Two of a kind...

I had a corner seat to the left, three rows from the back. It was the second day of classroom training in Mysore and we were in the midst of the irritating L&D(Learning and Development) sessions. Basically, those were three days of English and communication classes that I thoroughly hated because they involved communication and people skills, both of which I lack and have no interest in acquiring.

We were given a task, speak to five random people in the classroom, introducing yourself and start a conversation with them. So here I was, making no effort whatsoever to introduce myself to random strangers, when the guy who sat in the last row, directly behind me, came over. " Hi, Dhruva! Tui bangali?"

That is how I first met Dhruva. We didn't have the longest conversation at that point, but I distinctly remember, the very next time we spoke, later in the evening, his first question was, "Baba fukish to?" I was like, "What the hell is 'Baba'!", and he explained how 'Baba' is just a synonym for 'Ganja',"Chol! Aj fokachhi toke".

Thus began our camaraderie, taking trips to the co-ordinate outside campus for a smoke up, to taking frequent breaks between the tedious classes to go grab a smoke in the smoking zone, often to the instructors great displeasure, generic training was fun.

Then there was Dipankar. I have no idea what I'd have done in stream training had it not been for him. Not that he wasn't around during generic. He used to sit right next to Dhruva and had this strange tendency to always speak to me in Hindi knowing full well that I understand and speak Bengali, as he would explain, "Bhalo lagge or shonge Hindi te kotha bolte". Madfuck!

It was during stream training that he and I really started hitting it off and honestly, had it not been for him stream training would have been a nightmare. From dragging him along to the far off smoking zone for company in every break, making sure table tennis was a bigger priority than studying, to sending me the coding assignments the day before the exams, because I hardly wrote a line of code during stream training barring exams and projects. Over time, he got around to speaking in bengali too, getting over the hindi speaking phase, which was just weird.

So when our training ended and we got our locations, I really wanted Pune, and lo behold I got Pune but Dipankar got Hyderabad. Obviously, I logged into his system and applied for a swap to Pune, which worked out well enough except that the bugger wanted Hyderabad because well, love! Idiot!

Then by next morning it turned out that Dhruva had got Hyderabad too, so once again, with thirty minutes to go before the swap portal closed, we both put our names in again, with Dipankar's confidence "Bhai, amader jaa marks acche, aram se swap hoye jabe", it turned out just so, and all three of us landed up down south here in Hyderabad.

Now it has been more than six months here, and it has not been easy. Living in a far flung middle of nowhere place, with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and job satisfaction bordering on negligible, life here has not been too kind. But I still remain thankful for these two, without whom life would have been a living hell. They have kept me sane, been there for my deepest lows, and brought joy where there was none. They have helped make the most of what we have, and have helped me call this place 'home', much to the amusement of the folks in office. There is so much more that I wish for, and hope for, but there is nothing that I wish to change, for what we have here, has been the best possible thing, in this one year of living on my own, in a home away from home. I have been depressed, I have missed, I have craved and I have been cranky, but I have never been lonely.

I know, this will not last, as nothing ever lasts. One day, soon or far, we'll all head in our own directions, but I will always cherish the memories of our stay here in Hyderabad, and all the moments that I have shared with them. To friendship, and to making a life out of nothing, you two have been immense. Thank you!