थप्पड़ की गूँज

In the college days (IHM), as part of our curriculum we were all suppose to undergo summer training. Basically it meant that you can go work in a hotel with little stipend money and hotel will give you to stay for free. It was a win win situation for students. Although the money was never good but it was a good and cheap way to see exotic locations.

This training was available after passing 2nd year of IHM curriculum during summer holidays. Some of the boys went to Manali, few went to Mussorie and the trio of us me, Raka and Sanga  went to the summer capital of pre-independence India the beautiful, beautiful, panoramic, queen of hills NAINITAAL.

 We went to the Arif Castles in Lucknow and negotiated our training details with Mr Dixit, he was some sort of VP in the company.At first he told us no and said that they have stopped hiring summer trainees.Our luck was going strong and Sanga whose father was posted at Nainitaal at that time, pulled few strings and they okayed us for one month of summer training.

Sanga had gone before  myself and Raka. We set off from Lucknow in a UP roadways bus. It was an overnight journey. When we reached, we got warm reception and were told that Sanga's dad is a strict person and we should behave in front of him. I was always scared of Sanga's dad and never came out in front of him for 2 days we stayed at his house

As Arif Castles was situated on the Malli Taal, we were provided with the accommodation next to the hotel only. It was a house just behind the hotel and had 2 rooms in it. There were already 4 boys staying in there before we 3 moved in. The other guys were from Bangalore.

Initially we did not get along well as they were trying to be superiorand throw attitude to us.. After settling down we went to the hotel and we saw that there were 3 more guys working as summer trainees and one was Rohit Shah from our college and he was talking in a very different tone. Rohit used to be one of the most decent guys in our college but here, in the canteen of the hotel, he was showering abuses and swearing left, right and centre.
I went to him and asked him, " what is wrong with you".
  He said,"he is Rahul, twin brother of Rohit." 

As lazy by nature, we were least interested in the training and always thinking of getting off of the work and doing masti. In the house, there was this lad from Jammu and his name was Ankush. He was a big FATTAL and on our first day when we all were trying to break the ice.
  He said," You know there is a bhoot in the house and at night, we always hear the squeaky noise and someone walking outside the windows."

Then only I relaised  that this guy has shot himself in his foot. Knowing Raka and Sanga very well, I kind of guessed that there was something brewing in their destructive minds. A conspiracy was hatched and a plan was made.

First phase was to build up the myth of this bhoot.  We used to have chappal wars before going to sleep amongst Bangalore and Lucknow. But, that night as per the master plan, everyone went to sleep before scheduled time. Basically, all the other boys used to go to sleep anyway, it was us three and Kapil, Ranvir from Bangalore who used to create rucus and fight. Once everybody had gone to sleep, Raka and Sanga got up and covered themselves in a white bed sheet and went outside the window. There they started making funny noises. There was no candle so Raka started to turn off and turn on his lighter. The guy gave no reaction. I was finding it difficult to control my laugh.

Next morning, we were called by the personnel department and I thought that now we are going to get caught. But, the personnel manager told us that they have heard something about this bhoot and all, what do we know about it? We said there is nothing like that. Hence we came to know that the guy almost shitted in his pants and the legend of bhoot was created forever.

Sanga was sort of guy who never took any nonsense from anyone. Once, he was taking this room service tray to Mr Dixit's room and the trainee from Bhubaneshwar, who was working at reception, laughed at him. That infuriated Sanga and he vowed to take revenge against him.

On the same day when we went for lunch, I followed Sanga and that guy was there, Sanga threw a glass of cold water on him and before he could have realised what was going on, he got the thrashing of his life. I was the witness of that event and the matter was brought to the personnel. Although, I did not agree with what Sanga had done  but I didn't divulge any details. Sanga was asked to leave the job with immediate effect. Being part of the trilogy, we also said INQILAAB ZINDABAAD and quit the

training.

We still had another 15 days to go and Sanga did not want her parents to come to know about this fiasco. We kept on staying at the same house. Our routine was to go for the breakfast at one chai shop outside the house, then we will come back and will play cricket in that small corridor all day. Myself and Raka were a team and Sanga was with Ranvir from Bangalore.
Sanga was a sore looser and always won the games by hook or crook (ro ro ke). But soon, hotel came to know about our unofficial stay and we were asked to leave.

Then, the real party started, we had all the time in the world. The weather was fantastic, sun used to shine brightly and the nights were colder but vibrant. Nainital was packed with tourists and there was plenty of eye tonic available on the Maal road.

We came back to the the den (Mr Sanga's house). I kept staying in the room, only came out when Mr Sanga was not around. One day we decided to track to Bhimtal, which was like 25 kms by road but there was a track of 5 km or so. Neeraj chacha, who was a very good friend of mine and lived in Nainital. He also joined us in the pursuit of the tranquility. Four of us, started from Naintal in the morning  towards Bhimtaal. It was  a beautiful day, air was fresh, trees were green and water streams were flowing relentlessly next to the kaccha path.

We reached Bhimtal around midday. It was getting slightly hotter by then. As soon as I saw the lake my heart started to itch for a swim. I proposed it to Sanga and we both decided to take a swim in the lake in our undies only as we were not carrying the costumes ( I do not remember that when I wore a costume while swimming in India).

Bhimtal has an island close to the western bank of the lake and the distance from the bank to the island must be around 25m. We decided to swim to the island. It started as a race but Sanga being a better swimmer overtook me easily. When he reached the island he said," Pandey, we have to swim back as there are lots of plants in here and its difficult to swim."

I panicked as I had already spent most of my energy swimming to the Island.
I said,"I can't swim anymore."
Sanga offered to piggy back on him, when I did that, I caught his undies and he went in the water and drank some.
He panicked as well, he kicked me and left me in the water and swam himself to the safety.

I was totally exhausted and started to imagine about drowning in that lake. But, life is precious. I gathered all my strength and started to swim again. I was exasperating but I had no choice. I swam till I also reached safety. I was completely out of breath, Raka was happy that I had  rescued myself. Because all this time he was thinking of that how he is going to  inform my mother and what trouble he will have to face to get my body recovered from the lake.

All that ends well is good, I survived but learnt a lesson, never tread in unknown waters, no matter how tempting it feels.

to be continued.........