Fistfight between friends - Part III

  Dear dost or should I say readers ...... because blog has certainly increased the horizon of my friends list ...........My friends are based several seas away...someone in Hongkong as well as boys based in Port-au -prince are leafing through my writings....feels good.... But...writing seems to be a dicey game ....I am winning some new admirers .....but at the same time losing some trusted friends....awfully bad......... Do not compare my blogs to controversial Hindi movies.....I am reminiscing about some of the best times I spent in the company of my loved ones...though these blogs contain truth......but they depict only my version of story.....and truth is never absolute.....it is always in relative terms...... One more fact while writing this blog ......I remembered few instances that were narrated to me by others.......but I won't write them here ....because that will be like cheating in a Board exam.....which I don't approve of....my story needs to have my rustic touch...so dear dosts ...beware If I decide to write your story ...then your name will adorn my title ...so try not fire a bullet while placing barrel on my shoulders......because fortunately I am quite adept in handling Indian weapon systems ............courtesy my job profile ...........No hard feelings...plain business. Sundays are funny. They provoke you to do something lazy, which is a contrast in itself. But, it goads me to write something these days. So, I have decided to write something on weekly basis, like a column of Khuswant Singh in newspapers. I simply adore the writings of this Grand old man. This man is a treasure trove of stories untold. I wonder , why he has not got the literary awards which are a hallmark of great writers.I agree,that prizes do not make a man,but world-wide recognition is mandatory for good writers. I heard V.S. Naipaul only after he got Nobel in 2001. May be,westerners are biased otherwise Khushwant Singh writes better than Naipaul any day.Can you recognise the Gunter Grass or J.M. Coetzee without their Nobel medallion.Even a doyen like Rabindranath Tagore is known in foreign territories more due to his magnum opus Gitanjali.Unfortunately,a clever thief has stole his Nobel medallion fom Calcutta.Alas,we can't protect our legacy. But promises are just promises...Let's see..... And the story goes now like this...... When you talk about BHU, Benaras come to the mind first. So. it is necessary to know the heart of this living city before you get to know the hanky-panky in BHU. This wonderful city was earlier called Kashi.....lights .....lights form the veins of this temple city. Later on, two tributaries of Ganga, Varuna and Assi, made it Varansi which became Benaras in a corrupted form. But, I find this Benars, the most authentic name of this common man's city. May be I owe it to Amitabh Bachchan,who danced wantonly on Benarasi paan theme in Don,released way back in 1978.So, how can I call it by any other name when Amitabh popularised it even few years earlier than my birth year. You can find Benaras in ' Skanda Puran' also which is housed on a rack in a tiny corner of venerable Central Library in BHU.This library is as ancient as the city itself. You can read few hours without any worldly interruption except of those pigeons who live in upper floors of this great institution. Yeah, the Central Library is an instiution in her own right. Time is not a constant for avid readers here. Infact, Benarasi bhadralok doesn't follow time,time follows them. Afterall,this is the place where Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati stood when time started ticking for the first time. Benaras is situated on the tip of Trishul of Mahadev. If you don't belive me , then read Harishchandra again.He came to live in Benaras after donating all the land/property because it is situated on something divine. That's why, Harischandra Ghat used to be my favourite haunt. A cup of morning tea here can enliven your spirit. You do not feel like telling lie here. Even in my village in far away corner of Bihar, If you do some honest/truthful work,people will taunt you by saying " try not to emulate Harischandra". What a pity, you are not allowed to speak truth in our country.That's why we need few hundreds Anna Hajare in our cities. I strongly believe this. Benaras is truly the amalgation of mythlogy with reality. Ramcharita Manas was written here, so we have Tulsi Ghat. Every historic event is celebrated here by naming a ghat. Benaras posses 84 ghats in an 07 Km. long arc on the Ganga between Varuna & Assi on northern and southern side respectively. Kashi Vishwanath temple is the jewel of Benaras. This present majestic structure was built by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar,Queen of Indore in 1776. However,this temple has a truly gold connection.Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sikh ruler of Lahore,had its 15.5 m. tall spire plated in gold in 1835. I wonder why the ruler of Indore and Lahore did it instead of Kahi Naresh who is still regarded as cultural king of the Benaras. Divine intervention may be, so I strongly believe in the religious mythology of Shiva. Even, gun -toting CRPF men, who adorn the nearby Babri Masjid can not change the ethereal belief of believers who throng the sepentine Gali leading to the sanctum sanctorum.This street, is a study in itself. It conducts few crores of businees on daily basis despite space constraint. One of the most amazing fact about the Benaras is death tourism. Do not consider the dichotomy,if one dies where is the scope of tourism ? It is there for discerning eye to see. Once I noticed an advertisement for a Hotel on the riverbank.......In bold letters,there was a sentence which caught my eye........'Close to a cremation Site'. This shrwed hotelman was flaunting the fact that his hotel was strategically placed near THE ABODE OF GHOSTS i.e.Manikarnika ghat.Annually, more than 30,000 bodies are cremated here on an average. This hotel was flaunting this fact in the same manner as Kerala people do 'Close to the Kovalm beach' If you hire a boatman here to see the colours of Benaras from a vantage point i.e. from the middle of the river Ganga. He will take you towards a pile of woods oozing smoke on this particular ghat. Sightseeing. Though,there is an electric crematorium nearby where these rites can be performed at a fraction of the cost of woods,but it is mostly closed due to mechanical reasons. In other words, to enhance death tourism. It is believed that if you die in Benaras ,straightaway you will go to heaven. Infact, a chartered plane is waiting on the ghats to carry your soul directly to heaven. I believe it. This was a little lonely planet- type tour of Benaras. Come close to BHU now. We have a Sankatmochan temple, few hundred metres away from Lanka.This temple was built by none other than Madan Mohan Malviya who is also the founder of B.H.U. Have you noticed that letters B, H, & U are located in a diagonally straight line on your Keyboard. It is not a coincidence.It was carefully planned in such a divine way .....back in 1916. Can you see the Shiva connection, even in name of BHU. So, I was talking about Sankatmochan Temple. It is the presiding deity of BHU. Every,tuesday and saturday you will find few hundreds student wearing a bright red Tikka on the middle part of forehead. Be assured, they had visited Sankatmochan for relieving their Sankat. Just visit the temple and get 60% marks.If you are willing to read textbooks...add the extra percentage in divine -ordained 60. Simians of various sizes are a constant presence here.Sometimes,they will snatch away the polythenes filled with Laddu, no problem they are just taking their legititimate share.Go to the same sweet shop & buy another for your own family.Afterall,monkies also need to feed their family.How can you be so insensitive. Once , I visited this holy place on a tuesday evening. I parked my borrowed bicycle within the premises near backside entrance of the temple, secured it by putting steel chains in between spokes in addition to usual locking system.Came back to the same place within 10 minutes, BHU boys know how to offer puja without standing in serpentine queue, but was perplexed not to find bicycle at the usual place. First thought, maybe some naughty monkey is playing pranks. Suddenly, I got enraged that how the bugger monkey dared to touch my bicycle. But, after few minutes of hectic search,the fact dawned on me that,it was not a monkey business.This act was performed by more evolved colleagues of the monkey breed i.e. humans.Their will power was stronger than my steel chains.Benaras is also famous for visible as well as invisible thugs. I walked back to my hostel,nearly 03 Kms. away from Sankatmochan,saddened by the loss of such a useful bicycle. It had saved several rupees of Rickshaw fare of so many hostellers. It was truly a workhorse. I didn't even had the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to this masterpiece of Lord Vishwakarma. what a monumental loss ! Every April, a grand Sangeet Mahotsav is held here. For the first time in my life , I was mesmerized by the mellifluos tunes of Santoor by Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma. I never knew that traditional musical instruments can be so much pleasing to the ear.Here, we are fascinated by Guitars because Aamir Khan has played it in Qayamat se Qayamat Tak or Hotel California is a classic. I agree, Guitar is fun but why the hell we are forgetting Santoor. Never in my life, I have heard that someone want to learn santoor. However, so may of us want to learn guitar including myself. But hearing Hari Prasad Chaurasia was fun unlimited.It soothed my soul. Every year, several musicians/dancers grace the occasion here. BHU boys are always the front-benchers here. Pt. Veer Bhadra Mishra used to be the Mahant here.He was also a Professor in IT,BHU.Haven't I talked about sangam of spirituality & science in Benaras. Same divine connection here. I forgot another Temple here, probably the only one of its kind in India, the Bharat Mata Temple. It was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1936. It seems, I have provided an overdose of history and fiction here. But Benaras is like that only. Coming to A.N.D. Hostel now, We had a hoary tradition of abusing each other. There is one Rajaram Hostel meant for PG and beyond students of Social Science faculty.Our hostel was meant for UG students of this faculty. So, technically our seniors used to live in Rajaram ...it was bigger and better. But unlike our hostel,this hostel didn't possess close bonding between inmates due to its mammoth size. One night during my first year in A.N.D Hostel , may be in the year 2000, I woke up in the middle of night after hearing strange-sounding words. Slept again. Next night,same ritual happened. Today, sounds were familiar and meaning was well-defined.As, we were the junior most in the hostel, we had no idea about holy traditions. Next morning, I got to know that, few months prior to Holi....A.N.D. boys abuse Bhonsriwales of Rajaram in choicest terms. All the variations of mothrs/sisters/distance relatives were used in huge quantities. Even then, I didn't dared to use those words initially. But some daredevil boys decided to take matters in their hand. After dinner we went to the rooftop and started MC/BC. Reply was quick and equally forceful . Thereafter,it became timepass for next 03 years. Abuse at any hour of the night. Some studious boys,who used to study during night......take a pee break , goes to the toilets facing Rajaram , utter MC/BC and comeback to study again.May be, this act enhanced their concentration level. Sometimes, we used to recognise the voices from Rajaram as they were our seniors in the hostel during preceding year. Imagine a situation, when you are telling bhaiya, bhaiya during daytime in faculty premises and abusing the same fellow every night.However, some inmates of Rajaram were clever chaps, around 2200 hrs.....one of them will do MC/BC for few seconds,provoke us and then become silent.We will start MC/BC till our voices were choked. This cycle was repeated,time and again. Bhonsriwale Rajaram wale will never learn the manners. Even, residents of the Triveni(Girls Hostels) were not spared. However, Triveni was few hundreds metres diagonally away from our hostel. But, I am sure that sound travels more quickly during night hours.Our esteemed Warden Gaur Sir was also not spared. He was living just a few blocks away from us. May be ..Lord Shiva will excuse us for this sin. But, the most daring lot were residents of Birla Hostel, they used to abuse passersby during daytime also.If a girl went through their road, these boys used to cheer hysterically. A whole bunch of FOSLA(Frustrated One -Sided Lover's Association ) were living in three blocks of Birla. Seems like ..story is getting lengthy.So, there is always a next time. Till then...................Happy reading...........