My first college bunk - Part I

"Time is precious. Once it is gone it never comes back, though you do anything you can. It never spares anyone. So you have to work hard and efficient enough to get good scores. Exams are coming up. Go study. Study. STUDY."- Bah! Who cares about all these when you are with your buddies? No one. So here's a nonsense post, in fact utterly nonsense post about my first college bunk.

A monotonous Monday and the routine follows up. Wake up early, get ready and go to college. While walking towards the cab, you suddenly get connected to your college. You get in a trauma that you forgot about some assignments which were to be done in the past weekend. Shit! Reschedule your assignment work for the next weekend with some more assignments which shall be given in the current week. And of course, prepare for upcoming practical exams. Screwed up! Luckily, that day you put in an interesting book in your bag to read and then you make a resolution to burst your stress - 'Okay... I will read this book whole day.'

I was just a few kilometers away from my college, "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Rashmi Bansal." said that book cover. After two pages of reading, my phone buzzed. 'Shubham calling...'  and I immediately answered.

"Yup. Bol... kya baat hai?" I said.

"Yeah listen... where are you?" he enquired.

"I am on my way to college. I am almost there." I answered.

"Ohkay... Don't go." he said taking deep breaths.

"Why? What happend?" I got serious.

"None of us are going. Me, Prashant, Varun and Rajat.. None of us.. come back.. we'll have fun." he said in a normal breath.

"Alright. Where I have to meet you guys?" I asked.

"Come to Sarojini Nagar market. We will be waiting for you. Chal okay. Bye." he said and disconnected.

And my stress was vanished in some fraction of seconds after the call. I asked the driver to stop the cab. Then I got down and saw a number of 7-seater sharing-type-auto rickshaws one after the other, with all its drivers screaming 'Nehru Place.. nehru place.. nehru place...' in sync with the engine noise.

I waved my hand to one of those autos to stop and when I reached Nehru Place I gave the autowala a 50 rupee note. I thought it might have costed around 20 rupees or something but I got 45 rupees in return. Wow! It's pretty cheap then. (I actually never traveled in a sharing-type auto before my college life). So from there I finally reached Sarojini Nagar market.

I saw Shubham, Varun & Rajat sitting on a bench at one corner of the market. The market seemed so nice early that morning with a very less number of shops open and free from crowd.

"Aa gaya dekh. Don't know what he is reading." said Rajat as I was walking towards them.

"Saale, where is Prashant?" I asked as I shook hands and hugged them - the trademarked 'hello' in a gang of buddies.

"Aarela hai.." said Varun.

"There's a 10'o clock show of Rockstar at Priya." said Rajat.

"Done. First we will watch the movie and then we will plan what to do next." I made it clear.

Meanwhile Shubham was dancing on some songs with his earphones plugged in and Varun was just playing with his phone in his palm (or maybe he was waiting for a reply from his girlfriend). I closed my book and put it in my bag and took out my lunch to eat.

"Oye hoye... What have you got?" Shubham said and stopped dancing.

"Upma." I said.

"Give it to me here, I'll help you in reducing your tummy." said Rajat, and everyone laughed.

"It's already 8:45. Where is he?" asked Shubham.

"Yeah.. I'm trying since a long time. No answer." said Varun.

"Wait. Let me also try." I said and called Prashant.

"The number you have dialed is not answering at this moment. Please call again later." - said our mobile phones.

After another couple of calls he finally attended. We asked him to come immediately to us and in no time he did the same. We all walked to the bus stand and waited for almost twenty minutes for the bus.

"Screw these buses! I never get the one which I need but when I don't need it, there are plenty of them." said Shubham angrily.

"Yup. You're absolutely right." said Rajat.

"Hota hai.. hota hai... I can understand." said Prashant while consoling Shubham as if he was a small kid who just accidently broke his favourite toy.

"794.. 569... 588... 442... 392... Damn these buses seriously!.." said Varun as he was looking for the right one to come and make our bunk successful.

Seriously! We were barely left with thirty minutes of time and we were still in search of a right bus. I thought I could continue to read my book meanwhile and I took it out of my bag. As soon as I read the first word after the bookmark, I heard Varun saying quite loudly: "Chalo kamino... We got the bus."

... To be continued.