Gangs' Reunion

Ah...its been a week since the gangs reunion. Celebrating a decade of gangs togetherness as Gangu put in, when the real reason for the dinner at his place was his new Job...he is moving out of NCR for now and that too with his folks...great going man.

4 hours of time we had been out missing for a long time. Thanks Ganguly for taking this through. Know, Hyderabad is calling you ... but then this dinner before that was fabulous, particularly the nicely done fish in pure Bengali style. I just relished it.

Still remember my first day of class, about 10 years back - when I walked in after successfully coming out of my SSB interviews and a short stint at Venky. The environment was a cultural shock to me...Things were too closed, too suffocating initially that I thought, should run back to Venky, but then it was you folks who made me stay.

The class was a bit peculiar at first, well may be the sitting in the room assisted that. There were the columns for sitting and each occupied by a group which went individual ways as soon as the class was over, crossing each others as some strangers who have seen the other person...but was least bothered.

The first column had the only girl (Rango joined us in 2nd year) of the batch (this was in sharp contrast to my class at venky where in a batch of 40 we were 6 boys - constituting the diversity). As soon as the class was over she used to wind up and walk out at speed as if the place would haunt her...well that was Priya then and now she is very much an integeral part of the group.

Then we had a group of front benchers...jaggu and haddy to be precise along with one Ankit "Rancho" Jain. Well dont know where and what to Jaggu and haddy are but as time would have it "Rancho" as ankit jain was called - soon joined in. Alex also used to be there - but in a different column

There was a group of people namely Rahul krishna, Dinesh Meena and Sumit Kumar... well hardly seen in the class after 1st year and never seen there after. Still get some news about Rahul - but the rest just faded away.

Now comes the core of the gang...along with Priya, and Rancho.. these folks namely - Amit "Day" Dey, Amit "Senti Singh" Saini (he is wandering on his Dug dug on the roads in and around Bangalore - enjoying himself), Ankit "MTL" Mittal, Harish "LKT" Karakoti, Rajdeep "gangu" Ganguly, Ravish "Chu" Chugh along with Sanjay "Ladoo" Kumar. Each having his/her own punch lines and/or activities which are branded as trademark

Dey - you cannot and should not disturb him when he is with his camera. We learnt this on our trip to Jim Corbett - no wonder today he is a pro Photographer - that too after quitting his job in IT
MTL - This chap from Alwar used to top the class... the studious of the lot - no wonder he went on to ISB. Do not rub him the wrong way else he will haunt you everywhere you go
LKT - You dare not challenge him in volleyball. By Hook or crook this bloke knows what he wants and tries it out
Gangu - if he thinks he has to do something - he will do it. If he decides that the bus that is going is the one he has to board then he can take an auto and chase it till a stop before his own - board it just for 1 stop to ensure he took it. What more can you say of him
Chu - Well he was constant in 2 things - 1. Coming late to classes 2. Same list of excuses, either he had a traffic at Nehru Place or a Flat tyre. No wonder Charu (our Lecturer then) - used to give him 2 options to choose from for his excuses :)
Well Ladoo was as innocent as ever - and still continues to be
Rancho - Don't mess with me else my temper will mess with you... a great chap was just a bit stubborn. The chap was loved by all for his uncanny innocence and sticking to his point even when he knew he was wrong.

Enough for the group now... rest for the next time...

Now for other things...we had the master of clay tamed in the last week. Nadal going down on clay at Hamburg. Yes, the unthinkable has happened and I just love this. This opens Roland Garos a tad bit, but yes now the contest can be expected. I would love to watch the two battle out there on the big stage.