi khatam kar dete hain. Aaj mujhe do baar naali ke paani se bhigo diya; attendence gayi meri! Waise bhi almost sab seniors se ache relations hain. Football khelne walon ke saath aur jyada. Yehi fayda hain shuru me ragging karwa lene ka, baad me frienly ho jaate hain." With this he bid goodbye to Prashant Jadhav.

[To be continued..]