Togetherness is the other name of happiness

 

Togetherness is the other name of happiness

Madhusudan ,Shukdev, Chittoranjan, Kaushik, Avijit, Arup , Manoj ,Supriyo   and I am from the same locality. Although we were studying in different schools but we were good friends. Whatever we used to do we did it together. When we were in senior CBSE class XII standard our favorite time pass was playing football in the afternoon . But slowly the pressure of study had stopped the soccer game. The small time we had in the afternoon, we used up in assembling together and talked about anything and everything under the sky. That was our daily refreshing time.

 

Those were the carefree adolescent days. We were then preparing for the combined entrance test for engineering and medical . We knew that life of each one of us would take a different turn soon.

 

One day Me and Madhusudan were there. Rests were yet to arrive.

 

I asked him, 'What will happen to us from here ?'  Without a blink he said, ' What ? Kaushik , Avijit, Shukdev and you will get through the entrance test, someday you guys will end up being engineer or doctor. Arup probably would be a professor , rests of us will do small jobs or business here and there'.

 

I asked, “Is that life so simple and predictable ?”. He did not answer ,silently looked towards the setting sun. I knew our life was going to be different very soon.

 

Few months later Kaushik and I got the seat in engineering. Rests were way behind the merit list. Kaushik went to study civil engineering in a nearby college whereas I had to go to a far off college to study mechanical engineering. Rest all took admission in Bsc in various colleges. Chittoranjan joined a polytechnic college. Arup took commerce , Shukdev joined physiology , Madhusudan and Supriyo joined in economics.

 

Our rendezvous reduced to once in during week ends. Kaushik used to come home from college in the week ends. Chitton would join little late as he had to come a long way from home (His family was shifted recently little away) but he was regular. I could meet them only during long vacations – summer vacations and puja vacations.

 

The charm of youth and carefree life was slowly but surely dwindling. Everybody had started feeling the pressure of unemployment and everybody was busy doing fine tuning their careers . Manoj left study and joined his family business. Avijit left Bsc and joined law college. Arup joined a different college.

 

Amidst all during Durga puja vacation we could forget all the tensions and could return to the carefree days. Sitting at the puja pandal we would talk till past midnight. Our carrier , tensions , unemployment all took back seat in those four days of Durga puja.

 

Those were the golden moments of our life. Madhusudan was having an affair with a girl . We used to tease him. Chitton was looking for an ambitious job and fast cash. Manoj was the first man earning good money. We were jealous looking at his purse. Kaushik and Shukdev used to give us party from their scholarship money.

 

Next four years , time moved very fast. Chitton got a job at a town one hundred kilometers away . He used to stay there. I got a job at Delhi and moved to Tamilnadu for training.

 

Kaushik landed with a job at Dhanbad. Shukdev settled down with a state government job. Manoj's family business was flourishing . Avijit entered into law practice and Madhusudan started a small business. All became awfully busy in life.

 

But during Durga puja we were there at the puja pandal, laughing and reminscing each other like old friends.

 

Chitton said , 'it would have been great , if we could live our life in puja pandals only !'

 

Slowly we felt like being more responsible and more elevated in life. Life became more meaningful to us.

 

Supriyo got married first. We all had a fantastic time during his marriage.

 

Next few years I could not come home during Durga puja vacations. We all became busy making our own life .

 

In 1997 ,I was heading home for Durga puja vacations after a long gap of five years. I was dying for meeting my friends. I landed airport at 6 pm took a cab and reached home . After taking some refreshment I rushed to the Durga puja pandal. Everything was alike. But I could not find any known face. Some musical extravaganza was about to start. I took a corner seat to wait for my friends to come.

 

At the corner of the stage somebody placed a small table and a white table cloth.

An woman came and placed a photograph on it, decorated it with a white garland. Immediately followed a commemoration in the memory of the dead man of the picture.

 

I came little close to the picture .Oh ! My god . I became stunned. My knee crumbled on the ground. I cannot believe it. God must be crazy. It was my dear friend Chiitoranjan. He died last month on a road accident while returning home from club.

 

I could not stay there anymore. I almost run back to home. I cried and cried in the lap of my mother .I remember what Chitton told us once , “It would have been great If we could live our whole life in the puja pandal only” .

 

Can we really ? No Chitton never ! I do not want to be in puja pandal any more. We wanted to be there with all of us, with all of our youth and adolescence. Puja pandal was just the place , the aura was our togetherness which we craved all the life. It was not the vacations , it was not the growing up of life, it was we, simply ourselves.

 

That night I was looking at the sky , trying to locate a bright star which could be my friend Chitton. So that I could tell him , 'Chitton , why have you gone so early ? See the puja is here , we all have reached the pandal but our togetherness is gone with you'.

 

The life has taken a newer turn ever.

 

In the memory of my dear friend Chittoranjan.

 

S. Bera