Goldas...

First Sunday, then Me and now Nilu.. All of us have now fathered a child. In between Suvro and Sandy's got married and is making their own stray attempts (are they?? I am not too sure). I cant help but get nostalgic.

I was trying to think when did we all first get together. It was certainly not a one day event but rather a series of circumstances that put us all together. The coagulation started around 1986-87. Its now almost 2 decades since then and it makes me feel ancient.

The catalyst of my friendship with Sunday was H.B.Sarkar and Salt Lake. If H.B.Sarkar wasnt running a bus service and if we were both not staying in Saltlake we would never have met leave alone gelled. He was not my type and neither I was his. Sunday was the introvert types who used to keep to himself and interact with only a few. I still remmember the mad rush for the window seats but Sunday used to well avoid that. Very typical of him. He still doesnt rush and always reaches late.

As for Sandip he joined CBS midway in class VII. Interestingly he was ropped into the Ankan Basu gang. But somehow nice forces realign. Always the nice guy, I have a genuine affinity bias for him. We started with one-off conversations and slowly but surely things began to fall in place. Little trips to Talapark, lots of deferred opinions, hot debates and but all blossoming into a genuine respect (Is it mutual Sandy??).

I cannot remmember how I came close to Nilu but I think it must have been Arindam or Sundaram. Again Nilu and I are rarely on the same wavelength. He used to be part of the Suvro, Subhayan, Samit Ghosh, Biswaroop group who played their own version of girlie cricket. Sorry for this but I have not seen any males running like Subhayan - a kind of Jagmohan Dalmiya of their form of cricket. Our friendship blossomed post ICSE exams. Thats when most of us learnt to fly. Each morning we used to cycle till Laketown footbridge and both sides used to meet. Nilu was the first to invite us to his house and I still remmember the Biryani.

As for Suvro he was part of the same Tala crowd. With him it catalysed pretty late since he had a bevy of male company around him. Sorry Suv but you were Subhayan's toyboy. Our Plus 2 years were pretty cloudy. And the result was each one of us had to regroup at an individual level. Quite unknowingly each one of us had to get back to the drawing board. Suvro and Arindam regrouped the best then followed by Nilu and Sunday. I am still looking at the board and trying to figure out. Suvro took a sanyas from public life. It didnt endear him to me at that point of time but today I realise the scale of effort.

Writing about those times will be incomplete without Arindam. He was my best buddy. Among all the Goldas he was the only one who was my type. From some Class V we were together. The pressures of career, third party interventions (friend, girls and family et al) and sundry other things spoilt it all. It pricks and it pricks more to think that both of us are in Bangalore and yet so far.

If I look back to our schooldays it creates a momentary emotional flood. Its terrific that we have lasted so long. Over the years our relationships have matured as expectations has got redefined. Our commitments and priorities have changed but we are still loosely together and are much less accountable. It makes me feel nice but I would have felt better if there wasnt the occasional prick about Arindam.